HURRICANE NATE SEPTEMBER 5 - 10 2005

Figure 1.        Best Track analysis of Hurricane Nate, which delivered winds just under tropical storm force to Bermuda .1

Storm Status	Wind Speed
Green=Tropical Depression	<39 mph
Yellow=Tropical Storm	39-73 mph
Light Red=Category 1-2 Hurricane	74-110 mph
Dark Red=Category 3-5 Hurricane	111-155+

Nate was the seventh hurricane and the fourteenth named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane Season.  He became a Category 1 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale on 7 September, and made a close approach to Bermuda before accelerating northeastward and merging with an extratropical cyclone on 10 September.

Storm History

Nate had his origins near the island of Bermuda as a result of a “complex interaction between a tropical wave and a broad upper-level low pressure system located northeast of the Bahamas2.”  At 5 PM EDT on 5 September, the area of low pressure to the southwest of Bermuda developed into Tropical Depression Fifteen.  The first advisories on TD Fifteen did not indicate much strengthening in the short term, but in the next full advisory at 11 PM EDT, the Tropical Depression had been upgraded to Tropical Storm Nate—the fourteenth named storm of the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season, and the earliest date of formation of the “N” storm3.

A Tropical Storm Watch went out for the island of Bermuda early on 7 September as Nate began to curl around to the north-northeast.  At 11 AM that day, Nate became the seventh Hurricane of the season, and reached his peak intensity of 90 mph 36 hours later.  Nate affected Bermuda with 35 mph sustained winds, and minimal rainfall, but did impact Canadian Navy Ships headed to the disaster areas along the northern Gulf Coast to aid in the Katrina relief efforts4.

Shortly after passing Bermuda, increasing wind shear and dry air intrusion completely dismantled Nate’s inner structure5, and he degenerated into a Tropical Storm early on 9 September.  Just 24 hours later, upper level wind shear had blown most of the thunderstorms away from Nate’s center, and the Hurricane Center declared him an extratropical cyclone as he accelerated away to the northeast.   

Data, Images and Animations

+Explore and analyze gridded data of the hurricane using the GES-DISC Interactive Online Visualization and Analysis Infrastructure (Giovanni)

+Use Mirador or WHOM to obtain data provided by the GES DISC DAAC for a hurricane event.

+View animations and images of Hurricane Nate in the 2005 Past Hurricane Archive.

MODIS Aqua RGB using the MOD02HKM product. This image is of the swath data from Sept 07 at 1735 hrs. More images like this and parameters animation created from other datasets can be seen in our Archive Image Gallery for hurricane Nate .

1. Image courtesy of the NOAA coastal Services Center  Http://hurricane.csc.noaa.gov/hurricanes

2. Stewart, Stacy R. “Tropical Cyclone Report.” 29 November 2005. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/TCR-AL152005_Nate.pdf (11 July 2006).

3. Masters, Jeff. “Records Set in the Atlantic Hurricane Season of 2005.” http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/record2005.asp (11 July 2006).

4. Fox, Jim. “Storm Slow Canadian Aid.” 11 September 2005. http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/11/Worldandnation/Storms_slow_Canada_aid.shtml (11 July 2006).

5. Avila, Lixion. “Tropical Storm Nate Discussion Number 17.” 9 September 2005. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2005/dis/al152005.discus.017.shtml? (11 July 2006).