page_title: Tropical Storm Keith (1988)
section_title: Meteorological history
hierarchical_section_title: Tropical Storm Keith (1988) / Meteorological history
caption_attribution_description: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane ScaleTDTS12345 English: Tropical Storm Keith (1988) track. Uses the color scheme from the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
context_page_description: Tropical Storm Keith was the eleventh Atlantic tropical cyclone of the 1988 Atlantic hurricane season. It struck the Continental United States later in the calendar year than any since the 1925 Atlantic hurricane season. Keith developed out of a tropical wave in the Caribbean Sea on November 17. It tracked northwestward, and under generally favorable conditions, it reached a peak intensity of 70 mph shortly before striking the northeastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula. It turned northeastward in the Gulf of Mexico, and made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, on November 23. Keith accelerated its forward motion under the influence of a cold front, and became extratropical near Bermuda on November 24. The extratropical remnant persisted for two more days.
  Early in its duration, Keith produced moderate to heavy rainfall in Honduras, Jamaica, and Cuba. Minimal damage was reported in Mexico, which was still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Gilbert two months prior. Keith, the last of four named tropical cyclones to hit the United States during the season, produced moderate rainfall, rough storm surge, and gusty winds across central Florida.
context_section_description: A tropical wave moved off the coast of Africa on November 5. It tracked steadily west across the tropical Atlantic Ocean. Its forward motion slowed after it passed the Lesser Antilles on November 12. A large well-defined anticyclone persisted across much of the Caribbean Sea, providing a favorable environment for the system. A low-level circulation gradually became evident on satellite imagery within the disturbance. Based on ship observations, the National Hurricane Center estimated that the system organized into a tropical depression on November 17, about 280 miles (450 km) south of the western tip of Haiti.
  Initially, the depression was disorganized as it continued west; on November 18 the center became exposed from the area of deep convection. However, the upper-level environment gradually became more favorable for further development, and deep convection, or thunderstorm activity, developed closer to the center. An eastward-moving upper-level trough in the Gulf of Mexico turned the depression northwest. The next day, the depression intensified into a tropical storm while a short distance north of Honduras, receiving the name Keith. It quickly intensified, and on November 21 the storm reached its peak strength of 985 mbar (29.09 inHg) with winds of 70 mph (110 km/h). The trough, which turned Keith northwestward, rapidly accelerated northeastward; as a result, the storm moved slowly northwest until making landfall on the northeast tip of the Yucatán Peninsula at 0800 UTC on November 21, at an intensity slightly below hurricane status.
  After briefly moving over land, Keith turned north under the influence of a trailing frontal trough. The storm became disorganized while recurving northeast because of increased vertical wind shear and the presence of cool dry air from its north. On November 23, Keith made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, with winds of 65 mph (100 km/h), while most of its convection was well to the north of the center. Its landfall was the second latest on record for the Continental United States, only behind a hurricane in the 1925 season. The storm quickly weakened as it crossed Florida, and within hours the winds dropped to 40 mph (65 km/h). Reaching the Atlantic Ocean eight hours after moving ashore, Keith began to gradually re-intensify, and under the influence of a very large upper-level low pressure area over Newfoundland, the storm accelerated northeast. On November 24, the storm again reached its peak intensity of 70 mph (110 km/h), shortly before becoming an extratropical cyclone near Bermuda. Keith restrengthened and deepened into a powerful extratropical cyclone, attaining hurricane-force winds and a minimum pressure of 945 mbar (27.92 inHg). The extratropical storm turned westward and was last observed on November 26 northeast of Newfoundland.
caption: Map plotting the track and the intensity of the storm, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale
exif: {}