Overview
1969 was a remarkable year and will be long remembered as the year when man first walked on the moon, the Miracle Mets shocked the sports world, and the Woodstock Festival took place in upstate New York. It will also be remembered as the year when a major hurricane – Hurricane Camille – struck the United States as a category 5 storm and the second most intense tropical cyclone on record (only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane had a lower central pressure at landfall). Hurricane Camille made landfall in Mississippi and wreaked havoc from the Gulf States to as far inland as the Mid-Atlantic with widespread flooding, record rainfall, and it cost the lives of several hundreds of people along its path of destruction.
A chart by NOAA from 1969 with the path of Hurricane Camille; Credit NOAA
Development stage
The first satellite image was taken on April 1, 1960 (TIROS) and weather forecasters knew that one of the best uses of this newly introduced tool would be the ability to monitor tropical waves out over the open waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Indeed, with the usage of satellite imagery, forecasters first noted a tropical wave off of the African coast as early as August 5th, 1969 and this wave moved westward out over the open tropical Atlantic. Satellite imagery then showed the system crossing over the Leeward Islands by the 10th of August still with no apparent circulation, but that began to change a few days later. By the 14th of August, Air Force reconnaissance aircraft sent into the disturbance picked up a central pressure of 999 millibars along with 55 mph surface winds, and satellite imagery showed much more in the way of circulation with numerous bands of heavy rainfall. It was at this point that the tropical system inherited its name of “Camille” having reached tropical storm status.
Camille did not remain a tropical storm for long as it had favorable conditions for intensification by the middle of the month of August in 1969. The storm moved slowly northwestward and its central pressure continued to drop. By August 15th, Camille had reached hurricane status as it headed towards Cuba with winds gusting up to 115 mph. Camille passed over western Cuba as a category 1 hurricane and produced 92 mph winds and 10 inches of rain.
By the 16th of August, Camille had passed Cuba and pushed over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico which helped to continue its intensification. Another Air Force reconnaissance aircraft was flown into the eye of Camille at this time and a central pressure of 908 millibars was recorded using dropwindsondes. Hurricane Camille was now headed right towards the northern Gulf coastal region in a north-northwestward direction at 14 mph and it was being called a “small but dangerous” storm by the US Weather Bureau. Hurricane watches on this day were put up stretching over 400 miles from Biloxi, Mississippi to St. Marks, Florida.
Hurricane watches were in effect on August 16th across a wide portion of the northern Gulf coast as Camille crossed over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico; Source NOAA/NWS
Landfall
On August 17th, Hurricane Camille reached category 5 status and was located about 250 miles south of Mobile, Alabama. Gulf states were now in crisis mode in preparation for landfall in what had become a monster hurricane. The last Air Force reconnaissance aircraft readings were made on the afternoon of the 17th and a central pressure of 901 millibars was measured along with a maximum surface wind gust of over 200 mph. There was only one other time that a central pressure had been measured this low, in the 1935 Labor Day hurricane which ended up crossing over the Florida Keys between Miami and Key West. As landfall approached in the northern Gulf coastal region, the easterly winds ahead of Camille generated a storm surge through the marshes of southeastern Louisiana. Meteorologists warned that “never before has a populated area been threatened by a storm as extremely dangerous as Camille”. A mass evacuation emptied the coastal towns all along the Gulf coast and those that stayed likely perished during the storm (there were rumors of “hurricane parties”, but there weren’t any survivors to recall them).
The track of Hurricane Camille along with updated wind speeds; Courtesy NOAA, ESRI, Earthstar Geographics
Hurricane Camille made landfall on August 17th at about 10:30PM (CT) passing over Clermont Harbor, Waveland and Bay St. Louis in the state of Mississippi. In 1969, it was only the second category 5 storm to make landfall in the US in the record-keeping era. Numerous weather stations that were supposed to record pressure and winds were destroyed during the storm and many of the records are only estimates and range up to 200 mph in wind gusts. Maximum surface winds were calculated to be near 201.5 mph near the center of Camille on the afternoon of August 17th. The highest actual measurement on a wind instrument of 172 mph was found on an Esterline Angus wind speed recorder and was before the instrument gave out due to a paper jam. Maximum sustained winds will never be known for certain. Catastrophic flooding took place from Louisiana to Florida with the tide reaching a maximum of 24.2 feet above mean sea level in some spots.
Photo of the flooding from the University of Colorado/CIRES “30th anniversary retrospective”
Devastation far inland with catastrophic flooding in Virginia
Camille weakened to a tropical depression as it passed through northern Mississippi and into western Tennessee. It then took a turn to the northeast through central Kentucky and then eastward through extreme southern West Virginia and southern Virginia. By the 19th of August, atmospheric conditions were coming together for extreme rainfall and local geographic features were enhancing chances for catastrophic flooding in the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains – but few were prepared for what was about to take place. Specifically, the remains of Camille were moving into an area where there was tropical air in place along with an existing backdoor cold front at the surface and an intensifying jet streak aloft. In this part of Virginia, there is a narrow valley with steep ridges and an upsloping wind amplified rainfall amounts. The combination of this extremely unstable atmosphere and local geographic features was resulting in historic and deadly flooding conditions.
Rainfall amounts were disastrous across the northern Gulf coast and in the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains; Credit NOAA
Rainfall amounts of more than 26 inches occurred in the mountain slopes between Charlottesville and Lynchburg, Virginia in a 12-hour period. Nelson County, Virginia recorded 27 inches of rain with reports that the rain was so heavy there were birds drowning in trees. [A post-storm “reanalysis” by NOAA suggests over 30 inches of rain fell in as little as eight hours in some spots]. Survivors recall a night between the 19th and 20th of August that was filled with thunderstorm after thunderstorm and lightning so fierce “it was like daylight and the lightning didn’t flash, the sky just literally stayed lit”. A total of nearly 3800 landslides were calculated within Nelson County, Virginia alone using LiDAR scans and 123 of the 153 fatalities in the state during this storm took place in this particular county. After Camille, the landscape had changed so much that topographical maps were obsolete. To this day, hillsides still remain bare with exposed rock where mudslides ravaged and stripped the forest away. The rainfall tripled the state of Virginia’s record and has not been broken since. (Credit to Jason Elliott (NWS, Sterling, VA) for much of the information on Camille and its impact on Nelson County, Virginia).
Hurricane Camille was the second most intense landfalling hurricane in the US in terms of central pressure; Credit NOAA
Final Notes
Hurricane Camille will always be remembered as one of the most devastating storms in US history and one of only four category 5 hurricanes to strike the US. In addition to Hurricane Camille and the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, there have been two other category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the US and both took place after 1969. Hurricane Andrew struck the southeastern part of Florida in August of 1992 and Hurricane Michael made landfall in October of 2018 across the panhandle region of Florida. In the case of Hurricane Michael, category 5 status did not come until months later when a “reanalysis” by NOAA increased its winds by 5 mph at landfall near Mexico Beach and Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida compared to the original operational estimate and this increase pushed the storm into category 5 territory. Similarly, the 1935 Labor Day hurricane was not actually classified as a category 5 until many years later as official classifications did not even begin until the early 1970’s.
Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Arcfield
arcfieldweather.com
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I remember it well. I was living just outside of Memphis when she blew through.
I was in Arlington Virginia saw flash flooding from that storm.
I was stationed at Ft, Campbell, Kentucky then, but I’ll be darned if I can remember any thing significant about the storm.
I had a part time job driving a AAA tow truck, I remember the flooded streets. Wilson Blvd, was a river. At the time I didn’t realize it was the aftermath of the Hurricane.
seems like WUWT is mostly a club of geezers 🙂
: )
primitive people listen to what the geezers in the tribe have to say- and until modern times, this was true in Chinese civilization- respect for elders
of course we geezers once said “don’t trust anyone over 30”
That was when being “liberal” meant questioning authority. Now those who go by that handle insist that authority never be questioned.
Nothing like experience to place something in context, especially long-term conditions like climate.
I was born on 10/1/49- same day as the first day of Commy China. My mother reminded me many times that the first half of that month was a terrible heat wave. That, and the fact that I was a breach birth and she was in labor for 18 hours.
The rain was so heavy I could barely see my hand with an outstretched nine-year-old arm. For some reason Mom had left the station wagon out in the driveway instead of in the carport. Lucky thing, since the single column at the apex of the roof was blown down by the wind and would have crushed the car.
Here is an interesting… confession?
Climate change once seemed a distant threat. No more. We now know its face, and all too well.
We see it in every hurricane, torrential rainstorm, flood, heatwave, wildfire and drought. It’s even detectable in our daily weather.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/30/hurricane-ian-climate-crisis-no-anomaly-storms-more-powerful?s=09
The Graun has nothing pre 2000. Funnily enough that; neither does Auntie.
What’s new in this post that wasn’t in https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/08/16/the-53rd-anniversary-of-hurricane-camillea-category-5-at-landfall-and-one-of-the-most-devastating-storms-in-us-history/ ?
Check out the comments over there.
FWIW, I collected links to all my weather history posts at https://wermenh.com/climate/index.html
Hmm. One of the sections in Science News I always read now is their look back to articles from 50 years ago and an update on our current understanding. In my case, I’ve subscribed continuously since 1969 so its fun to see if I remember the old articles. 1974 was a big year in my life which included seeing things like a snowbank ecosystem that I recognized thanks to reading about them in SN.
It might be fun to make a monthly post for “WUWT – 10 years ago.” I don’t have time this year, maybe next year. In November 2026 we could add “20 years ago.”
a snowbank ecosystem?
I’ve been told that unless this is a global average it is meaningless.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Top ten list doesn’t show the 1900 Galveston Hurricane,
the deadliest natural disaster in United States history.
Central pressure isn’t everything.
True.
I recall a hurricane, probably Agnes that flooded Corning and Elmira New York.
At the time I had family in both locations and what I remember was probably Elmira.
After the storm, the city publish a pamphlet on the storm. On the front cover, hanging on for dear life to the very top of a stop sign for dear life were 3 of my cousins. On the back cover was the boat that came and rescued them. Agnes was not a cat 5. The devastation was quite real and personal.
Central pressure isn’t everything but, in context of “Climate Change” hype, it’s not the devastation but the actual strength of the storms that matters.
“They” claim storms will get stronger because of Man’s CO2 then hype the damage to make the storms sound stronger.
Mann’s CO2?
Humor is a difficult context, but not this time.
Speaking of climate, I wonder how many over the last 500,000 years.
Speaking of climate hysteria, how long until media selects one measurement of a single aspect of the next hurricane, compares it to a lesser number of Camille and declares “hurricanes are becoming more dangerous due to climate change”?
Conditions are similar to 1969, at least the conditions that cause big hurricanes.
What’s totally different now is that 1969 was in the era of the global cooling craze.
I am just talking about slopes on falling SST temps, they match 1969 the best. Humans mumbling things they do not know about now and then (not you) do not compute. No one really has an understanding of climate on this planet, except me currently. And in the 60’s they were confused, but not as much as they are now.
1969 cooling was caused by the Christmas bombings (code named Linebacker II) during the Vietnam War.
Agung cooled the first 4 years of the 60’s, and then up until 1975, it was the B52. The great climate shift of 1977, was the end of Stratospheric particulates from the massive number of B52 flights from Guam to Vietnam and back.
The Vietnam War and real reason why the 60’s were anomalously cool.
“Hurricane Camille will always be remembered as one of the most devastating storms in US history”
Not now every small squall is unprecedented & worse than anything seen in the living memory of a coke-fuelled 19-year-old churnalist.
Coke is very 1980s
How about fentanyl?
Wait… Whut?!? There were no major hurricanes back then in the ‘cool’ 60’s. The climate was perfect back then and all the storms were warm tropical breezes until those wascally humans really started to pollute the planet with their toxic CO2. You’re making this up. (Insert /sarc tag here for those with no sense of humor).
Seriously, though, I see the weather porn media hyping the hurricane season like it’s a bowl game with the championship on the line. Whether it’s the Weather Channel, InAccuweather, or Fox Weather, these media whores are beside themselves cheering on the Hurricanes. They are all stating that Ernesto is the next ‘major’ hurricane, although it is still a tropical storm, projected to be a category 1 hurricane, and will likely never make landfall on the continent. Years ago this storm may have never even been noticed.
What a bunch of losers.
One has to remember that storms/hurricanes go through various stages of strength during their trajectory. As we can follow them now using satellites we know the exact strength at every ‘point’, going from cat 5 to 2 and back up again depending on location. That could not be done 50 years ago let alone be reported.
One can assume that the majority of smaller storms in the past were not reported at all unless they caused a lot of damage.
The satellites don’t measure pressure, but can observe cloud top temperature and wind speed. The pressure is based on a correlation. I prefer measurements.
Thanks for the correction..
Fear sells, bull**** is good for flowers and the ladies…and, apparently, the ratings. Sigh.
Thanks for not one mention of LBJ. I survived at least a decade of manufactured incredulity that Katrina was GWBs fault.
Actually, LBJ was retired by then. Dick Nixon was elected President in 1968.
reminds me of watching LBJ, live, on TV saying he wasn’t going to run again
Hurricane Camille forced an update to both the Air Force and Navy Hurricane Hunter squadrons. With the advent of satellites, emphasis on aircraft weather reconnaissance had diminished and both services were content to let their weather fleets struggle along with diminishing resources. But these inadequacies became glaring when they weren’t able to keep such a major storm under continuous monitoring and satellite images (including the newly available infrared pictures) weren’t adequate to monitor the storm’s strength.
After Camille, the Navy began plans to replace their aging fleet of Super Connies with the P-3 Orion patrol aircraft. And the Air Force began equipping their C-130s with recording weather instruments while upgrading to new model planes.
I just wrote a computer model that proves climate change is retroactive. Or causes time displacement for extreme weather events. Either conclusion is true, possibly both. Prove they aren’t.
I was a kid and I remember. Seen quite a few since, nothing like it till Katrina.
“1969 was a remarkable year and will be long remembered as the year when man first walked on the moon, the Miracle Mets shocked the sports world, and the Woodstock Festival took place in upstate New York.”
And I went into deep space watching “2001 Space Odyssey” at a drive in.
I remember this storm. I was a college student living in the dorms in a West-central Illinois college on the top, 14th floor. The wind shook the tower and forced rain thru the window caulking. My roomie and I watched thru the window just simply amazed-and we were several hundred miles away from the center of the storm. Not so smart maybe, but we were young and dumb.