Mini Marco Sets Records
The tropics quieted down as we started October, but there was still enough activity for a record setting tropical storm in the Atlantic Basin. Tropical Storm Marco set a record for the smallest tropical storm on record. The tropical storm winds covered an area of just 1158 square nautical miles when it was at it’s peak in the Gulf of Mexico. The previous record was Tropical Storm Henri in 2001 that was 2238 square nautical square miles. “Mini Marco” at it’s peak had tropical storm force winds that extended out 25, 15, 0 and 25 nautical miles from it’s center.
Tropical Storm Marco was slightly smaller than Rhode Island. Compare that to Hurricane Ike which was the size of Texas. Marco was 1/75th the size of Ike, and 1/500th the size of Tropical Storm Olga, the largest tropical storm on record.
Small tropical system like Marco are rare in the Atlantic, but they are more common in the Pacific. While Marco dumped 6 inches of rain along a 30 mile stretch of coast in Mexico, Tropical Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin, Australia as a category 4 storm in 1974. Tracy was about the same size as Marco, and killed 71 people and caused over $5 billion in damage.
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on 11/04 at 07:44 PM
