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Hurricane Mitch:The story.....

On October 21st 1998, a tropical depression formed in the southern Caribbean Sea. One day later, this had became a tropical storm and was given the name "Mitch". Mitch moved very little over the next few days, drifting to the northwest, and slowly gathering strength. A sharp increase in strength occurred between October 23rd-26th during which time Mitch changed from a tropical storm with 70 mph winds, to a Saffir-Simpson Category 5 HURRICANE with winds of 178 mph. The hurricane continued to gather strength as it moved very slowly to the northwest. Winds in the storm reached a peak of 180 mph on October 26th just off the northeast coast of Honduras. This made Mitch the strongest hurricane in the Caribbean sea for over 10 years. Mitch kept this strength for nearly 24 hours before beginning to weaken.

By the morning of October 28th, winds had decreased to 121 mph and the storm, which was located just north of Honduras, was drifting to the west. By this point, however, the real worry was not the wind but the rain. The slow movement of the storm had caused heavy rain in Central America over the past few days, but especially in Honduras and Nicaragua. Now with the storm almost at a standstill, the rain became more and more of a problem. Serious flooding and hundreds of mudslides were the result. By the time Tropical Storm Mitch hit land on the 29th October, the damage and loss of life was already very serious.

Mitch weakened rapidly once it arrived onshore due to the loss of energy from the warm sea, but the mountains of Honduras and Nicaragua continued to "squeeze" the moisture out of the system so the heavy rains continued. The storm then began to turn to the north and emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on November 2nd. As it moved across the warm sea, Mitch began to rebuild itself. The storm started to increase its forward speed again and on November 4th, as winds increased, Mitch was reclassified as a dangerous tropical storm. Later on the 4th, Mitch hit the west coast of Florida with winds that gusted to near 80 mph. The storm's forward speed had increased to 25 mph and it cleared Florida later that evening. The storm eventually worked its way across the Atlantic Ocean passing to the north-west of Scotland several days later.

If you would like more detail about the track of the hurricane, download a free tracking map from the National Hurricane Centre in Miami and then use the 'track button' to get the actual track data.