Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean:

Hurricane Dolly
Table of Contents:

Introduction: page: 3
Dolly:
• Arise of Dolly page: 4
• Wind history page: 5
• Rainfall page: 9
• Landfall page: 11
• Damage page: 12
Appendix page: 13
Sources page: 14

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Introduction:

In this report I am going to tell you something more about hurricane Dolly. Dolly was the first
hurricane that made a landfall in the United States and Mexico. She was a heavy storm and
almost a major hurricane. In this report I am going to tell you about this all.

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Arise of Dolly:

A strong tropical wave on the Atlantic Ocean came in development on 13 July with an area of
strong thunderstorms. Meanwhile while the system was crossing the Caribbean Sea, the
system was getting developed and after a few days the National Hurricane Center gave
permission to call this system (which became a tropical depression during her track in the
Caribbean Sea) the name Dolly. So the 4th tropical storm of hurricane season 2008 was born.
But Dolly wasn’t finished and she made her first landfall in Mexico. Also Dolly showed some
convection, but this became better after she came in the Golf of Mexico. During her trip in the
Golf of Mexico Dolly became not only a hurricane, she was also the fastest developing
tropical storm. This means, the time developing from a tropical storm into a hurricane was so
short, that she became the fastest developing storm ever!

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Wind history:

Date/time Latitude Longitude Pressure Wind speed Category

(north) (west) (knots)
20/1700 18.4 82.4 1008 39 Tropical
Storm
20/2000 18.6 84.5 1008 39 Tropical
Storm
20/2300 18.9 85.0 1008 39 Tropical
Storm
21/0200 19.3 85.5 1007 39 Tropical
Storm
21/0500 19.6 85.8 1007 43 Tropical
Storm
21/0800 21.1 86.8 1007 43 Tropical
Storm
21/1100 21.3 87.4 1008 43 Tropical
Storm
21/1400 21.6 88.7 1005 43 Tropical
Storm
21/1700 22.1 89.5 1005 43 Tropical
Storm
21/2000 22.8 90.4 1005 43 Tropical
Storm
21/2300 23.1 91.2 1004 43 Tropical
Storm
22/0200 23.1 91.8 1000 43 Tropical
Storm
22/0500 23.1 92.8 999 43 Tropical
Storm
22/0800 23.2 93.3 999 43 Tropical
Storm
22/1100 23.3 93.8 997 52 Tropical
Storm
22/1400 23.7 94.0 993 56 Tropical
Storm
22/1700 24.0 94.5 991 61 Tropical
Storm
22/2000 24.3 94.9 990 61 Tropical
Storm
22/2300 24.6 95.3 986 65 Hurricane
Category 1

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Date/time Latitude Longitude Pressure Wind speed Category
(north) (west) (knots)
23/0200 24.9 95.7 982 65 Hurricane
Category 1
23/0500 25.1 96.0 981 69 Hurricane
Category 1
23/0800 25.3 96.3 982 69 Hurricane
Category 1
23/1100 25.6 96.5 976 74 Hurricane
Category 1
23/1300 25.8 96.6 972 74 Hurricane
Category 1
23/1500 25.9 96.9 967 83 Hurricane
Category 1
23/1700 26.0 97.0 964 87 Hurricane
Category 2
23/1900 26.2 97.0 967 87 Hurricane
Category 2
23/2100 26.4 97.3 967 83 Hurricane
Category 1
23/2300 26.6 97.6 970 74 Hurricane
Category 1
24/0200 26.6 98.0 976 65 Hurricane
Category 1
24/0500 26.5 98.1 981 61 Tropical
Storm
24/0800 26.7 98.3 986 52 Tropical
Storm
24/1100 26.9 98.6 991 52 Tropical
Storm
24/1400 27.2 98.9 995 43 Tropical
Storm
24/1700 27.5 99.3 992 39 Tropical
Storm
24/2000 27.9 99.8 998 35 Tropical
Storm
24/2300 28.2 100.6 1000 30 Tropical
Storm

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The data that we used in the table are from the beginning that Dolly became a tropical storm
and, compared to the others summaries, these data are from every 3 hours instead of every 6
hours.
This pictures below shows the track and the category of Dolly.

As we see in the picture, Dolly made a landfall twice. Once in Mexico (the first time) and the
second time she made a landfall on the border of Mexico and the United States. As we see in
the table, Dolly made a fast development and she shall be known as one of the fastest
developed hurricanes in history. The picture on the right is a picture of Dolly heading for the
border of the United States and Mexico. You can see a beautiful cloud structure on the whole
Golf of Mexico. This is caused by the strong development of the wind speed in the eye wall of
Dolly. This picture shows how much the whole Golf of Mexico can be involved by one
hurricane!

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This picture shows not only the wind speed in knots, but also the wind direction of hurricane
Dolly on her way to make landfall on the border of Mexico and the United States. You can
perfectly see her eye structure. This is shown by the purple ring. You can also see that in the
purple ring there is a small yellow spot. This is the area in which there isn’t much wind, when
this is the case, you are in the eye of a hurricane.

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Rainfall:

This picture represents the rainfall of Hurricane Dolly during her landfall on the border of the
United States and Mexico. Only, this data is for the United States alone, because the Mexican
government hasn’t brought out any report of data for rainfall during the landfall of Hurricane
Dolly in their country. On the next page, I will show you some data, that has been revealed by
the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration. (Also called the NOAA) These are
numbers revealed by the NOAA a few days after the landfall of Dolly.

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On this page I show some rainfall data revealed by the NOAA.

Location: Rainfall in Inches: Rainfall in mm:

Corpus Christi 5,47 139.0
Kingsville 5.48 139.2
Rockport 4.68 118.13
Freeport 2.81 11.1
Angleton 2.55 10.0
Palacios 2.34 9.2
Alice 2.21 8.7
Berville 2.08 8.2
Sugarland 2.03 8.0
Houston Airport 2.02 8.0
Wharton 1.53 6.0
San Antonio 1.03 4.1

The picture below gives a short impression of the rainfall that Hurricane Dolly caused on July
20 till July 25. This means, that this number shows the rainfall during 4 days instead of one
day. The table shows an amount of rainfall that is measured during the hurricane landfall. This
was two days.

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Landfall:

First landfall:
The first landfall of Dolly was the
weakest, but killed the most
people. The first landfall cost 21
people their lives. Dolly also
caused some landslides in
Guatamala, Yucatan and Mexico.
In Mexico there were significant
damages on the beach, caused by
the floods and storm surge that
Dolly caused by her wind. This is
also called beach erosion.

During the storm there were a lot

of oil platforms that had to be evacuated because the storm was very dangerous. The prices of
oil and gas production rose 4.66% for the oil and for the gas 5.13% compared to the prices of
the last week before the storm came in the oil production and gas production areas.

Second landfall:
The second landfall of Dolly (and now Dolly was a hurricane compared to the first landfall
where Dolly was a tropical storm) was one of the heaviest hurricane landfalls in July in Texas.
President Bush declared 15 counties federal disaster areas. This means that the army and the
federal emergency team can help the people in the area hit by a hurricane or other natural
disaster. On 23 July, Dolly came ashore and caused a lot of damage to homes and other
buildings by the things she brought with her. While Dolly was making her heaviest and last
landfall she was bringing a
lot of rain and also heavy
wind gust. The storm surge
was also high, and Dolly
caused 3 tornados in the
area of Texas. You can see
this in the picture on the
right. You must look at
Texas. This is in the low-
mid area.
But soon after she came
ashore, she weakened into a
tropical storm, and not soon
after that, Dolly
disappeared in the
atmosphere above Texas.

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Damage:

Hurricane Dolly caused a damage of an

estimated amount of 1.52 billion United
States dollars. This was caused by the heavy
rainfall and the strong wind gust that
damaged a lot of houses and other things
that were in her path. Not only on land
Dolly caused a lot of damage, also on the
sea she damaged a lot of oil platforms. In the
pictures on the right we can see an oil
platform that was severely damaged by
Dolly. So hurricanes aren’t only dangerous
on land, on sea and in the sky they are
extremely dangerous as well!

Moreover, when Dolly came ashore for the

first time, she damaged a lot of houses in the poor area of Yucatan. The floods and the rainfall
that Dolly caused were dangerous too and the most people who died during the storm, died
because of the rainfall, because they drowned or were electrocuted by the water.

The most damage was in the area of the second landfall because Dolly was the heaviest, but
the rainfall and storm surge and the tornadoes she brought together caused the most damage.
The damage in Mexico was estimated for an amount of 300 million United States Dollars.
The other damage costs were in the United States, Guatemala and Yucatan.

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Appendix:

This summary has given you a lot of information about hurricane Dolly, but of course, Dolly
wasn’t the only one that went to America as a hurricane. So if you want more information
about this hurricane season, please take a look at my other summaries or my blog. The links
are shown below:

Scribd:
http://www.scribd.com/people/view/4721647-emma

Youtube:
www.youtube.com/pojecthurricane

Blog:
http://ubbo-hurricaneseason2008.blogspot.com

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Sources:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18099
http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/index.cgi?page=items&ser=112393&large=1
http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/files/images/hurricane-dolly-july-23-2008.jpg
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/tropical/rain/dolly2008filledrainwhite.gif
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/262421main_dolly_winds_HI.jpg
http://data.weeronline.nl/html/images/weernieuws/image/Dolly22juli.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dolly_2008_track.png
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-
images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/07/23/0723_dolly_460x276.jpg
http://www.roanokeslant.org/Oil%20Rig.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/DollyNearLandfall.jpg/471px-
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/263460main_dolly_rainfall_HI.jpg
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080725_drought.html
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/07/24/article-0-020DEA2900000578-82_468x319.jpg
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/

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