A tropical wave moved through the eastern tropical Atlantic on August 6th.  The system organized
relatively quickly, becoming a major hurricane before reaching the Lesser Antilles.   Moving quickly
to the west-northwest, Betsy passed over Guadeloupe before emerging into the northeast Caribbean
Sea.  The hurricane turned more to the northwest, missing St. Croix to the south before moving at an
angle across Puerto Rico on the 12th.  The hurricane recurved across the southeast Bahamas, and
moved between the East coast of the United States and Bermuda before becoming an extratropical
cyclone on the 18th.  The storm total rainfall maps below were constructed using data from data 
archived at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina.