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2008 Hurricanes

Within the 2008 Hurricane season in the Atlantic, the overall prediction was for an above average season in the number of tropical depressions, tropical storms, and named hurricanes. This included a breakdown of 14-18 named storms, 7-10 hurricanes,
and 3-6 major hurricanes. Up until this point, September 28, 2008, there have been twelve named storms, with currently Kyle and Laura being both active Atlantic systems. For my analysis and information, I will be looking at the system of Kyle, the twelfth named system and sixth hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
As typical of many storms during the peak time of the hurricane season, Kyle first got its start as an unorganized tropical storm off the coast of Africa and made its way to Lesser Antilles Islands on September 18, where it began to stall. This is where the disturbance first directly caught the eye of forecasters as it slowly began to churn around Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, while leaving behind heavy rains and widespread flooding and damage across the islands all while the system was still undeveloped as a name storm. On September 22, flood warnings had been posted and announced in Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands after heavy rainfall in the Eastern Caribbean. All this while this tropical low had been still a tropical depression. In the Dominican Republic a green alert was issued. Yellow alerts were issued and evacuations began in vulnerable San Pedro de Macoris, La Romana, and Barahona and San Jose de Ocoa. Furthermore, much like Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike, Kyle followed a similar storm bath across saturated Haiti on September 23, westward and pounded the land with heavy rains and mudslides. As a result of the heavy rains there were four casualties directly related to the storm. Unfortunately they came as storm drownings as over 30 inches of rain had fallen on the islands due to poor constructions of river banks and agricultural standards and practices. Additionally, the lack of...