Hurricane Gonzalo Makes Rare Landfall in Bermuda [Updated]
Hurricane Gonzalo made landfall on the south-central coast of Bermuda at 8:30 PM EDT with winds of 110 MPH. The calm eye lasted about fifteen minutes before the winds picked back up. Sustained winds near 100 MPH and gusts to 130 MPH were reported across Bermuda.
Bermuda is only fifteen miles long and two-and-a-half miles wide, so the odds of a hurricane making landfall on the tiny landmass are low. Jim Dickey over at AccuWeather took a look at the data and only found two storms in recorded history to have ever made landfall on the island—Arlene in '63 and Emily in '87, both category one hurricanes.
An elevated observation station in Commissioners Point (the western tip of the island that looks like the point of a hook) recorded a brief fifteen minute lull in the winds before they shot back up above 80 MPH:
The top red line/numbers shows wind gusts in knots, while the bottom red line shows sustained winds in knots. The green line/numbers shows wind direction in degrees.
Gonzalo is expected to graze the southeastern Newfoundland coast on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, possibly producing tropical storm to hurricane force winds in the heavily-populated part of the province. The southeastern coast is home to the provincial capital of St. Johns, an area home to more than 200,000 people.
Update
The back side of the eyewall proved more intense than the front, with sustained winds of nearly 110 MPH on Commissioners Point on the western side of the island. The weather station in St. David's, on the eastern side of the island near the airport, reported an astounding wind gust of 144 MPH as the back side of the eye came through.
[Images: NASA, BWS]
