The remnants of Andrew even caused rainfall and minor flooding up through the Ohio Valley and into Upstate New York nearly a week after dissipating. After wreaking havoc across the peninsula, Andrew entered the Gulf of Mexico and later made a second landfall along the Louisiana coast on the 26th, before eventually dissipating across the Southeast by the 28th.

The worst conditions were felt across the heart of Miami-Dade County, just to the north of Homestead, Florida, where the system made landfall early on August 24th. Hurricane Andrew was a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale at time of landfall, with Category 5 winds. Best Track Committee Findings: Hurricane Andrew was a Category 5 over open water on approach to South Florida.

The damage caused was unprecedented, as nearly 1 million homes were either severely damaged or completely destroyed after the storm produced nearly 14 inches of rainfall, a 15-20 foot storm surge, and several tornadoes across southern Florida. The research findings resulted in an increase in the estimated wind speeds of Hurricane Andrew from 145 mph to 165 mph. From there, Andrew turned due west, slamming into the Bahamas and later Florida with sustained winds close to 165 mph and gusts to 220 mph, with a minimum pressure of 922 mb. The track of Hurricane Andrew From August 16th - 28th courtesy of NOAA.Īfter that, in a much similar manner to Katrina over 10 years later, Andrew began to rapidly intensify and quickly strengthened to a Category 5 storm with winds of 175 mph just 30 hours after becoming a minimal hurricane. This was not the case however, and Andrew did not intensify to hurricane strength until the morning of August 22nd…over 5 days after originally being classified. This proved to be the ultimate downfall for the US, for if Andrew were to have strengthened more rapidly, the storm would have likely recurved out to sea due to a weakness in the Bermuda High. Initially, strong wind sheer prevented the system from developing quickly, as the system remained a tropical storm for the next several days as it moved in a general west-northwest direction towards the Bahamas. NOAAĪndrew was born out of a tropical wave over the Central Atlantic Ocean during the early morning hours of August 17, 1992. Near Cutler Bay, FL in the Pinewoods Villa area here the northern eyewall of Andrew passed through. However, Andrew also impacted parts of the Northwest Bahamas, and the US Gulf Coast…including the southern coasts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Additionally, the storm was responsible for 26 direct fatalities, including 15 in the state of Florida alone. Andrew was also one of the costliest hurricanes on record, incurring 27.3 billion in damage in 1992, which would cause 106 billion in damage if the hurricane occured in 2022 (second only to Katrina). To this day, Andrew remains one of only four Category 5 hurricanes to ever make landfall along the US Mainland. August 24th marks the 30th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew striking the south Florida Coast back in 1992.

Andrew hurricane track