Hurricane Dorian

Post Landfall 2 | Summary
Posting Date: September 13, 2019, 4:00:00 AM

Dorian became a hurricane on August 28 after developing from a tropical wave in the Central Atlantic a few days earlier. The storm made landfall on St. Thomas later that day as a Category 1 hurricane, then tracked through and out of the Virgin Islands. Favorable conditions in the Caribbean Sea and Greater Antilles fueled Dorian’s intensification to a Category 4 hurricane on August 30. Dorian reached Category 5 intensity on September 1, becoming the strongest hurricane to affect the northwestern Bahamas in the modern record.

The storm made landfall on Great Abaco Island on September 1, with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph and a minimum central pressure of 911 mb—reaching its lowest central pressure of 910 mb a few hours later. After achieving its peak intensity during landfall, Dorian’s forward speed decreased. It reached Grand Bahama Island on September 2, where it became nearly stationary for about a day. Dorian began to drift northwestward on September 3, slowly gaining forward speed as it moved away from the Bahamas toward Florida but weakening along the way. Dorian was a Category 2 hurricane off the eastern coast of Florida on September 3 and 4 as it continued northward; some coastal parts of both South Carolina and North Carolina experienced hurricane-force winds in the days that followed.

Hurricane Dorian made landfall on the morning of September 6 on Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, as a Category 1 hurricane with a minimum central pressure of 956 mb and maximum sustained winds of 90 mph. Sustained hurricane-force winds were reported on Cape Hatteras, along with flooding on Cedar and Harker’s islands. The storm then moved northeastward over the Atlantic east of North Carolina with a forward speed of 17 mph.

Dorian transitioned to a post-tropical cyclone as it made landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada, on Saturday, September 7, with maximum sustained winds of 96 mph and a minimum central pressure of 958 mb before continuing northeastward and dissipating over the Atlantic.

Reported Impacts in the United States

Observed damage in the United States from Hurricane Dorian was limited. While Dorian bypassed Florida, the state experienced some intense winds that eroded beaches and damaged homes.

Georgia was also spared Dorian’s worst; trees and power lines were downed and about 15,000 customers experienced power outages. It was the third time since 2016 that coastal Georgia was evacuated for a hurricane.

Firefighters in South Carolina reported damage to vehicles and buildings in Myrtle Beach. Several homes just outside of Wilmington, North Carolina, also experienced damage, but the worst concentration of damage seems to have occurred on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. More than 265,000 homes and business in North Carolina and South Carolina experienced power outages, and dozens of roads were closed across North Carolina.

ALERT™ subscribers can download a select set of event-based SSEs and further insight from AIR from the Downloads tab of the ALERT website. Compatible with Touchstone®, Touchstone Re™, and CATRADER®, SSEs were selected from AIR's standard 10K U.S. Hurricane Model based on event parameters (not industry losses) and should be used only for exposures in relevant states as outlined in the Scenario Overview document.

Post Landfall 2 | Downloads
Posting Date: September 13, 2019, 4:00:00 AM

Similar Stochastic Event IDs

Note: These lists give event IDs taken from our stochastic catalog that have similar characteristics as the current event.

Additional Downloads

Note: Additional downloads related to the posting are listed below. Please use the appropriate application to view these files.