Reminiscing on 2008

Is it bad to reminisce on a hurricane season as a focal point of the year??

Hurricanes can create such emotions.  

Fear - if it has you in it's sights. 

Excitement - if you see that it's going to pass off-shore and create some fantastic surf in a area that rarely sees the infamous 'epic surf'.  But that excitement conflicts with other emotions as you know that once the hurricane enters into the Gulf - it has to hit somewhere.  

As Floridians living on the coast of Florida, we know the fear that one feels when you see that you're in the direct path of a major storm. This is a feeling that you wouldn't wish on anyone.  So yes - emotions do stir as you see that a hurricane is going to 'breeze' by your area.

...For this blog - I will only dwell on the swell.

Tropical Storm Fay 

Fay formed on August 15h over the Domincan Republic. It passed over Cuba and made landfall on the Keys on August 18th before veering out into the Gulf. It again made landfall near Naples and then progressed NE toward the east coast of Florida - near Melbourne. It THEN re-entred near Daytona Beach and moved due west across the Panhandle and zigzagged from water to land. This was the first storm in history to make landfall four times in Florida.

On August 22nd, Alan and I went to Venice, FL to document the Gulf storm. 

Fay created a nice but choppy swell on the Gulf Coast of Florida. 

Hurricane Gustav 

Gustav formed on August 25th, about 260 miles SE of Haiti and rapidly strenghtened into a tropical storm that afternoon and into a hurricane early on August 26th. It inundated Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba and then moved across the Gulf.

The NHC predicted that Gustav would remain a Cat 3 or above but on the morning of September 1, the center of Gustav made landfall along the Louisiana Coast as a strong Cat 2 - just 1 mph below Cat 3 status.

On August 31st, we began our documentation of Gustav. The swell was much larger and cleaner than TS Fay as the following photos will indicate.

Hurricane Ike - the Mother of the Gulf Coast Hurricanes of 2008

Hurricane Ike was the third most destructive hurricane to ever make landfall in the United States.  By early morning on Septmber 5th, Ike was a Cat 4 hurricane and was the most intense storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. Ike also had the highest Integrated Kinetic Energ of any Atlantic storm in history. (This is a measure of storm surge destructive potential.)

Had Ike made landfall as a Cat 3 or higher, it would have likely had a record breaking storm surge  and potential for damage that would exceed that of Hurricane Katrina. However, Ike made it's landfall in Texas as a Cat 2 hurricane. Regardless, Ike was the third costliest U.S. hurricane of  all time.

On the only positive side that I can think of - Hurricane Ike created possibly the cleanest and largest swell that I've seen on the Gulf Coast of Florida.  I knew that we were in store for a swell that was to last for a few days so I managed to take some time off of work for an extended view of Hurricane Ike. 

On September 10th, I began to record the swell at the North Jetty.

...and they're off!