Tropical Storm Jose was a short-lived

tropical storm A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depen ...

which 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 ...

in central Mexico during August 2005. Jose was the tenth named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and the fourth of six

tropical cyclones A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dep ...

(three hurricanes and three tropical storms) to make landfall in Mexico in that year. Tropical Storm Jose formed in the

Bay of Campeche The Bay of Campeche ( es, Bahía de 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, Tab ...

on August 22 and made landfall in the Mexican state of

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

the next day. It retained tropical characteristics for less than one day before dissipating, but still brought heavy rainfall to the region. Jose killed 16 people in Mexico, and caused $45 million (2005 USD) in damage.

Meteorological history

Tropical Storm Jose was first identified as 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 ...

that moved off the western coast of Africa on August 8, 2005. On August 13, the system spawned Tropical Depression Ten over the central Atlantic; the wave itself continued westward, entering the Caribbean on August 17. Slight development took place as the system moved over the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...

; however, by the time it entered the

on August 21, little

convection Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the c ...

was associated with the system. The following morning, convection exploded under highly favorable

divergence In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of t ...

from an upper-level anticyclonic flow. According to readings from the QuikSCAT satellite, a well-defined low pressure center developed by 1200 UTC, prompting 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 Prime Meridian and the 140th meridian west poleward to the 3 ...

to classify the system as Tropical Depression Eleven. At this time, the depression was situated roughly 110 mi (175 km) east of Veracruz, Mexico. Situated over very warm waters and within an area of low

wind shear Wind shear (or 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 or horizon ...

, the depression was able to quickly organize; however, due to its proximity to land, the NHC noted, "the system does not have very long...to take advantage of these favorable conditions." Located to the south of a mid-level

ridge A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...

, the depression tracked just north of due west and kept this motion through the remainder of its existence. The depression rapidly intensified as it moved to the west, becoming Tropical Storm Jose just six hours later. The global model guidance initially failed to resolve the storm's track well, with some models indicating that it would stall offshore. Jose continued to strengthen as it moved towards the coast and made landfall north of Veracruz city early on August 23 with winds reaching a peak of 60 mph (95 km/h). As Jose made its landfall an

eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...

was beginning to form, although the storm was still well short of hurricane intensity. Tropical Storm Jose quickly weakened after

and dissipated that afternoon in the mountains of central Mexico only 24 hours after forming.

Preparations and impact

As Tropical Storm Jose formed so close to shore there was a lead time of less than 9 hours on the tropical storm warning for the

coastline. The area covered by the warning issued on August 22 was extended southwards as Jose intensified, before being canceled soon after landfall on August 23. The advisories issued by the

emphasized that rainfall from Jose was the primary threat. Across Mexico, Jose killed 16 people – five were in Veracruz's capital

Xalapa Xalapa or Jalapa (, ), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (), is the capital city of the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In the 2005 census the city reported a population of 387,879 and t ...

, six were in elsewhere in Veracruz due a landslide, and five were in

Oaxaca ) , population_note = , population_rank = 10th , timezone1 = CST , utc_offset1 = −6 , timezone1_DST = CDT , utc_offset1_DST = −5 , postal_code_type = Postal ...

due to mudslides. Tropical Storm Jose was responsible for damaging crops, highways and homes; flooding districts in several cities in the state of

, and the evacuation of 80,000 people to shelters. The government of that state estimated the damages caused by the storm to be approximately $45 million (2005 USD). Approximately 120 municipalities were affected by the torrential rain, but the majority of the damage was concentrated to eight of them:

Martínez de la Torre Martínez de la Torre is a city and its surrounding municipality of the same name located in the central part of the Mexican state The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is offici ...

, Misantla, Nautla,

San Rafael San Rafael may refer to: Places Argentina * San Rafael, Mendoza * San Rafael Department, Mendoza Bolivia * San Rafael de Velasco, capital of San Rafael Municipality * San Rafael Municipality, Santa Cruz Chile * San Rafael, Chile, Maule ...

Vega de la Torre Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, and ...

, Actopan, Cardel and Úrsulo Galván. Damage to the highway infrastructure was estimated at $33 million (2005 USD). It was also reported that the storm damaged at least 16,000 homes and about 250 square kilometers (60 thousand acres) of land used for cattle. In addition over 420 square kilometers (103 thousand acres) of various crops, including sugarcane,

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...

and

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for ...

s, were flooded. Many boats were also lost as a result of Jose. 90 active medical brigades were sent to the region to reduce the risk of infections amongst the affected population.

Records

Jose was also the earliest tenth named storm in the Atlantic until Tropical Storm Josephine beat it on August 13, 2020 beating Jose by 9 days as it was named on August 22, 2005.

References

External links

NHC's archive on Tropical Storm Jose
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jose (2005) 2005 Atlantic hurricane season Atlantic tropical storms Atlantic hurricanes in Mexico Jose

Meteorological history

Preparations and impact

Records

See also

References

External links