1980’s Allen Still 5th Strongest Atlantic Hurricane

After weakening near Haiti and Jamaica, Hurricane Allen was again strengthening on this date in 1980.

A minimum pressure of 899 millibars (26.55 inches) was recorded by a NOAA aircraft at 12:42 p.m. CDT on the 7th when it was off the Yucatan Peninsula.

Only Hurricane Gilbert with the all time low pressure reading of 888 mb in 1988, and the infamous Labor Day hurricane of 1935 with a central pressure of 892 mb, were stronger than Allen’s 899 mb central pressure.

Emergency management officials all along the Gulf Coast were preparing for a possible onslaught from Allen’s destructive winds and forecasters were desperately trying to calculate which way the monster storm would go when it entered the Gulf of Mexico. 250,000 people were being evacuated along the Texas coast. Offshore oil rigs were shuttling workers to safety via helicopters. One of the choppers crashed into the Gulf, killing 13 people.

Allen would lose strength again near the Yucatan Peninsula but regained it over the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico before eventually moving into Texas north of Brownsville.

Here is the current top ten;
1 Wilma, 2005, 882
2 Gilbert, 1988, 888
3 “Labor Day”, 1935, 892
4 Rita, 2005, 895
5 Allen, 1980, 899
6 Katrina, 2005, 902
7 Camille, 1969, 905
8t Mitch, 1998, 905 and Dean, 2007
10t “Cuba”, 1924, 910 and Ivan, 2004

Category: Met 101/Weather History