Incipent Stage of Debby - September
12-14,
1982
The system that became Debby moved off the African coast on September
3rd. The system weakened soon
after moving offshore, and the tropical wave moved westward through the
Lesser Antilles on the 11th with
a weak surface circulation. An upper circulation moved southwest
ahead of the system, and the resultant area
of showers and thunderstorms along the wave axis moved northwest
through Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin
Islands. By the 13th, it has developed into a tropical depression
just north of the Dominican Republic. It was
named Tropical Storm Debby the next day, and a hurricane late on the
14th. Turning northward, the hurricane
moved 80 miles west of Bermuda, with the eyewall just missing the
island. Eventually becoming a major hurricane,
Debby acclerated north-northeast, passing just southeast of Cape Race,
Newfoundland on the 18th as a hurricane.
On the morning of the 20th, Debby finally weakened back into a tropical
storm and by afternoon had become
absorbed by a major storm over the British Isles. On the graphic
below is the storm total rainfall for Debby.
Data was provided by the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville,
North Carolina.