The 2005 hurricane season was historic as several hurricanes impacted the United States. This season produced 28 named storms the highest at that time in the Atlantic. It was only passed by the 2020 season which had 30 named storms.

A lot of the storms that made landfall in the United States produced tornado outbreaks. One of the worst tropical system producing outbreaks from 2005 occurred in September. Hurricane Rita caused a massive tornado outbreak in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

Hurricane Rita began to rapidly intensify when it entered the Gulf Of Mexico it went from a category 2 hurricane to a high end category 4 hurricane in a short amount of time. While over the Central Gulf Rita became a category 5 hurricane much like Katrina had done a few weeks earlier in August.

As Rita slowly moved toward the Texas/Louisiana boarder dry air from a passing cold front entered Rita's Center. Dry air weakened Rita before landfall. On the other hand, Rita was still a category 3 major hurricane when it made landfall on the Texas/Louisiana boarder.

The cold front though enhanced the tornado potential from Rita. Naturally, there is always a tornado threat from tropical storms/hurricanes when they make landfall. The rotation of the tropical system causes spin in the atmosphere then you have the friction with land causing wind shear. In Rita's case you had warm air from the Hurricane and Gulf mixing with the cold air aloft from the cold front.

AS soon as Rita made landfall it begin to produce tornadoes mainly on the eastern side of the eye wall. Tornadoes rapidly spun up in Louisiana and Mississippi these tornadoes developed quickly and were rain wrapped. Some of the tornadoes in Mississippi were rated F2 type tornadoes.

As Rita moved inland the tornado threat increased into Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Arkansas was hit very hard with tornadoes. A huge chunk of the tornadoes produced by Rita occurred in Mississippi and Arkansas.

The tornadoes in Arkansas, and Mississippi touched down in bunches. Therefore several counties had multiple tornado touch downs. In addition, some of the tornadoes in the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi were rated F2 one was even rated an F3.

Most tornadoes produced in tropical storms are short lived though they can still be intense. Due to the cold front some of the tornadoes behaved like they would in a non tropical tornado outbreak. Therefore, a few tornadoes were long tracked tornadoes lasting more than 15 minutes.

Overall, Rita produced a total of 98 tornadoes. While it was not the most tornadoes produced by a tropical storm or hurricane it was still historic. In fact, Rita produced the most tornadoes of landfall tropical systems in 2005. Katrina was second with over 57.

As a meteorologist the cold front will helped fuel the outbreak and it is easy to see why. All the ingredients came together like they would in a non tropical tornado outbreak. You had rich Gulf Moisture, wind shear, spinning in the atmosphere from the hurricane, heat from the hurricane, and the cold front provided the clash of warm air and cold air.

The 98 tornadoes alone from Rita produced $23 million dollars of damage and 1 death. That was only a small fraction of the destruction Rita cause. On the other hand, the tornadoes that did occur did a lot of damage. Thankfully, a lot of the tornadoes hit rural areas. But for some towns in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas it was a different story. 20 years ago I was working on my degree and its hard to believe this event was that long ago.