On This Day in 1980: Hurricane Allen Thrashes South Texas

On this day 42 years ago, Hurricane Allen made landfall on South Padre Island near Port Isabel, Texas.

Allen came ashore just 10 miles north of the US-Mexico border as a Category 3 Hurricane with sustained winds of 115 mph. Hurricane Allen is remembered for being one of the most intense Atlantic Hurricanes on record, achieving the highest wind speeds ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin at a staggering 190 mph.

Allen was the first named storm of the 1980 hurricane season and began as a Cape Verde storm that rapidly intensified as it approached the Lesser Antilles. Allen strengthened into a major hurricane shortly after passing over Barbados. The storm delivered high winds and rough surf to the Leeward Islands where the storm would claim seven lives on the islands of St. Lucia and Guadeloupe.

Allen strengthened into a Category 5 Hurricane in Caribbean Sea on August 5 with a minimum pressure of 911 mb while passing south of Puerto Rico. Allen became the earliest Cat. 5 on record, a title which it would retain until the 2005 season. Allen would take a destructive track, passing between Haiti and Jamaica on August 6. Allen was responsible for catastrophic damage in Haiti attributed to high winds and flooding. Over 200 fatalities occurred in Haiti while over 800,000 were left homeless.

Allen would continue its westward track, attaining peak intensity in the Yucatan Strait between the Yucatan Peninsula and western Cuba. Allen’s 190 mph wind speed remains the strongest on record among Atlantic storms and was even the strongest in the western Hemisphere until 2015 when Hurricane Patricia in the Pacific recorded wind speeds up to 215 mph. Allen’s minimum pressure of 899 mb ranks fifth all-time in the Atlantic.

Allen would oscillate between Cat. 4 and Cat. 5 status as it traversed the southern Gulf of Mexico on August 8 and 9. A dry air mass in place across Texas would then begin to weaken Hurricane Allen down to a Cat. 3 storm as it made landfall in South Texas on August 10, 1980. A storm surge up to 12 feet was reported along the Texas coast while a wind gust of 129 mph was recorded at Port Mansfield, Texas. Additionally, 10 to 20 inches of rain fell across South Texas which ended an ongoing drought in the area. Hurricane Allen was also responsible for spawning numerous tornadoes across Texas, one of which did significant damage in Austin.

Hurricane Allen will be remembered for its extreme wind speeds and low pressure which broke records at the time. Allen claimed 269 lives and was responsible for 1.57 billion dollars in damage. Due to the large death toll and costly damage, the name Allen was retired in 1981 and was replaced with name “Andrew”. Andrew was subsequently replaced with the name “Alex” after the 1992 hurricane season.