page_title: Hurricane Gordon (2006)
section_title: Meteorological history
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane Gordon (2006) / Meteorological history
caption_attribution_description: Hurricane Gordon was captured at 18:17:13 GMT, Sept. 17, 2006 with a digital still camera, equipped with a 20-35mm lens, by one of the crewmembers aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The center of the storm was located near 34.0 degrees north latitude and 53.0 degrees west longitude, while moving north-northeast. At the time the photo was taken, the sustained winds were 70 nautical miles per hour with gusts to 85 nauticalmiles per hour.
context_page_description: Hurricane Gordon was the first tropical cyclone since 1992 to affect the Azores while retaining tropical characteristics. The eighth tropical storm, third hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, Gordon formed on September 10 in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. It gradually matured into a hurricane as it tracked northward, reaching its peak intensity with winds of 195 km/h early on September 14 while located about 925 km southeast of Bermuda. After becoming nearly stationary, Gordon weakened to minimal hurricane status, although it re-intensified after accelerating to the east. It weakened again after moving over cooler waters, and passed through the Azores on September 20. Shortly thereafter, it became an extratropical cyclone and subsequently affected Spain, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
  The only land area affected while Gordon was tropical – the Azores – sustained little damage, in spite of wind gusts reaching hurricane force on Santa Maria Island. Impact was much more significant from the storm in its extratropical phase. In Spain, wind gusts reached 183 km/h along the northwest coast and left 100,000 people without power.
context_section_description: On September 1, a tropical wave exited the west coast of Africa and quickly showed signs of organization. It possessed a low pressure area and some convection as the system moved generally westward. The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) first pinpointed the system as an area for potential development late on September 2 while it was about 1,210 km (750 mi) west-southwest of Cape Verde. However, an upper-level trough associated with the developing Hurricane Florence to its west increased wind shear across the region, which prevented significant tropical cyclone development over the next week. However, on September 5, the NHC noted the potential for the storm system to organize into a tropical depression within the next several days, but its close proximity to Florence continued to stall its strengthening. By September 9, the trough moved far enough away from the system to allow wind shear to relent, signalling an increase in convective thunderstorm activity. Around 18:00 UTC that day, the system developed into a tropical depression about 870 km (540 mi) east-northeast of the Lesser Antilles.
  Upon developing, the depression, small in physical size, moved slowly west-northwestward. Initially, the NHC faced difficulties in forecasting the future of the system due to the potential for resumed strong wind shear, as well as uncertainty in its path of direction. It gradually organized and intensified, and based on observations from the Hurricane Hunters, the NHC assessed the depression as a tropical storm late on September 11; upon doing so, they named it Gordon. As it strengthened, Gordon developed more substantial outflow and increasing banding features. On September 12, the storm slowed and turned toward the north through a weakness in the subtropical ridge created by Florence. Wind shear decreased further, and the storm's convection became more symmetric with an intermittent eye feature in the center. Based on the presence of the eye and estimates from satellite imagery, it is estimated that Gordon intensified into a hurricane early on September 13.
  After becoming a hurricane, Gordon underwent rapid deepening as the eye became better defined and more intense. In 24 hours, the winds increased by 72 km/h (45 mph) to a peak intensity of 195 km/h (121 mph) early on September 14, while located about 925 km (575 mi) southeast of Bermuda. This made Gordon a major hurricane, as well as a Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the first of 2006. As it curved to the northeast, the hurricane maintained its peak intensity for about 24 hours, during which the eye decreased in size and the eyewall convection weakened. Afterward, Gordon began weakening due to moving over an area of cooler water temperatures. On September 15, the trough that was previously guiding the hurricane moved farther away, allowing the ridge to build to the north and causing Gordon's motion to become nearly stationary. Increased wind shear imparted further weakening, and the hurricane's slow motion resulted in upwelling – the motion of cooler water to the ocean's surface. On September 17, a building ridge to the east caused Gordon to begin a steady northeast motion. By that time, the convection had diminished significantly and the winds weakened to minimal hurricane-force. One NHC forecast predicted extratropical transition to occur within 48 hours.
  On September 18, Hurricane Gordon began accelerating to the northeast around a strengthening ridge, and later toward the east as guided by a trough. Wind shear decreased, which allowed for convection to redevelop near the eye. Unexpectedly, the hurricane began restrengthening, despite moving over slightly cooler waters; instability from cooler upper-level temperatures allowed for the reintensification. Despite continued forecasts of a weakening trend, Gordon's resiliency presented a rare threat – the first since Hurricane Charley in 1992 – to the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. At about 06:00 UTC on September 19, the hurricane attained its secondary peak intensity of 169 km/
caption: Hurricane Gordon as seen from Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-115) on September 17
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