User:DachshundLover82/sandbox/Effects of Hurricane Laura in Texas

Hurricane Laura

Hurricane Laura approaching the coasts of Texas and Louisiana around peak intensity, late on August 26
Duration	August 24–27, 2020
Winds	Gusts: 80 mph (125 km/h)
Pressure	989 mbar (hPa); 29.21 inHg
Fatalities	9 total
Damage	$1.71 billion (2020 USD)
Areas affected	Texas
Part of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season

Background

Map plotting the storm's track and intensity, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale

Map key

Saffir–Simpson scale

  Tropical depression (≤38 mph, ≤62 km/h)
  Tropical storm (39–73 mph, 63–118 km/h)
  Category 1 (74–95 mph, 119–153 km/h)
  Category 2 (96–110 mph, 154–177 km/h)
  Category 3 (111–129 mph, 178–208 km/h)
  Category 4 (130–156 mph, 209–251 km/h)
  Category 5 (≥157 mph, ≥252 km/h)
  Unknown

Storm type

Tropical cyclone

Subtropical cyclone

Extratropical cyclone, remnant low, tropical disturbance, or monsoon depression

Laura originated from a large tropical wave that moved off the West African coast on August 16 and became a tropical depression on August 20. Laura intensified into a tropical storm a day later, becoming the earliest twelfth named storm on record in the North Atlantic basin, forming eight days earlier than 1995's Hurricane Luis. Laura first hit the Lesser Antilles and brushed Puerto Rico as a tropical storm, then moved across the island of Hispaniola. The storm then moved across the length of Cuba. Subsequently, the outer rainbands extended into the Florida Keys and South Florida. Laura then moved across the Gulf of Mexico, strengthening slowly at first, before a period of rapid intensification on August 26. That day, Laura became a major hurricane, and later attained peak 1-minute sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km/h), making it a Category 4 hurricane. Early on August 27, Laura made landfall near peak intensity on Cameron, Louisiana. This was the tenth-strongest U.S. hurricane landfall by windspeed on record. After landfall, Laura rapidly weakened as it moved inland, becoming a tropical storm later that day, and weakening further to a tropical depression over Arkansas the next day. On August 29, Laura degenerated into a remnant low over Kentucky, before being absorbed into another extratropical storm near the East Coast of the U.S. shortly afterward.