Andrew, the worst hurricane in Florida history, almost had a different name
It was one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever make landfall in the United States, but its infamous name was almost different than what has been written in record books ever since.
The legacy of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew, the most recent Category 5 storm to make landfall in the United States, serves as a reminder of nature’s capability to destroy and forever change lives.
More than 30 years have passed since Hurricane Andrew dealt a catastrophic blow to Florida and cemented the name Andrew among the most notorious Atlantic basin hurricanes in history, but a few lesser-known technicalities almost caused the calamitous hurricane to be given a different name altogether.
Andrew formed on Aug. 16, 1992, becoming the first named storm of the season. In the days that followed, Andrew intensified into a vicious Category 5 hurricane before making landfall on Aug. 24 on Elliott Key, Florida, about 23 miles south of Miami.
At that point, Andrew was just the third Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 1935 and was the most destructive and costliest hurricane in Florida history. Since then, only Hurricane Michael, which slammed into the Florida Panhandle in October 2018, has made landfall in the contiguous U.S. at Category 5 strength.
However, the devastating storm that redefined Florida's hurricane history was almost not given the name Andrew.
Hurricane Andrew as it neared the Bahamas as it tracked toward Florida. (NOAA)
Four months prior to Andrew's emergence, on April 21, a subtropical storm developed over the Atlantic Ocean. A subtropical storm is a system that has some tropical characteristics but often has a pocket of cool air overhead, high in the atmosphere, something typical of non-tropical systems. When the conditions are right, subtropical storms can transform into tropical storms or hurricanes.
The pre-season system was teetering on the brink of transitioning into a full-fledged tropical system, the point at which it would be given a name, but it ultimately fell short of tropical storm status. Therefore, three decades later, it remains in the record books as Subtropical Storm One.
An image of the weather radar showing the exact time that Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Florida on Aug. 24, 1992. (NOAA)
In 2002, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) updated its policy and, from that point on, has given subtropical storms names rather than numbers. Later that year, Subtropical Storm Gustav became the first subtropical storm to be named in the Atlantic basin. It transitioned into a tropical storm and eventually into a Category 2 hurricane.
If the policy change had been implemented one decade earlier, Subtropical Storm One would have claimed the name Andrew, and the infamous hurricane of August 1992 would have been called Hurricane Bonnie.
Instead, Bonnie was given to a hurricane that formed over the open waters of the Atlantic in mid-September, and is a name that is still periodically used today for tropical systems. The most recent storm to be called Bonnie was a long-lived hurricane in 2022 that initially developed over the Atlantic Basin, traversed Central America, and continued to charge westward across the Pacific Ocean.
A satellite image of Subtropical Storm One over the Atlantic Ocean on April 22, 1992. (NOAA)
The unnamed subtropical storm in April 1992 was not the only close call that year regarding the name Andrew being assigned to a storm before late August.
Two tropical depressions took shape prior to Andrew: Tropical Depression One on June 25 and Tropical Depression Two on July 24. Had either or both of these depressions intensified into a tropical storm, Andrew, the first name on the pre-determined list for Atlantic tropical systems, would have been used weeks before the Category 5 hurricane barreled toward Florida.
This means that if history had been slightly different, Andrew could have been named Bonnie, Charley, or Danielle, and the ripple effect of that change would've been felt over the ensuing years.
The name Andrew was retired following the 1992 season, but had the historic hurricane been given a different name, it could have impacted the names of other disastrous tropical cyclones over the years.
Joan Wallach, left, and her daughter Brenda, right, walk through the debris that was the Royal Palm Trailer Court in Homestead, Florida, Aug. 25, 1992, carrying the only possessions they could salvage from the trailer they lived in before Hurricane Andrew hit the South Florida city. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Had the name Andrew not been retired following the 1992 season and replaced with the name Alex, it would have repeated every six years, including in 2022.
It's worth noting that even unnamed tropical rainstorms can unleash significant impacts.
In early June 2022, a poorly organized batch of showers and thunderstorms that formed over the Gulf sent torrents of rain across South Florida. While it resembled a tropical storm, the NHC could not identify a well-defined center of circulation, one of the requirements for naming a tropical storm, even though there were reports of tropical-storm-force winds.
It ultimately became better organized and strengthened into a short-lived tropical storm, named Alex, after moving away from Florida, but by that point, the damage was done, and cleanup was underway across the state. This served as a wake-up call for Florida residents that hurricane season is underway.
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