From NOAA

Ivan was a classical long-lived Cape Verde hurricane that made three landfalls along the United States coast and reached category 5 strength three times. Ivan developed from a vigorous tropical wave that moved off the west coast of Africa on August 31st. The system quickly strengthened and became a tropical depression on September 2nd, a tropical storm on the 3rd, a hurricane on the 5th, and a major hurricane later that day. Ivan moved westward for the next several days and passed

over the southern Windward Islands where it caused considerable damage and loss of life, especially on Granada. Ivan then moved west-northwestward across the southern Caribbean Sea passing just north of Venezuela and the Netherlands Antilles. Ivan reached category 5 strength while over the central Caribbean Sea early on the 9th as it moved towards Jamaica. As Ivan approached the island, it weakened to category 4 intensity as it moved just south of the country.

After passing Jamaica, Ivan briefly regained category 5 strength on the 11th when the hurricane was south of the Cayman Islands. Ivan inflicted considerable damage and loss of life on Grand Cayman

Island as the hurricane veered towards western Cuba. Its intensity fluctuated slightly on the 12^th and 13th. Ivan’s small eye moved through the Yucatan channel, missing Cuba. For the next three days, Ivan moved northwest over the eastern and central Gulf of Mexico before striking Gulf Shores, Alabama at category 3 strength early on the 16th.

Ivan gradually weakened unleashing heavy rains upon the southern Appalachians as it moved towards the Mid-Atlantic states.

On the 19th, Ivan emerged into the western Atlantic ocean as an extratropical cyclone. Its surface circulation turned south and southwest towards Florida, moving through the southern peninsula back into the Gulf of Mexico on the 21st. The cyclone became a tropical storm once more on the 23rd, making landfall in the United States for a third time across extreme southwest Louisiana on the 24th before dissipating across eastern Texas.

Attached is a track of the cyclone, created from HPC and TPC advisories.

Ivan (2004) track

The storm total rainfall maps below were constructed using data from data provided from NWS River Forecast Centers, as well as additional reports received by the National Hurricane Center.

Also attached is the calendar for Daily Precipitation Maps. Note that the 24-hour periods end at 12z that morning. In the 24 period ending the morning of the 20th, Ivan was offshore the Southeast and produced no rainfall.

For more: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/tropical/rain/ivan2004.html

Related:

Hurricane Ivan 2004

From Hurricane History

Ivan developed from a large tropical wave that crossed the west coast of Africa on August 31, and spawned a tropical depression two days later. The depression reached storm strength on September 3rd (one of only a dozen on record to do so south of 10EN) and continued to strengthen. By the 5th , Ivan had become a hurricane about 1150 miles east of the southern Windward Islands. Eighteen hours later Ivan became the southernmost storm to reach major hurricane status, at 10.2EN. Ivan was a category 3 hurricane when the center passed about 7 miles south of Grenada, a path that took the northern eyewall of Ivan directly over the island. In the Caribbean, Ivan became a category 5 hurricane, with winds of 160 m.p.h., on the 9th when it was south of the Dominican Republic, and on two occasions the minimum pressure fell to 910 mb. The center of Ivan passed within about 20 miles of Jamaica on the 11th and a similar distance from Grand Cayman on the 12th , with Grand Cayman likely experiencing sustained winds of category 4 strength. Ivan then turned to the northwest and passed through the Yucatan channel on the 14th , bringing hurricane conditions to extreme western Cuba. Ivan moved across the east-central Gulf of Mexico, making landfall as a major hurricane with sustained winds of near 120 m.p.h. on the 16th just west of Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Ivan weakened as it moved inland, producing over 100 tornadoes and heavy rains across much of the southeastern United States, before merging with a frontal system over the Delmarva Peninsula on the 18th. While this would normally be the end of the story, the extratropical remnant low of Ivan split off from the frontal system and drifted southward in the western Atlantic for several days, crossed southern Florida, and re-entered the Gulf of Mexico on the 21st. The low re-acquired tropical characteristics, becoming a tropical storm for the second time on the 22nd in the central Gulf. Ivan weakened before it made its final landfall in southwestern Louisiana as a tropical depression on the 24th.

Ivan’s storm surge completely over-washed the island of Grand Cayman, where an estimated 95% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed. Surge heights of 10-15 feet occurred along the Gulf coast during Ivan’s first U.S. landfall. Peak rainfall amounts in the Caribbean and United States were generally 10-15 inches. The death toll from Ivan stands at 92 – 39 in Grenada, 25 in the United States, 17 in Jamaica, 4 in Dominican Republic, 3 in Venezuela, 2 in the Cayman Islands, and 1 each in Tobago and Barbados. U.S. damage is estimated to be near $14.2 billion, the third largest total on record.

IMAGES: www.hurricanehistory.org

For more on this story go to: http://www.hurricanehistory.org/resources/Hurricane-Ivan.html