Meteorological History
A tropical wave moved off the coast of Africa on September 19. The wave moved westward, but was difficult to track due to its proximity to Hurricane Lisa and another large tropical wave. It passed through the Lesser Antilles, and slowly organized as convection increased due to an upper level low. On October 5, it entered the Gulf of Mexico, and developed an area of low pressure two days later. The system continued to organize, and on October 8, after developing a circulation, it developed into Tropical Depression Fourteen while located 205 miles (330 km) to the southeast of Brownsville, Texas.
The depression moved to the east-northeast, and quickly strengthened into Tropical Storm Matthew. Operationally, Matthew fluctuated between tropical depression and tropical storm status, but in post-season analysis, the storm remained a tropical storm. The storm turned to the northeast while moving around the periphery of a high pressure system over Texas, and attained a peak intensity of 45 mph (70 km/h) on October 9. Strong wind shear limited further strengthening, and on October 10, Matthew struck Cocodrie, Louisiana as a minimal tropical storm. It became an Extratropical cyclone, occluding near the time of landfall.
After it merged with the system, the storm moved inland over Arkansas, Tennessee and the Ohio Valley. While moving inland, Matthew spun off another low pressure system that formed over North Carolina on October 13. The low moved off the Mid-Atlantic coast before hitting Massachusetts two days later, and later merged with the original low pressure system of Matthew.
Read more about this topic: Tropical Storm Matthew (2004)
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