1998 is the deadliest hurricane season in the modern era since 1950 as over 17,000 people perished. In my thread about Hurricane Georges I stated Georges was the second deadliest hurricane of the 1998 season. Hurricane Mitch was not just the deadliest hurricane in 1998 and in the modern era 1950 to present. But Mitch was also the deadliest hurricane since reliable records started to be kept since 1886.

Mitch developed in late October in the Caribbean. A major hurricane developing in October is common and the Caribbean is usually a favorable spot so that was not unusual. What was unusual was how strong Mitch got and the high death toll it produced.

On October 22nd a tropical low developed in the Western Caribbean. Computer models started to become aggressive on developing this low into a major hurricane. The low already had winds of 35 mph but not a closed circulation just yet. The National Hurricane Center also issued bulletins how this low would likely become a significant hurricane as it was over water temperatures that were 86-90 degrees.

Later on October 22nd the circulation was closed and the Hurricane Hunters noticed the winds had already increased to 50 mph and it was named Mitch. ON the 23rd Mitch started to move very slowly less than 10 mph due to weak steering currents and a high pressure system to the north. Also on the 23rd Mitch's winds increased from 50 mph to 70 mph. The next day on the 24th Mitch became a hurricane and was only getting better organized. By the evening of October 24th Mitch's winds went from 75 mph to 105 mph making Mitch a high end category 2 hurricane. During the late morning afternoon of the 25th Mitch's Winds went from 105 mph to 120 mph making Mitch a category 3 hurricane. Later in the evening Mitch went from 120 mph winds to 150 mph winds making Mitch a high end category 4 hurricane.

On the 26th it became clear that Mitch was likely going to make landfall in Honduras/Nicaragua but the hurricane was barley moving at 6 mph. Mitch also continued to strengthen becoming a category 5 hurricane with winds up to 165 mph. On October 27th Mitch reached its peak with winds 180 mph and a very low pressure of 905 millibars. This made Mitch a very intense category 5 hurricane. Mitch started to go up and down in strength due to eye wall replacement cycles.

On October 29th Mitch was only moving at 5 mph just off the Honduras coastline. Land interaction started to weaken Mitch as its eye was getting disrupted by land interaction. However it set up a historic and deadly flooding event. For several hours Mitch pounded Honduras with winds over 120 mph and heavy rain. Finally Late October 29th Mitch made landfall in the Honduras outer banks as a 100 mph category 2 hurricane. On October 30th Mitch made landfall on the Honduras Mainland as a 90 mph high end category 1 hurricane.

The remnants of Mitch got pulled northward and emerged in the Gulf of Mexico on November 3rd. Due to the warm water Mitch started to redevelop as it moved eastward. ON November 4th it was declared a tropical storm. Mitch continued to strengthen until it made landfall in Southwest Florida. Winds at its southwest Florida Landfall on November 6th were at 70 mph just shy of hurricane status. Mitch hung around a few more days in the Atlantic before becoming extra-tropical on the 9th of November.

Mitch was a disaster of epic proportions in Honduras. Mitch produced a storm surge over 14 feet in some spots. However, Mitch produced 48-60 inches of rain. The 4-5 feet of rain caused mudslides. Sadly some entire towns and cities were buried under the mud. Due to Mitch's size and heavy rain thousands of people were killed in Nicaragua, Belize and even in Mexico due to the flooding.

Overall Mitch claimed 16,000 lives according to the WMO and National Hurricane Center. Of the 16,000 people killed by Hurricane Mitch 12,000 of those occurred in Honduras. Mitch did $5 Billion dollars worth of damage to Honduras and $6.2 Billion overall.

Mitch was described as setting Honduras's economy back 50 years. Also Mitch fueled a political crisis in Honduras that would take place a few years later. Honduras was criticized for having poor infastructure that the govt was supposed to invest in, and very poor warning systems in place. I did not go due to my condition but in 2003 my church did a mission trip to Honduras. When they got back they told me that you could still see damage done from Mitch and how they had memorials of the towns that were wiped out over night due to mud slides.

Mitch was a historic storm not just for its intensity but for the number of people that were killed. Not only was Mitch the deadliest hurricane since 1950 but also the deadliest since known records were kept since 1886. Here it is 2025 and Mitch is still the deadliest hurricane.

Mitch produced similar results that Hurricane Fifi did 24 years earlier in 1974 in Honduras. In 1974 Fifi killed 8,200 people in Honduras. In 1998 Honduras population had rapidly grown, but sadly the infastructure had not improved due to the corrupt govt.

Due to the high amount of damage and death toll the name Mitch was retired and replaced with Matthew. Matthew would gets it named retired due to 2016's hurricane Matthew.