In my 2015 Hurricane Thread I briefly went over all 11 named storms for the season. In this thread I'm focusing on two of the most destructive storms from the 2015 Hurricane Season, which was 10 years ago.

2015 had below average activity due to a very El Nino. A natural occurring cycle that causes cooler water, drier air, and an increase in wind shear. In most El Nino's, but not all that is why we see numbers go down in terms of storm development.

However, it only takes one storm to make it a bad and destructive year. Despite 2015 having below average activity 2 storms were very destructive. Those storms were Erika and Joaquin.

Tropical Storm Erika

Around August 20th I noticed a tropical wave coming off of Africa. The computers models showed some potential development of this low into at least a tropical storm. Later in the day the National Hurricane Center started to suggest that this one could develop into something. However, how strong the system would be was iffy at this point. While the tropical wave was going over warm water it was going to run into some shear.

On August 23rd the low started to become better defined. The next day it was named Tropical Storm Erika. The models went all the place on how strong Erika would be, some suggested a hurricane, while others kept it as a tropical storm.

Due to wind shear the storm did not organize that much and it took a while to go from a 40 mph tropical storm to a 50 mph tropical storm. But Erika had lots of rain bands with it despite not being organized.

Erika made landfall in the country of Dominica at peak intensity. But the huge rainfall in Dominica was destructive it was considered the worst flooding seen in over 15 years. Some Places got 30-35 inches of rain from Erika.

After Erika moved away from Dominica the cleanup began. It was shown that the island Nation had suffered through flooding that killed 35 people and caused over $510 million in damages.

5 weeks later a significant tropical low developed southwest of Bermuda. This low was quickly getting better organized. Most models were showing this low becoming a category 3 hurricane. On my weather page I talked about this possibility . The National Hurricane Center also had its attention this low warning it could become a significant hurricane.

As the low made a loop over the warm gulf stream it became a tropical storm and was given the name Joaquin. Joaquin quickly strengthened into a hurricane then a category 3 hurricane. On October 1st Joaquin made landfall in the Bahamas as a 140 mph hurricane. After making landfall Joaquin got a little bit stronger with winds 150-155 mph nearly becoming a category 5 hurricane.

After moving away from the Bahamas due to an approaching cold front drier air got pulled into the hurricane and it started to weaken. It was feared that Joaquin would strike North Carolina as a high end category 2 hurricane. Thankfully that did not come to pass as Joaquin then turned out to sea.

In the Bahamas Joaquin killed 34 people mainly due to sinking some boats and its high storm surge. Joaquin also caused $500 million in damages to the Bahamas.

Due to their impacts the names Erika and Joaquin were retired the following spring. Erika became the second storm to peak at tropical storm strength and have its name retired. Overall these two storms killed 69 people, and caused $1.1 Billion dollars worth of damage.

2015 was 10 years ago and despite a non active season it was still destructive. 2015 proved once again all it takes is one storm to make it a disaster. In this case it was both Erika and Joaquin. Their names were replaced with Elsa and Jullian on the 6 rotating naming lists for the Atlantic Basin.