Tropical Storm Arlene brought torrential rainfall to the western

United States Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South or the South Coast, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texa ...

, particularly to the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, in June 1993. The first

named storm Tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones are named by various warning centers to simplify communication between forecasters and the general public regarding forecasts, watches and warnings. The names are intended to reduce confusion in the ...

of the

1993 Atlantic hurricane season The 1993 Atlantic hurricane season was a deadly, though below average Atlantic hurricane season that produced ten tropical cyclones, eight tropical storms, four hurricanes, and one major hurricane. It officially started on June 1 and ended ...

, Arlene developed from an area of

low pressure In meteorology, a low-pressure area (LPA), low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. It is the opposite of a high-pressure area. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with inclem ...

in the

Bay of Campeche The Bay of Campeche (), or Campeche Sound, is a bight in the southern area of the Gulf of Mexico, forming the north side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. It is surrounded on three sides by the Mexican states of Campeche, Tabasco and Veracruz. The ...

on June 18. The depression slowly strengthened as it tracked west-northwestward and later north-northwestward across the western

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

. Arlene was subsequently upgraded to a tropical storm on June 19, but failed to intensify further due to its proximity to land. The cyclone then made landfall on

Padre Island Padre Island is the largest of the Texas barrier islands and the world's longest barrier island. The island is located along Texas's southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico and is noted for its white sandy beaches. Meaning ''father'' in Spanish, ...

, Texas, with

wind Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

s of 40 mph (65 km/h) and degenerated into a remnant disturbance on June 21. The precursor disturbance to Tropical Storm Arlene dropped heavy rainfall over Central America. As a result, 20 fatalities occurred, all of which were from a mudslide in

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

. Heavy rainfall also produced heavy rainfall on the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...

. After Arlene became a

tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

, rainfall in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

inundated areas of

Campeche Campeche, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche, is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, make up the Administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. Located in southeast Mexico, it is bordered by the sta ...

, where damage totaled US$33 million. In total, five people were killed in Mexico. Flood damage in South Texas was extensive, with widespread

urban flooding Urban flooding is the inundation of land or property in cities or other built environment, caused by rainfall or coastal storm surges overwhelming the capacity of drainage systems, such as storm sewers. Urban flooding can occur regardless of whethe ...

and road closures. Entire plots of farmland were inundated by torrential rains brought by Arlene. The landfalling Arlene interacted with a passing

cold front A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface Trough (meteorology), trough of Low-pressure area, low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropica ...

which helped to produce showers further northeast, though damage in those locales was comparatively less severe. In total, Arlene caused 26 deaths and at least US$60.8 million in damage.

Meteorological history

The precursor to Arlene was first identified in satellite images as a cluster of disturbed weather east of the

Mosquito Coast The Mosquito Coast, also known as Mosquitia, is a historical and Cultural area, geo-cultural region along the western shore of the Caribbean Sea in Central America, traditionally described as extending from Cabo Camarón, Cape Camarón to the C ...

on June 9. Over the following week, the system grew in expanse as it slowly tracked northwestward as strong

wind shear Wind shear (; also written windshear), sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Atmospheric wind shear is normally described as either vertical ...

in the area prohibited the development of a

. On June 16, the formation of an

upper-level low A cold-core low, also known as an upper level low or cold-core cyclone, is a cyclone aloft which has an associated cold pool of air residing at high altitude within the Earth's troposphere, without a frontal structure. It is a low pressure syste ...

over the

and the progression of a

tropical wave A tropical wave (also called easterly wave, tropical easterly wave, and African easterly wave), in and around the Atlantic Ocean, is a type of atmospheric trough, an elongated area of relatively low air pressure, oriented north to south, which ...

across the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

helped foster the development of a

low-pressure area In meteorology, a low-pressure area (LPA), low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. It is the opposite of a high-pressure area. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with incle ...

over the

. Although initially diffuse, new

rainband A rainband is a cloud and precipitation structure associated with an area of rainfall which is significantly elongated. Rainbands in tropical cyclones can be either stratiform or convective and are curved in shape. They consist of showers and th ...

s began to wrap around the new vortex's center, and at 0000

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

, the

National Hurricane Center The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is the division of the United States' NOAA/National Weather Service responsible for tracking and predicting tropical weather systems between the IERS Reference Meridian, Prime Meridian and the 140th meridian ...

(NHC) classified the system as a

tropical depression A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

west of the Yucatán Peninsula. Although the storm was now considered a tropical cyclone, wind shear that had earlier inhibited development remained present, as well as the

outflow Outflow may refer to: *Capital outflow, the capital leaving a particular economy *Bipolar outflow, in astronomy, two continuous flows of gas from the poles of a star * Outflow (hydrology), the discharge of a lake or other reservoir system *Outflow ...

of Tropical Storm Beatriz in the

Eastern Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

, disrupting the core of the infant tropical depression; aircraft reconnaissance often could not identify a defined center of circulation. While the initial system in the

continued to struggle in its organization, a new cluster of thunderstorms concentrated in a band developed to the depression's northwest late on June 18. Over the next 24 hours, this new area of precipitation began to wrap cyclonically around a new and dominant circulation center; the NHC assumed the tropical depression to have relocated to the northwest and classified the system as Tropical Storm Arlene at 1200 UTC on June 19. As Arlene would not strengthen after classification, peak intensity was attained concurrent with its upgrade to tropical storm strength with

maximum sustained wind The maximum sustained wind associated with a tropical cyclone is a common indicator of the intensity of the storm. Within a mature tropical cyclone, it is found within the eyewall at a certain distance from the center, known as the radius of ma ...

s of 40 mph (65 km/h) and a minimum

barometric pressure Atmospheric pressure, also known as air pressure or barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , which is equivalent to 1,013.2 ...

of 1000

mbar The bar is a metric unit of pressure defined as 100,000 Pa (100 kPa), though not part of the International System of Units (SI). A pressure of 1 bar is slightly less than the current average atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea ...

(

hPa The pascal (symbol: Pa) is the unit of pressure in the International System of Units (SI). It is also used to quantify internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus, and ultimate tensile strength. The unit, named after Blaise Pascal, is an S ...

; 29.71

inHg Inch of mercury (inHg, ″Hg, or in) is a non- SI unit of measurement for pressure. It is used for barometric pressure in weather reports, refrigeration and aviation in the United States. It is the pressure exerted by a column of mercury in h ...

). Meandering off the coast of

South Texas South Texas is a geographic and cultural region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of th ...

due to the presence of a

shortwave trough A shortwave or shortwave trough is an embedded kink in the trough / ridge pattern. Its length scale is much smaller than that of and is embedded within longwaves, which are responsible for the largest scale (synoptic scale) weather systems. Sho ...

to its north, Arlene eventually made

landfall Landfall is the event of a storm moving over land after being over water. More broadly, and in relation to human travel, it refers to 'the first land that is reached or seen at the end of a journey across the sea or through the air, or the fact ...

at 0900 UTC on June 20 at a virtually unchanged intensity at point on

roughly 45 mi (70 km) south of

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi ( ; ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, Texas, Nueces County with portions extending into Aransas County, T ...

. The tropical storm quickly deteriorated to tropical depression intensity after landfall, and was no longer considered a tropical cyclone after 0600 UTC on June 21. The remnants of Arlene continued to track across the

Rio Grande Valley Lower Rio Grande Valley (), often referred to as the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of South Texas, is a region located in the southernmost part of Texas, along the northern bank of the Rio Grande. It is also known locally as the Valley or the 956 (the ...

before they faded into the ambient environment.

Preparations and impact

Central America and the Gulf of Mexico

The precursor to Arlene caused torrential and prolonged rainfall across

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

. In

, a single landslide attributed to the flooding killed 20 people. Flooding in

associated with the tropical system killed four in the state of

Yucatán Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida. ...

and one in

, where flood damage was estimated at

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

33 million. As many as 4,000 homes were flooded, impacting roughly 10,000 people and prompting Mexican armed forces to implement emergency rescue plans in the state. The highest rainfall total in Mexico was documented in

Mérida, Yucatán Mérida (, ) is the capital of the List of states of Mexico, Mexican state of Yucatán, and the largest city in southeastern Mexico. The city is also the seat of the Mérida Municipality, eponymous municipality. It is located slightly inland fro ...

, where a station measured 13.26 in (336 mm) of rain. As a tropical cyclone, however, Arlene's highest rainfall total occurred in the Camargo Municipality of

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...

, where 7.32 in (186 mm) of rain was reported. In Matamoros, roads were blocked by mud and rocks. Arlene passed over several offshore

oil platform An oil platform (also called an oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, etc.) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms w ...

s as it tracked northwestward across the

, producing gusty winds. The strongest surface wind gust reported in association with Arlene was clocked at 63 mph (101 km/h) on an oil platform south of

Sabine Pass, Texas Sabine Pass is a neighborhood in Port Arthur, Texas. It had been incorporated in 1861 before being formally annexed by Port Arthur in 1978. However, Sabine Pass retains its own distinct identity with its own school district, post office, and po ...

. Four other oil platforms experienced gusts or sustained winds of at least

gale A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface wind moving at a speed between .

force.

Texas

Due to the unanticipated relocation of Arlene, only one tropical cyclone watch or warning—a

tropical storm warning Tropical cyclone warnings and watches are alerts issued by national weather forecasting bodies to coastal areas threatened by the imminent approach of a tropical cyclone of tropical storm or hurricane intensity. They are notices to the local pop ...

for coastal areas from Brownsville to Matagorda on June 19—was ever issued by the NHC in association with the cyclone. Issued 21 hours before landfall, the warning was discontinued after the system moved inland. Prior to the warning, Arlene had satisfied the criterion for a

tropical storm watch Tropical cyclone warnings and watches are alerts issued by national weather forecasting bodies to coastal areas threatened by the imminent approach of a tropical cyclone of tropical storm or hurricane intensity. They are notices to the local pop ...

as a developing tropical depression. However, the NHC and various

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

forecast offices opted to delay the watch as a result of the poorly organized appearance of the cyclone at the time. Given the weak nature of Arlene and the relatively unpopulated extent of coast which it impacted, evacuations were minimal – only fifteen fled from summer homes along Magnolia Beach and

Indianola, Texas Indianola is a ghost town located on Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County, Texas, United States. The community, once the county seat of Calhoun County, is a part of the Victoria, Texas, Victoria, Texas metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Ar ...

due to the threat of flooding. On the Texas coast, Arlene produced a small

storm surge A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the ...

peaking at 4 ft (1.2 m) in some areas, breaching sections of Padre Island and causing flooding. The storm tide also

eroded Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is disti ...

up to a foot (0.3 m) of sand from beaches in the lower Texas coast. Combined with the heavy rainfall associated with Arlene, the storm surge produced significant tidal flooding in some coastal stretches. Beach erosion occurred as far north as

Galveston Bay Galveston Bay ( ) is a bay in the western Gulf of Mexico along the upper coast of Texas. It is the seventh-largest estuary in the United States, and the largest of seven major estuaries along the Texas Gulf Coast. It is connected to the Gulf of ...

, where tides were reported to be as high as 5 ft (1.5 m). A woman was swept into the sea off a jetty near

Freeport Freeport, a variant of free port, may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Freeport, name of several space stations in the video game ''Freelancer'' (2003) * Freeport, a fictional town in the video game ''SiN'' (1998) * ''Freeport: The Cit ...

and required rescue by

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

. Over the waters of

Lake Corpus Christi Lake Corpus Christi is a reservoir in coastal southern Texas. The lake was created by impoundment of the Nueces River by the Wesley E. Seale Dam opened in 1958. The lake and the dam that creates it are managed by the City of Corpus Christi. La ...

, a large

funnel cloud A funnel cloud is a funnel-shaped cloud of condensed water droplets, associated with a rotating column of wind and extending from the base of a cloud (usually a cumulonimbus or towering cumulus cloud) but not reaching the ground or a water su ...

was reported but never touched down or caused any damage. Nearby, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Causeway was completely inundated with the exception of one lane, prompting an extensive study of possible solutions to raising the causeway nearly two years later. Precipitation from the tropical storm reached areas 170 mi (275 km) inland, and was enhanced in northeastern Texas,

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, and

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

as a result of interaction between the cyclone and a passing

frontal boundary A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For ins ...

. Arlene exacerbated preexisting flood conditions in some areas of South Texas. Rainfall peaked at in

Angleton, Texas Angleton is a city in and the county seat of Brazoria County, Texas, Brazoria County, Texas, United States, within the Greater Houston, Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. Angleton lies at the intersection of Texas State Hi ...

, and other localized rainfall maxima of at least were observed in Texas. The torrential precipitation caused rivers to swell and overflow their banks, forcing

farm-to-market road In the United States, a farm-to-market road or ranch-to-market road (sometimes farm road or ranch road for short) is a state highway or county road that connects rural or agricultural areas to market towns. These are better-quality roads, usual ...

s to close and inundating plots of crops. Portions of

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

were forced to close after flood waters overran the highway. The entirety of the

watermelon The watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Cucurbitaceae, that has a large, edible fruit. It is a Glossary of botanical terms#scandent, scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, and is plant breeding ...

crop in

Waller County Waller County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 56,794. Its county seat is Hempstead. The county was named for Edwin Waller, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and first mayor ...

was eliminated by the floods. In

Kingwood, Texas Kingwood is a master-planned community located in northeast Houston, Texas, United States. The majority of the community is located in Harris County with a small portion in Montgomery County. Known as the "Livable Forest," it is the large ...

, some homes were flooded. One storm-related death occurred in Henderson, where rain was measured at 14.82 in (326 mm). The deep moisture from Arlene caused extensive crop damage, with 20% losses to the

cantaloupe The cantaloupe ( ) is a type of true melon (''Cucumis melo'') with sweet, aromatic, and usually orange flesh. Originally, ''cantaloupe'' refers to the true cantaloupe or European cantaloupe with non- to slightly netted and often ribbed rind. ...

crop, 10% for the watermelon crop, and 18% of the

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

crop, resulting in US$3–5 million in damage in

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that consists of approximately 38 counties. It is roughly divided into Northeast Texas, Northeast, Southeast Texas, Sout ...

. In the Brownsville area, standing floodwaters ruined the near harvest-ready

sorghum ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...

crop and killed blossoming

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

plants. Street flooding was prevalent in urban areas. At one point during the storm downtown Raymondville was completely underwater. The U.S. Coast Guard deployed small boats to the city to encourage the evacuation of about 250 homes. Urban flooding also occurred in the Corpus Christi area, in addition to an increase of weeds and insects. A station in the city set a daily record for rainfall with of rain over a seven-and-a-half-hour period. Roughly 50,000 ac (20,000 ha) of sorghum, 11,000 ac (4,000 ha) of cotton, and 8 ac (3 ha) of pima cotton were inundated in Refugio County. Damage to crops in San Patricio County totaled US$2.8 million. The destruction wrought to homes, businesses, and infrastructure across Texas reached US$22 million.

Louisiana

, rainfall peaked at in

Shreveport Regional Airport Shreveport Regional Airport is a public use airport in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States. It is owned by the City of Shreveport and located four nautical miles (7 km) southwest of its central business district. The airport's runways and ...

. Nearby, Cross Lake rose to its third highest level in recorded history, flooding 180 nearby homes and necessitating the rescue of 30–40 people. Six parishes sustained flood damage to some extent, mainly resulting from

bayou In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou () is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They ...

overflows.

Notes

References

External links

{{1993 Atlantic hurricane season buttons Arlene Arlene (1993) Arlene (1993) Arlene (1993) Arlene (1993) 1993 natural disasters in the United States 1993 in Mexico 1993 in El Salvador Arlene (1993) June 1993