This is the Hurricane Warning
archive of hurricane Rita.
The best data available was used
to create this archive, in order to
make it as educational as possible.
Meteorological Analysis
Rita originated from an interaction between an old cold front and a tropical wave. On
September 7th a tropical wave left the coast of Africa. This tropical wave showed little to
no signs of organization as it moved across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, a cold front moved
south across the Central Atlantic on September 11th to 12th. The front became stationary
on the 13th and the southern part transformed into a surface trough on the 14th as baroclinic forcing lessened. The trough detached from the front on the 15th and began
producing scattered convection on the 16th. On the 17th, the tropical wave joined up with
the surface trough. As shear lessened, organization increased substantially. On the 18th it
was determined that a tropical depression had formed, the depression was 70 nm east of
the Turks and Caicos Islands. The depression then continued WNW, over the islands, and
became tropical storm Rita. There was still some shear at this point, although it was
lessening. By the 19th Rita had become a 70 mph tropical storm. Rita was passing through
the Bahamas at this point, just south of Great Exuma Island. Rita turned more westerly on
the 20th under a deepening high, and remained steady state. Once Rita hit the warm
waters of the Gulf Stream though, it became a hurricane. Rita's winds rapidly increased
and Rita had become a 100 mph hurricane as it passed 40 nm from Key West. At this
point, Rita lashed Southern Florida and especially the Keys with storm force winds
associated with Rita's spiral bands. Significant storm surges came ashore across the Keys.
Rita continued to strengthen after leaving Florida behind, and became a Cat 3 early on the
21st. Rita then hit the warm waters of the loop current, and underwent spectacular rapid
intensification. Winds hit 180 mph, with pressures down to 897 mb. Rita began to turn more
northerly at this time as it reached the end of the ridge. A series of fortunate events
then occurred. First, Rita's eye wall deteriorated bringing the storm down to a Cat 4. Then
shear and cooler waters took over on the 23rd and continued to weaken Rita. Rita made
landfall in South Western Louisiana on the 24th with 115 mph winds, a far cry from its
former strength. A large surge still came ashore though, due to the fact the storm had
just recently weakened. Rita became a tropical storm as it entered Texas, and became
a depression over Arkansas. Rita fully dissipated on the 26th over Illinois.
Casualty and Damage Overview
Rita spurred the largest evacuation as of yet in U.S history, 2 million people. 7 deaths
occurred directly from Rita across Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Mississippi. 55 deaths
occurred indirectly from Rita, over 20 of these were in a bus crash, most of the others
were also involved with evacuation problems. The surge in South West Louisiana was
devastating, and many communities were wiped out. The same occurred on inland lakes.
This occurred to a lesser extent in Texas. There was also storm surge damage in the
Florida Keys from her first 'near landfall'. Overall, $10 billion in damage occurred in the
U.S. from Rita.
