Hurricane Opal - Fort Walton Beach, FL - October 4, 1995

This is a sample of my Hurricane Opal chase footage. This video was taken during Opal's landfall in the western Florida panhandle, at Fort Walton Beach, on October 4, 1995. A day prior to landfall, Hurricane Opal had strengthened rapidly to near Category Five intensity, with sustained winds of 150mph and a minimum central pressure of 916mb (27.05in). During the following twelve hours the storm steadily weakened, however, Opal was still a very large and powerful Category Three at landfall, with sustained winds of 125mph and a central pressure of 942mb (27.82in). Hurricane conditions begin at about 3min 30sec into the video and the eyewall occurs from 4min 50sec through 7min 40sec in. Peak winds at my location were sustained between 100-110mph with gusts to 140mph. The highest officially recorded surface wind in Opal was a gust to 144mph at Hurlburt Field, near Mary Esther, Florida, in southwest Okaloosa county, which was three miles west of my location. The highest storm surge at my location was approximately 13ft and with the ground elevation at 8-10ft above sea-level, this resulted in a surge depth of 3-5ft, with higher waves. The peak surge and maximum inundation occurs just prior to the eye/calm at about 9min 40sec into the video. Though the eastern edge of Opal's eye did pass over my location, winds never fell below 20-30mph, I did record a minimum pressure of 960.3mb (28.36in) during this time.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Hurricane
• Opal
• Severe
• Weather
• Tropical
• Cyclone
• Typhoon
• Florida
• Hurricanes
• 1995
• Extreme
• Wind
• Meteorology
• Storm
• Surge

[CycloneJosh]

Cool footage-- that eyewall looks ferocious. People tend to downplay Opal a little because it weakened a bit before landfall-- but this footage shows it was still a monster when it came ashore.

[vmax135]

@CycloneJosh Thank you, Josh!!! I can't believe I somehow missed your comment...lol. Anyway, yeah... even though it was weakening, Opal was absolutely a significant hurricane at landfall. Still one of the highest surge events I've been in. I can only imagine what it would have been like if it had come onshore at peak intensity.

[LDCTSTORMCHASER]

Another AMAZING video Michael!! Man I wish I was about 20 years older so I could have chased Hugo, Andrew, & Opal... I'm already starting to get anxious/excited for hurricane season to start! It looks to me that this season will pick up big time with a dying El Nino... Also, where the warmest waters are forecasted in the Gulf and Caribbean is typically only trouble with the way the shear should relax this year!  If the blocking can hold west we should see a lot more landfalling hurricanes!

[vmax135]

Thanks so much, Greg!!! I can't wait for the season to get going as well. I agree, besides the ENSO forecast to be in a neutral phase by summer, we already have impressive positive SST anomalies over the MDR... and the average surface pressures are forecast to be below normal. So all signs are currently pointing to a active season.

[chamine]

the damage was going to happen whether they evacuated or not

[WolfBoy70]

I'm glad to see coverage like this of Opal on line. In my opinion, all the news of Katrina was and still is over kill; way too much news for obvious storm damage by ignorant people refusing to evacuate. The residence of coastal areas are aptly warned. Floridians know this, I was one of them before I moved north, not because of hurricanes. I happen to find incliment weather such as hurricanes, snow, ice, and torrential rains exciting. Call me what you will, that's just me.

[poodtang1]

The last place you wan't to be when the shit hit's the fan > traffic jam

[jayjjj3]

I was born during this hurricane.

[veronica51able]

How long do hurricanes last? I live in Cali but I'm moving to Alabama to see one of their worst storms but this came up so I watched it

[kgarland2007]

I was in 9th grade when Opal hit. It wasn't bad in Thomasville, GA, but school was closed that day. It sucked that we lost one of our Spring Break days to make up for it.

[hoernchen50]

Whew!! We got stranded in this hurricane on way to AZ. We almost didn't make it out alive. We had guardian angels surround us that day for sure!! I get the chills watching this video. Brings back real bad memories. Thanks for posting though. I didn't realize it was sooo bad back then. Now I really want to throw up, all these years later.

[ObviouslyISuck]

i was 4 years old and i was here during this on the air force base there



[JerseyShore117]

@ItsMarikaduh89 no duh

[ItsMarikaduh89]

very hard WINDDDDDDDDDDDDD