NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
Note: This report catalogs recent tropical cyclones across the North Atlantic and East Pacific and places each basin’s tropical cyclone activity in a climate-scale context. It is not updated in real time. Users seeking the real time status and forecasts of tropical cyclones should visit The National Hurricane Center.
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LILI: Continued from September. Hurricane Lili came ashore on Thursday 3rd October in southwest Louisiana (on the west side of Vermillion Bay) as a category 2 hurricane. After reaching windspeeds of 145mph (category 4) on the 2nd and maintaining intensity into the 3rd, it suddenly lost intensity and was a much weaker hurricane by landfall. Still a powerful storm, it led to widespread damage, flooding and power outages. At least 13 deaths have been attributed to Lili, most of them occurring as it crossed the Caribbean. Four people died in Haiti as Lili's outer rain-bands caused torrential rain and mudslides, while seven victims were reported in Jamaica and one death each in Cuba and the United States have been blamed on the storm. Damage costs for Louisiana alone have been estimated at approximately $170 million (AP). |
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Tropical Storm Kyle (picured to the left on September 26th, while at hurricane strength) made landfall as a minimal tropical storm along the coast of South Carolina on October 11th. Ahead of the storm, heavy rain occurred, with Edisto Beach State Park in South Carolina reporting 6.35 inches having fallen in the 24 hours of October 10th-11th. Minor flooding was reported and tides were 1-2 feet higher than normal along much of the southern South Carolina and northern Georgia coasts.
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Though Lili and Kyle continued into October, no tropical storms actually formed in October 2002 in the Atlantic Basin, which is quite unusual. Only one tropical cyclone formed in the month - Tropical Depression Fourteen which developed on the 14th and though it brought some rain to Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, no reports of damage or casualties resulted, and the storm merged with a cold front on the 16th.