Hurricane Holly (1969)

This is an archive of a former Wikipedia article.

Hurricane Holly was the eighth tropical storm and sixth hurricane of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season. It formed on September 14 in the central Atlantic and dissipated on September 21 in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It caused no reports of damages or deaths when it passed over the Windward Islands as a tropical depression.

Meteorological history

The tropical disturbance that eventually became Hurricane Holly was identified on September 8 when it was off the coast of Africa. At first, the storm moved westward until it turned to continue on a west-northwestward track. It became a tropical depression on September 14, 1250 miles (2,315 km) southeast of Puerto Rico when a Navy recon plane found an organized circulation and a pressure of 1000 mbar (29.53 inches). Rapid intensification was found at that time and the system was expected to be named at the next advisory. That prediction was proven to be true and the depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Holly at the next advisory with winds 45 mph (72 km/h). Soon afterward, the strengthening period ended briefly as Holly was expected to slow down in forward speed. Holly was not expected to affect any land areas within the next day and some strengthening was possible. Later that day, an Air Force aircraft investigated the storm and found a hurricane with winds of 75 mph (120 km/h).

As the hurricane was moving to the northwest, the threat to the Leeward Islands was slowly diminishing. The hurricane was predicted to keep its current intensity throughout the 16th. Later that day, Holly lost some of its forward speed as it became nearly stationary. That night, Holly picked up forward speed but was still over 1000 mi (1609 km/h) from Puerto Rico.

Throughout September 17th, Holly kept a stable intensity and speed until that night. That night however, Holly was downgraded to a tropical storm based on reports from a Navy aircraft. The storm had been struggling against cool temperatures east of the Antilles and the absence of good upper level outflow for the last 36 hours. The now tropical storm continued to weaken slowly on the morning of September 18 as the hostile environment took its toll.

The weakening system was downgraded to a tropical depression that day at noon. The system degenerated into an area of low pressure that evening. The wave dissipated on September 20th.

Preparations and naming

Because Holly was never predicted to affect land during its life, there were no warnings or watches issued for the Antilles or the Windward Islands. When Holly affected the Windward Islands, it was a dissipating tropical depression. Due to the weak nature of the system when it affected land and due to the fact that the system formed a long time ago, there are no reports of damage or deaths in the Windward Islands. This was the first use of the name Holly in the Atlantic. It was placed on the naming list for 1965, but was not used. It was put there as a replacement name for Hattie which was retired after the devastating hurricane that affected Belize in 1961. Holly was not retired in this season and was used once more in the Atlantic, in 1976. In 1992, the Hawaiian form of the name, Hali was used and it was replaced due to unknown reasons. Currently, the name Holly is not on any hurricane naming list in the world.