Retrospective: 20 Year Anniversary of the 2004 Hurricane Season

The 2004 hurricane season was unprecedented for the time. Five storms impacted Florida in just six weeks. In fact, two of the four, Frances and Jeanne, made landfall just two miles apart, with only three weeks between them.

In total, nine tropical systems would go on to affect the U.S. that year. The costs from the hurricanes and tropical storms were estimated to be over $51 billion. At the time, this became the most costly hurricane season ever for the U.S., with the second most costly, at $35 billion, being 1992, the year that Hurricane Andrew impacted south Florida.

The 2004 Atlantic hurricane season was among the most devastating on record. The year’s storms claimed over 3100 lives, the second largest toll in three decades; 60 of these occurred in the United States. The United States suffered a record $51 billion in property damage, enduring landfalls from five hurricanes (Charley, Frances, Gaston, Ivan, and Jeanne) and the eyewall passage of a sixth (Alex) that avoided landfall on the North Carolina Outer Banks by less than 10 miles.

In addition, Bonnie, Hermine, and Matthew made landfall in the United States as tropical storms. Florida, the “Sunshine State,” became known as the Plywood State after being battered by Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne. The islands of the Caribbean were also hard hit.

Charley struck Cuba as a major hurricane [maximum 1-min winds of greater than 96 kt (110 mph), corresponding to category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale. Ivan was also a major hurricane in the Caribbean, causing extensive destruction on Grenada, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman, and Jeanne produced catastrophic flash floods in Haiti that killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

Fifteen named storms developed in 2004, including Nicole, a subtropical storm (see table below). Nine of the named systems became hurricanes, and of these, six became major hurricanes. One additional tropical depression did not reach storm strength. These totals were considerably above the long-term (1944–2003) means of 10.2 named storms, 6.0 hurricanes, and 2.6 major hurricanes.

August alone saw the formation of eight tropical storms, a new record for that month. The season also featured intense and long-lived hurricanes. Ivan, a category 5 storm, twice reached a minimum pressure of 910 mb, a value surpassed by only five other previous tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin historical record. In addition, Ivan was a major hurricane for a total of 10 days, a new record for a single storm since reliable records began in 1944.

Hurricane Charley

The first hurricane officially to make landfall in the U.S. in 2004, Hurricane Charley was the strongest and costliest storm to hit the US since Andrew in 1992. Charley was a Category 4 storm when it made landfall in Florida and caused approximately $14 billion in damage. The hurricane made another landfall along the South Carolina coast at Category 1 strength.

Hurricane Charley roared into southwest Florida during the late afternoon of Friday, August 13, then raced northeast across the central Florida peninsula, reaching the Atlantic Coast near Daytona Beach in only seven hours. During its life, the storm, which packed 150 mph winds as it made landfall along the Lee and Charlotte County coastlines, damaged or destroyed thousands of homes, knocked down tens of thousands of trees and took out power to more than 2 million Floridians.

Hurricane Bonnie

Bonnie first became a tropical depression on August 3, 2004 when the system was located about 360 miles east of Barbados in the Lesser Antilles. The depression moved westward at about 23 mph, eventually weakening to a tropical wave once more. As the wave reached the western Caribbean, it reformed into a tropical depression. The depression moved toward the west-northwest across the Yucatan Channel, becoming Tropical Storm Bonnie as it did so.

Bonnie moved north and northeast, reaching its maximum intensity of 65 mph and a minimum pressure of 1001 mb early in the afternoon of August 11. Weakening due to strong wind shear, Bonnie made landfall near Saint Vincent and Saint George Islands just south of Apalachicola, Florida, as a tropical storm on the morning of August 12th, one day before Hurricane Charley would make landfall in southwest Florida. As a depression, Bonnie continued to move northeastward across the eastern United States.

Hurricane Frances

Hurricane Frances made landfall just after midnight on September 5th near Stuart as a Category 2 storm. The hurricane continued to move slowly west-northwestward across central Florida to near Bartow by 2 PM and just northeast of Tampa by 8 PM when it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm.

It then emerged back into the Gulf of Mexico near Hudson shortly before midnight, nearly 24 hours after first making landfall. Frances continued northwestward through the northern Gulf of Mexico, making a second landfall on the afternoon of September 6th in the Florida Big Bend near Tallahassee as a Tropical Storm.

Because Frances approached from the East Coast and spent such a long period of time over land, the most significant impact on West Central and Southwest Florida was heavy rainfall. Not only did heavy rainfall occur in Florida, but it also occurred across much of the East Coast of the United States.

Hurricane Ivan

Less than two weeks after Frances, Hurricane Ivan made landfall as a category 3 storm just west of Gulf Shores, Alabama, on September 16. While Ivan would go on to cause over $13 billion in damage, with significant impacts to the Florida Panhandle and North Florida, little impact would occur across West Central and Southwest Florida.

Hurricane Jeanne

Hurricane Jeanne followed nearly the same path across Florida as Hurricane Frances three weeks earlier and was the unprecedented fifth storm to impact Florida during the 2004 hurricane season. Late on September 25, Jeanne moved ashore along the east coast of Florida near Stuart, just 2 miles from where Frances made landfall.

As a Category 3 storm, Jeanne tracked west-northwest across central Florida and the Nature Coast. Jeanne maintained Category 1 hurricane strength across much of central Florida before being downgraded to a tropical storm between Polk and Pasco County.

Jeanne compounded the challenges Central Florida communities were already facing. Polk, Hardee, and Highlands counties were now seeing impacts from the third storm in just six weeks.