Contact:  Joan Vandiver Frisch
Manager, NCAR Media Relations
Boulder, CO  80307-3000
Telephone:  303-497-8607
E-mail:  jfrisch@ucar.edu

HURRICANE UPDATE:  PUTTING OPAL IN PERSPECTIVE
Wednesday, 4 October, 4:00 p.m. MDT

Hurricane Opal, one of the strongest Gulf hurricanes on record, is 
churning toward Pensacola, Florida, this evening.  Below are several 
facts about Opal that may prove useful in filing stories on this major 
hurricane.

Much of this material is drawn from a report issued in June by NCAR 
political scientist Roger Pielke, Jr., "Hurricane Andrew in South 
Florida:  Mesoscale Weather and Societal Responses."  The full report 
is available from the NCAR Environmental and Societal Impacts 
Group, 303-497-8117.  Pielke may be contacted by Internet at the e-mail 
address pielke@ucar.edu.

-----What other recent hurricanes are comparable with Opal?

With winds of 125 miles per hour at 2:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time, 
Opal is a strong category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale of 
hurricane intensity.  Only six hurricanes this strong have struck the 
United States since 1980.  Three of those occurred on the Gulf Coast:  
Andrew (1992, Louisiana, in its second landfall), Elena (1985, 
Louisiana/Mississippi), and Alicia (1983).

The strongest hurricane to strike the U.S. coastline directly this century 
was Camille (1969).  A category 5 storm, it brought wind gusts up to 200 
miles an hour and a storm surge of 24 feet to the Mississippi coast and 
adjoining regions.  Camille left 254 people dead from the Gulf Coast to 
Virginia and caused more than $5 billion in damages.

Hurricane Frederic (1979), a category 3 storm, caused $3.5 billion in 
damages along the Alabama/Mississippi coast.  Still, considerable 
redevelopment occurred in that region.  In testimony before Congress 
in 1992, Robert Sheets (then the director of the National Hurricane 
Center), described the aftermath of the Frederic experience:

"Prior to Hurricane Frederic, there was one condominium complex on 
Gulf Shores, Alabama.  Most of the homes were single, individual 
homes built behind the sand dunes. . . .  Today, where there used to be 
one condominium, there are now 104 complexes -- not units, 
complexes -- on Gulf Shores, Alabama. . . .  Have we learned?"

-----How unusual is a hurricane that begins with the letter 'O'?

Opal is the fifteenth tropical storm of this Atlantic Season.  This is the 
first time an 'O' name has ever been used in the Atlantic.  The practice 
of alphabetical naming began in the early 1950s.   In 1969, there were 
thirteen named storms (with Martha the last); however, four storms 
were retroactively designated as tropical cyclones after the season had 
ended, bringing the final 1969 total to 17.  That total included 12 
hurricanes, which stands as the record for the Atlantic.  Opal is the 
ninth Atlantic hurricane of this year.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research is operated by the 
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research under sponsorship 
of the National Science Foundation.