Hurricane Imelda (2019) (Blackford)

Hurricane Imelda was a long-lived and destructive Cape Verde-type hurricane, a Category 4 hurricane, Imelda and Humberto are often seen as the "twin terrors" of September 2019.

Meteorological history
On August 29, the NHC began monitoring the possibility of a tropical wave developing off the coast of The Gambia sometime during early September. By September 6, a tropical wave had developed about 300 miles west of The Gambia, the NHC initiated advisories on Humberto early on the morning of September 8.

During the early afternoon, the NHC detected the disturbance had gained tropical storm force winds and a well defined circulation, and shortly later named the storm Imelda.

The storm struggled to gain intensity on September 8 and 9 due to cooler waters and moderate wind shear, it even briefly weakened to a tropical depression over the nighttime hours of September 8.

The storm then began to gradually strengthen about 1,600 miles northeast of Barbados, before undergoing rapid intensification about 1,400 miles northeast of Barbados on September 10, with it rapidly deepening and becoming a Category 3 major hurricane early on September 11.

The NHC at this point was fearing the worst-case scenario was underway. The storm entered the MDR on September 12, taking advantage of the essentially non-existent wind shear and water temperatures around 90°F.

The storm reached peak intensity early on September 13 at peak intensity as nearly a Category 5 hurricane. The storm started pulling northwest, impacting Hispaniola on September 14, killing 537 people in Haiti and another 103 in the Dominican Republic.

The NHC issued hurricane watches for portions of Florida during the early afternoon of September 15, and hurricane warnings for the Bahamas. The storm re-intensified into a Category 4 on the morning of September 16 as it moved over The Bahamas.

The NHC issued hurricane warnings for parts of Florida early on September 17. The storm reached a secondary peak of 155 mph on September 18 near Freeport before it made landfall with winds of 145 mph late on September 18 near West Palm Beach. It rapidly weakened overland and moved back out to the Gulf of Mexico on September 19 after causing catastrophic damage and flooding in the Everglades.

The storm continued into the Gulf before pulling north on September 20. It made a second landfall, this time as a Category 1 hurricane near Gulfport, Mississippi. The storm then pulled north, transitioning into a extratropical cyclone on September 22 near Huntsville.

It pulled north, causing some tornadoes in Indiana on September 24, with the lowest pressure on the system being recorded late on the afternoon of September 24 near Muncie, with a minimum pressure of 939 mbars for about 3 minutes.

The extratropical cyclone diminished on September 25 near Detroit.

Retirement
Due to the extensive damage and deaths caused by Imelda, particularly in Haiti, The Bahamas, and Florida, the WMO replaced Imelda with Ilean for use in the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.