September months with the highest hurricane formation
HAVANA, Sep 1th. September shows the highest frequency of tropical cyclone formation in our geographic area of interest, made up of the tropical Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, mainly during its first half.
As specialists from the Climate Center of the Institute of Meteorology suggest, most of the cyclonic organisms of the ninth month of the calendar originate in waters of the tropical Atlantic, between the coasts of Africa and the arc of the Lesser Antilles.
In general, those that arise in this area tend to move with trajectories close to the west and west-northwest for several days (similar to those of August), some penetrating the eastern Caribbean, while others pass above and near the northern group of the Lesser Antilles.
Although with less probability, already in the final days of the month they can also form in the western Caribbean Sea.
For Cuba in particular, September is historically the second most dangerous month of the season in terms of tropical cyclones, surpassed only by October.
In the list of hurricanes in September that left their destructive mark on our archipelago, there is the one that, coming from the eastern Bahamas, made a surprising turn towards the west-west and entered the national territory at a point near Caibarién on the 4th of 1888, crossing the entire western region until reaching the sea the next day, at the western end of Pinar del Río.
It is worth mentioning the intense hurricane of September 9, 1919, which became famous by causing the sinking, in the Straits of Florida, of the Spanish steamship Valbanera, with more than 400 passengers on board, which days before had left Santiago de Cuba bound for Havana.
Several sections of the Malecón wall were destroyed by the impact of the strong tidal waves. Press reports of the time refer that in some points of the city near the coast, the marine waters advanced more than 600 meters.
The very strong hurricane of 1933 also stands out, although it began to hit the northern coastal strip of the center of the country at the end of the night of August 31, the most notable impacts on that coast of the current provinces of Matanzas and Havana occurred on 1st. of September.
Closer in time are the cases of hurricanes Georges in 1998, Isidore in 2002, Iván in 2004 and the Ike in 2008, whose trajectory affected almost all of Cuba.
(Taken from Granma)
