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1957 Atlantic hurricane season
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The 1957 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 15, 1957, and lasted until November 15, 1957. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. The season was below average, with eight total storms and just three hurricanes forming.
The season was fairly uneventful save for two storms. Hurricane Audrey hit Cameron, Louisiana as a Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, demolishing the town and killing four hundred.
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Encyclopedia
The 1957 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 15, 1957, and lasted until November 15, 1957. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. The season was below average, with eight total storms and just three hurricanes forming.
The season was fairly uneventful save for two storms. Hurricane Audrey hit Cameron, Louisiana as a Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, demolishing the town and killing four hundred. Another significant storm was Hurricane Carrie, which killed 80 people when a German sailing ship sank near the Azores.
Storms
Tropical Storm One
Low pressures over the Gulf of Mexico gradually organized around an area of convection, and became a tropical depression on June 8. It raced northeastward, becoming a tropical storm later that day, and hitting the Florida coastline near Apalachee Bay on the 9th. It remained weak until it reached the Atlantic, when it reached a peak of 65 mph winds before becoming extratropical on the 10th. Tropical Storm One caused $52,000 in flooding damage (1957 dollars) and 5 deaths from a capsized boat.
Hurricane Audrey
Audrey formed over the Bay of Campeche on June 24, and slowly moved north across the Gulf of Mexico. It rapidly strengthened just before making landfall near Sabine Pass, Texas on June 27 as a 145 mph Category 4 hurricane. It continued north and became a powerful extratropical storm. Audrey was the strongest U.S. landfall in June, the strongest hurricane before July 1, and caused the most deaths in a named U.S. hurricane (416) before 2005's Hurricane Katrina (a few storms before 1950 caused deaths in the thousands in the U.S.) Audrey also caused $150 million in damage (1957 dollars), mostly from storm surge.
Tropical Storm Bertha
A weak extratropical low that entered the Gulf of Mexico on August 6 drifted west over the warm waters, becoming Tropical Storm Bertha on August 8. It moved northwestward toward the area that Hurricane Audrey devastated 2 months earlier, but only reached a peak of 70 mph winds. While in the Gulf of Mexico, the cyclone sunk one oil drilling tender and drove another aground. Bertha hit near Cameron, Louisiana on the 10th, and dissipated the next day over Oklahoma. The storm caused 2 deaths, but little damage from the beneficial rain the area needed.
Hurricane Carrie
Hurricane Carrie developed from a tropical wave on September 2, just off the coast of Africa. Conditions were generally favorable for development, and the tropical depression steadily strengthened to its peak of 155 mph winds on the 8th. Carrie turned northward, where a weaker pressure gradient weakened the storm to a minimal hurricane. It turned to the northwest, where it again strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane. Conditions again became unfavorable for intensification, likely from cooler waters and upper level shear, and Carrie weakened to a minimal hurricane just after passing within 100 miles of Bermuda on the 16th. A trough of low pressure turned Carrie eastward, where the hurricane maintained its strength until after it passed through the Azores. Though it became extratropical on the 23rd, it remained a powerful extratropical cyclone until dissipating on the 24th just southwest of Ireland.
The main impact from Carrie was felt over the open Atlantic. On September 21, the German sailing ship Pamir, with 86 crewmen aboard, was caught in the storm while at Category 1 intensity near the Azores, rapidly sinking the ship. After a massive rescue effort, only six survivors were found. The shipwreck received international media attention as a result.
Tropical Storm Debbie
A tropical wave formed into a tropical storm on September 7 in the Gulf of Mexico. Debbie moved northeastward, remaining weak due to upper level shear and cold air to its north, and hit the Florida Panhandle on the 8th. Debbie dissipated later that day, after causing four indirect casualties.
Tropical Storm Esther
The precursor to Tropical Storm Esther was a weak cyclonic circulation that moved into the Gulf of Mexico, becoming a tropical depression on September 16. It moved north-northeastward, and became a tropical storm the next day. Esther remained a large tropical storm, with most of the convection to the east of the center, and only reached a peak of 50 mph winds before hitting southeastern Louisiana on the 18th. The storm dissipated over northwestern Mississippi on the 19th, after causing $1.5 million in damage (1957 dollars) and 3 fatalities from heavy flooding.
Hurricane Frieda
The frontal trough that pushed Carrie eastward developed a frontal wave on September 20. It rapidly organized into a tropical depression that day, and after drifting to the southwest, became Tropical Storm Frieda on the 22nd. Conditions were generally favorable for continued development, with high divergence and generally warm water temperatures. A new circulation developed to the northwest, and Frieda turned to the northeast in response to a shortwave trough. The storm reached a peak of 80 mph winds on the 25th, and became extratropical on the 26th.
Tropical Storm Eight
A cutoff low on an upper level trough developed on October 22. It became a tropical depression the next day, and reached tropical storm strength later that day. The storm was subtropical in nature, but it managed to reach a peak of 60 mph winds before upper level winds weakened the system. Tropical Storm Eight became extratropical on the 27th northeast of Bermuda, and was absorbed by an extratropical storm later that day.
Storm names
The following names were used for named storms (tropical storms and hurricanes) that formed in the North Atlantic in 1957. Storms were named Audrey, Bertha, Carrie, Debbie, Esther and Frieda for the first time in 1957.
- Audrey
- Bertha
- Carrie
- Debbie
- Esther
- Frieda
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Retirement
The name Audrey would later be retired.
See also
External links
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