Hurricane Jeanne - September 25-30, 2004

Jeanne formed from a tropical wave that moved from Africa to the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean on 7 September. The
wave moved uneventfully across the Atlantic until a tropical depression formed from it on 13 September as it approached
 the Leeward Islands.  From 13 to 18 September, the motion was toward the west-northwest at a slow forward speed of 5
 to 10 kt, under the steering flow of a subtropical high pressure ridge located to Jeanne's north. The cyclone strengthened
 to a tropical storm on 14 September while it moved slowly over the Leeward Islands. Continuing west-northwestward,
 its circulation moved slowly over the Virgin Islands and the center moved inland over southeastern Puerto Rico on
 15 September when maximum sustained surface winds reached 70 mph. The center moved across Puerto Rico, then
over  the Mona Passage and inland at the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic.   Below are graphics showing Jeanne's
rainfall over the northeast Caribbean Islands.  Data was provided by the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, NC.

Jeanne (2004) Northeast Caribbean Rainfall Jeanne (2004) Filled Contour Rainfall on Black Background
Jeanne (2004) Filled Contour Rainfall on White Background

Jeanne was a hurricane with 80 mph  winds while over the Mona Passage and during the Dominican Republic
landfall, but then weakened over the rough terrain of Hispaniola. By the early afternoon of 17 September, the
cyclone briefly weakened to a depression and  moved over Atlantic waters just north of Hispaniola. On 18
September and in a weakened condition, the low level center moved westward away from the deep
convection and dissipated and a new center reformed well to the northeast  of the dissipated old center.
Jeanne's slow forward motion across the Caribbean motion contributed to torrential rainfall along its path.
These rains and resultant fresh-water flooding and mudslides caused thousands to die in Haiti.

While Jeanne was dumping rain over the Caribbean countries, Hurricane Ivan moved over the Gulf of Mexico and inland
 across the southeastern United States. By 18 September, Ivan's mid-level circulation had combined with an extratropical
 short wave trough in the westerlies and moved to the northeastern U.S. coast where it eroded the ridge to the north of Jeanne.
 This placed Jeanne in a weak steering flow that persisted for five days. Jeanne first moved slowly northward over the
southeastern  Bahamas as a tropical storm and then moved in an anticyclonic loop about 500 n mi east of the northwestern
 Bahamas. Jeanne  gradually strengthened to a hurricane with 100 mph winds by the time it completed this loop on 23
September.

By 23 September, the extratatropical trough previously located over the northeastern U.S. coast moved eastward and was
replaced by a large deep-layer migratory ridge that propelled Jeanne on a track just north of due westward. On 24 September,
 Jeanne moved over its own previous track from a few days earlier and encountered cooler waters caused by upwelling from
the hurricane. This is believed to be a factor in the decreasing of the maximum winds from 100 mph to 80 mph by the
evening of 23  September. Continuing westward at 12 to 14 mph and moving away from the upwelled cooler water, the
winds  increased to 115 mph (category three on the Saffir/Simpson hurricane scale) by the morning of 25 September as the
 center moved over Abaco Island and then Grand Bahama Island in the northern Bahamas. Jeanne made landfall on the east
 coast of Florida early on 26 September with the center of its 50-n mi diameter eye crossing the coast at the southern
 end of Hutchinson Island just east of Stuart at midnight on the night of 25 September. Maximum winds at landfall are
estimated at 120 mph over a very small area north of the center and it is not clear whether these strongest winds reached
 the coast or remained over water.

Jeanne moved across central Florida while weakening and began to recurve around the western periphery of the
aforementioned migratory ridge.   The hurricane weakened to a tropical storm while centered about 30 n mi north of
 Tampa early in the afternoon of 26 September and then weakened to a tropical depression the next day while moving
 northward across central Georgia accompanied by heavy rain. The depression, still accompanied by heavy rain moved
over the Carolinas, Virginia, and the Delmarva Peninsula. It merged with a frontal zone and became extratropical on the
evening  of 28 September while moving eastward off of the U.S mid-Atlantic coast.  Below is a track of the cyclone,
 provided by the National Hurricane Center.

Jeanne (2004) track

The storm total rainfall maps below were constructed using data from data provided from NWS
River Forecast Centers, as well as additional reports received by the National Hurricane Center.

Hurricane Jeanne Rainfall Jeanne (2004) Filled Contour Rainfall
Jeanne (2004) Filled Contour Rainfall on White Background


Below are the calendar for Daily Precipitation Maps.  Note that the 24-hour periods end
at 12z that morning.

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
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