Courtesy of
rel="tag">NASA, we have this pair of images
illustrating the record
growth rate of
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Humberto_%282007%29">hurricane
Humberto (2007):
From
href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17773">Earth
Observatory Newsroom:
Though it was not a powerful storm,
Hurricane Humberto did set a record when it formed in the Gulf of
Mexico and came ashore at the Texas–Louisiana state line in
mid-September 2007. According to National Hurricane Center records, no
storm has ever developed to hurricane strength so rapidly so close to
landfall; forecast discussions reported that the storm went from a
tropical depression with wind speeds of 30 knots (about 55
kilometers/hour, or 35 miles/hour) at 10:00 a.m. U.S Central Daylight
Time on September 12 to a 75-knot hurricane (139 km/h, 86 mph) at 4:00
a.m. on September 13.
Despite the short duration of the hurricane,
href="http://www.postmagazine.co.uk/public/showPage.html?page=post_breakingnews_story&tempPageName=468667">losses
were estimated at $200 million. Other comments:
"
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20742710/">It was amazing
to go to sleep to a tropical storm and wake up to a hurricane," he
said. "What are you going to do? You couldn't get up and drive away.
You couldn't run for it. You just have to hunker down."
href="http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18824243&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6">At
a meeting Friday morning, someone asked if the county had
considered ordering an evacuation for Humberto, Walker said.
Walker, who first learned of the impending hurricane about 1:30 a.m.
Thursday, laughed as he noted that the hurricane would already have
come and gone before officials could have even given public notice.