My Storm... On Friday, September 27, 1985, Hurricane Gloria made its closest approach to southeast PA. I was in 4th grade in Reading PA, and the schools had closed in advance of the coming storm. Though we had many snow days, that was my first and only hurricane day. We were on the west side of the storm, so sustained winds only topped out at low-end tropical storm strength, but with pretty respectable gusts. Combined with 5 of rain, a lot of trees were uprooted or broken, bringing power lines with them. I was hooked. Seeing the enormous storm on satellite loops on tv, and my tiny perspective of it from home left me amazed with hurricanes. After that, Id always try to catch the Tropical Update on The Weather Channel (at 50 minutes past the hour, sometimes with John Hope) to jot down the the coordinates of whatever storms were out there, or record it on tape to watch later so I didnt miss those data points (no internet then, of course). Glorias peak intensity occurred a couple days prior, with a minimum pressure of 919mb... no Atlantic hurricane reached a lower pressure without reaching Category 5 status until ten years later (Opal). No stronger hurricane has passed anywhere near southeast PA since Gloria (Irene 2011 was weaker).
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:56:01 +0000
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