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Hurricane Opal was a Category 4 hurricane with the lowest barometric pressure in a hurricane which did not reach Category 5 strength within the north Atlantic basin. Opal formed in the Gulf of Mexico in September 1995. Opal was the ninth hurricane and the strongest of the abnormally active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season. It crossed the Yucatán Peninsula while still a tropical depression on September 27,〔 then strengthened and moved northward in the Gulf, becoming the most powerful Category 4 Atlantic hurricane before making a second landfall, October 4, in the Florida Panhandle near Pensacola as a 115-mph (185-km/h) hurricane. Opal devastated the Pensacola/Panhandle area with a 15-ft (5-m) storm surge and travelled up the entire state of Alabama, becoming a tropical storm in Tennessee. Opal also caused heavy damage in the mid-Atlantic states before dissipating. Throughout the storm's path from Central America into New England, a total of 63 people died in storm-related events. Losses attributed to Opal exceeded $5.1 billion, much of which took place in the United States. The name "Opal" was retired in 1996, replaced by "Olga" for the 2001 season. ==Meteorological history== On September 11, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) began monitoring a tropical wave off the western coast of Africa. Tracking towards the west, the wave entered the Caribbean Sea several days later before merging with a broad area of low pressure in the western Caribbean sea on September 23. Weak steering currents around the low caused it to slowly drift towards the Yucatán Peninsula while gradually becoming better organized. The system was classified as a tropical depression on September 27 while south-southeast of Cozumel. The depression slowly moved over the Yucatán for the next several days, eventually emerging over the Bay of Campeche, where it was officially upgraded to Tropical Storm Opal. After languishing for days and nearly dissipating due to the ocean-cooling effect of its own rainfall, it rapidly intensified to a hurricane and began moving north across the Gulf of Mexico. It deepened to a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of and a central pressure of 〔 "weather.com — Storm Encyclopedia" (section "Hurricane Opal"), Weather.com, 2007, webpage: (WeatherCom-1995-storms ). 〕 possibly due to crossing the Loop Current.〔 During this period of rapid strengthening, a small eye formed with a diameter of only about . The hurricane then underwent an eyewall replacement cycle to a 60-mile (97-km) eye,〔 combined with increasing wind shear, causing the pressure to rise steadily over the next 8 hours to as the maximum sustained winds diminished to . Opal weakened still to before its final landfall in Santa Rosa Island, Florida on October 4.〔 Opal remained a hurricane for nearly 12 hours after landfall, its rapid forward speed propelling it the entire length of Alabama before being downgraded to a tropical storm as it crossed into Tennessee. Over the following 12 hours, it was not downgraded to a tropical depression until it reached Ohio, and not declared extratropical until reaching Canada, where it still managed to bring squally conditions.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hurricane Opal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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