page_title: Hurricane Claudette (2003)
section_title: Meteorological history
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane Claudette (2003) / Meteorological history
caption_attribution_description: this image shows Hurricane Claudette making landfall on Texas in mid-July.
context_page_description: Hurricane Claudette was the third tropical storm and first hurricane of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. A fairly long-lived July Atlantic hurricane, Claudette began as a tropical wave in the eastern Caribbean. It moved quickly westward, brushing past the Yucatán Peninsula before moving northwestward through the Gulf of Mexico. Claudette remained a tropical storm until just before making landfall in Port O'Connor, Texas, when it quickly strengthened to a strong Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Forecasting of its path and intensity was uncertain throughout its lifetime, resulting in widespread and often unnecessary preparations along its path.
  Claudette was the first hurricane to make landfall in July in the United States since Hurricane Danny in the 1997 season. The hurricane caused two deaths and moderate damage in Texas, mostly from strong winds, as well as extensive beach erosion. Because of the damage, President George W. Bush declared portions of South Texas a Federal Disaster Area, allowing the affected citizens to apply for aid.
context_section_description: A tropical wave moved off the coast of Africa on July 1. It steadily organized as it moved westward, and resembled a tropical depression by July 7. However, surface reports and reconnaissance aircraft indicated the system did not have tropical characteristics, and remained simply a low-pressure system. The wave produced tropical storm-force winds as it moved through the Lesser Antilles on July 8, but did not acquire tropical characteristics until it reached the eastern Caribbean. Because it had tropical storm-force winds, the system was upgraded immediately to Tropical Storm Claudette after it developed a low-level circulation later on July 8.
  By early on July 9, while south of Puerto Rico, Claudette quickly strengthened over the warm waters of the Caribbean, and its strongest winds were just shy of the threshold for hurricane intensity. Possibly due to its fast forward motion, the storm became disorganized and weakened. Conditions briefly became more favorable over the western Caribbean, and Claudette reached hurricane status for six hours on July 10. Soon after, the storm encountered unfavorable upper-level winds and weakened back into a tropical storm. In response to a break in the subtropical ridge—a high-pressure ridge that often prevents tropical systems from moving northward—it turned to the west-northwest. Claudette made its first landfall at Puerto Morelos on the Yucatán Peninsula, on July 11, as a tropical storm with 60 mph (97 km/h) winds.
  Claudette wobbled to the northwest over the Gulf of Mexico and gradually restrengthened. Upper-level winds steadily decreased, and Claudette again became a hurricane late on July 14. Just prior to landfall, it strengthened quickly and picked up its forward motion in a more westerly direction, striking Port O'Connor, Texas, on July 15, as a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale with 90 mph (150 km/h) winds. Residents along and inland of the central Texas coast were caught off guard both by its intensity and its time of arrival. The hurricane was projected to make landfall in the evening hours of July 15, but instead came ashore before noon. Furthermore, some initial estimates suggested that Claudette had reached Category 2 status, with sustained winds of up to 100 mph (155 km/h); these were based on unofficial observations which were not backed up by official data.
  As slow as Claudette was to strengthen, it was also slow to dissipate over land. Inland hurricane warnings were issued for several counties away from the coastline and winds gusted to 83 mph (134 km/h) at Victoria Regional Airport. It maintained tropical storm intensity for over 24 hours after landfall, a rarity for such a weak storm; most tropical systems weaken rapidly after landfall, as they are separated from the warm waters that power them. The storm finally lost its low-level circulation early on July 17 over Chihuahua, although its rainfall and upper-level circulation crossed over Southern California and continued into the Pacific Ocean.
caption: Hurricane Claudette making landfall on Texas on July 15
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