Preliminary Report
Tropical Storm Katrina
28 October - 01 November 1999

1999 PRELIMINARY REPORTS

Tropical Storm Arlene (TS)
Hurricane Bret (4)
Hurricane Cindy (4)
Hurricane Dennis (2)
Tropical Storm Emily (TS)
Hurricane Floyd (4)
Hurricane Gert (4)
Tropical Storm Harvey (TS)
Hurricane Irene (2)
Hurricane Jose (2)
Tropical Storm Katrina (TS)
Hurricane Lenny (4)

Katrina was a tropical depression that briefly became a 40-mph tropical storm while moving onshore on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua.

 

a. Synoptic History

Satellite imagery suggests that the remnants of a cold front moved slowly southward across the western Caribbean Sea beginning on 22 October. A broad area of low pressure gradually formed over much of the Caribbean during this time and cloudiness and thunderstorms became concentrated over the southwestern Caribbean Sea on the 26th of October. On the 27th, low-level cloud lines began to show a circulation just north of Panama. On the 28th, a reconnaissance aircraft reported a well-defined low-level circulation about 150 nautical miles east of Bluefields, Nicaragua and tropical depression fifteen had formed.

Katrina was a tropical storm for about six hours from 1800 UTC on the 29th to 0000 UTC on the 30th, while making landfall on the coast of Nicaragua just south of Puerto Cabezas. For the rest of its four days of existence, Katrina was a tropical depression that moved on a generally northwestward track across Nicaragua and Honduras, back over the water of the northwest Caribbean, and then across northern Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula. The depression dissipated on the 1st just north of the Yucatan Peninsula as it was absorbed by a cold front.

b. Meteorological Statistics

The system was monitored by reconnaissance aircraft on the 28th and 29th of October while located in the southwestern Caribbean Sea. The basis for naming Katrina a tropical storm was a 49-mph, 1500-feet flight level wind observation at 1824 UTC on the 29th.

1. Rainfall Data

Satellite-based rainfall estimates suggest that 10 to 15 inches of rain may have ocurred over portions of Nicaragua and Honduras and lesser amounts for the Yucatan Peninsula. A report of 3.58 inches of rain in six hours was received on the 28th from San Andres, Colombia, an island about 100 nautical miles east of the coast of Nicaragua.

c. Casualties and damages

It is possible that the rainfall described above caused some flash flooding over mountainous terrain over portions of Central America. No reports of damage or casualties have been received.