Tropical Storm Ian has brought up some memories of another hurricane that caused havoc on Cuba and Florida.
Hurricane Charley also made landfall on the west coast of Florida as a Category 4 in August 2004.
鈥淚f you look at their tracks, they are astonishingly parallel,鈥 said WLRN鈥檚 America鈥檚 editor Tim Padgett. 鈥淗urricane Charley started in that same pocket of the lower Caribbean Sea that Ian started in a week or so ago鈥 [it] even made landfall earlier this week, pretty much at the same place where Charley made landfall in Cuba in 2004.鈥
Padgett joined Sundial Now to discuss the similarities and differences between these two storms. He recalled his own experience reporting on Hurricane Charley.
鈥淚 remember that it was just a few days before school was going to start that year because my young daughter, she was seven years old at the time. We had a tradition every August before she went back to school, she and I would have tea at the Biltmore Hotel and I remember I got the call from my editor,鈥 said Padgett, who was the Miami bureau chief for Time Magazine at the time.
鈥淪o I had to leave my very nice tea with my young daughter and start chasing Charley straight up the Florida peninsula.鈥
While the paths of both storms are strikingly similar, the comparisons really end with their size and speed. Ian has been a much larger and slower storm. Right before it made landfall in Southwest Florida this week, the diameter of its eye was about 35 miles.
鈥淸The] entire extent of hurricane force wind field of Charley 2004 would fit inside Ian鈥檚 eye,鈥 tweeted Rick Knabb, an expert with The Weather Channel.
Eye diameter of about 35 miles across, a larger hurricane after Tue night eyewall replacement cycle. Entire extent of hurricane force wind field of Charley 2004 would fit inside Ian鈥檚 eye. This will produce a much wider swath of damaging wind, storm surge, flooding rains.
— Dr. Rick Knabb (@DrRickKnabb)
Another factor that has influenced the differences between these two storms is climate change.
鈥淭he Gulf of Mexico waters are so much warmer than they were 18 years ago. And that has given Ian, I think, a lot more energy and a lot more water, precipitation, rain surge than Charley had. Charley has been described as more of a wind event鈥an is being looked at as more of a storm surge damage storm,鈥 said Padgett.
鈥淭hat's what we're going to see in the aftermath of [Ian] in Florida. And it's also what we saw in the aftermath of being in Cuba. Some of the most remarkable photos on social media that we've been seeing from Cuba after Ian, are people walking around their homes in water up to their waists.鈥