page_title: Hurricane Alicia
section_title: Storm history
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane Alicia / Storm history
caption_attribution_description: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane ScaleTDTS12345 English: Hurricane Alicia (1983) track. Uses the color scheme from the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
context_page_description: Hurricane Alicia was the first named storm and first hurricane of the 1983 Atlantic hurricane season. Alicia was the season's strongest and deadliest storm. It killed a total of 21 people and caused $2.6 billion in damage. Alicia was the most destructive Texan hurricane since Hurricane Carla from 1961.
  Hurricane Alicia formed from Tropical Depression Three on August 15 in the Gulf of Mexico and slowly moved west towards Texas, where it made landfall on August 18 at its strongest point with 115 mph winds. Alicia quickly weakened into a tropical depression before dissipating overland on August 21.
context_section_description: A mesoscale low formed off the Alabama and Mississippi coasts on August 14 with a weak frontal trough that had formed off of New England. Pressures were high in the Gulf of Mexico, but the low strengthened into Tropical Depression Three on August 15. A ship located within 60 miles of the depression reported a pressure of 1015.5 millibars and the storm was upgraded to Tropical Storm Alicia late on August 15. With the high Gulf pressures, Alicia was unable to gain size, so it stayed very small, but created faster winds, and became a Category 1 hurricane on August 16. Steering currents were weak during Alicia's lifetime over water. A new frontal ridge had formed on August 17 which caused the storm to slowly move in a westerly direction. Alicia continued west until the frontal ridge had collapsed to the east.
  Alicia then began to take a more northern drection August 18 to Port Arthur, Texas. During that time, the hurricane began to gain strength at about 1 mbar an hour, peaking at 963 mbar with winds of 115 mph (185 km/h) on the morning of the 18th. Just before landfall, Alicia showed a rare "double eye" feature for a few hours. The storm made landfall in Texas as a category 3 hurricane at about 1:45 a.m. CDT on Thursday, August 18. Alicia weakened very quickly after landfall, losing tropical characteristics and began to speed up to the northwest, finally losing its identity in the southeast Nebraska on August 21.
caption: Storm path
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