Hurricane Frances was the sixth named storm, the fourth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm's maximum sustained wind speeds were 145 mph (230 km/h), giving it a strength of Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The eye passed over San Salvador Island and very close to Cat Island in the Bahamas, and its outer bands also affected Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands.

Frances then passed over the central sections of the state of Florida in the U.S., moved briefly over the Gulf of Mexico on the other side of Florida, and made a second U.S. landfall at the Florida Panhandle. Frances affected the central regions of Florida just three weeks after Hurricane Charley, before it moved northward into Georgia as a tropical depression, and northeast along the spine of the Appalachians. Very heavy rains fell in association with this slow moving hurricane. A total of 49 lives were lost from this hurricane. Damages totaled US$12 billion (2004 dollars).

A FEW GRAPHIC RELATED IMAGES
(click on image to see full size)

This is the approximate path at the time of landfall.  As you can see by the arrow, the chase team was right in th eyewall's path.	This is a zoom in of the map showing the location of were myself, and some of the other chase team took shelter.

(click on image to see full size)

HURRICANE TRACK

National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast track at 11:00pm (EST) on August 30th.  The track forecast here was pretty close to the actual lanfall.

This is the entire track of Hurricane Frances of it's Tropical cyclone life.  When viewing full size, you can see the slow pace of this storm before and after landfall.

(click on image to see full size)

THE DOCUMENTARY

The best 120 minutes of great footage during the hurricanes of Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.  See hurricane chasers do their best to bring you extreme footage of high winds, flying debris, and flooding storm surge.  This documentary has soem of the best hurricane footage out there and you ride along with the chasers as if you were right there. (order in the "Store" section of this website to order the last remaining copies of this great DVD)

TV AND NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF DOCUMENTARY

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Preliminary Log:
--September 1st, 2004
Arrived at Jeff's house on Monday evening and quickly got some sleep.  Tuesday was mostly looking at the models and trying to get a grasp of how all this is going to play out.  We're mentally prepared for this storm now, but it took a little bit extra this time, especially with the after affects of going through Hurricane Charley just three weeks ago.  Last night, or actually very early this morning (2am), I went to Wal-Mart and got last minute supplies...except water, which they were already sold out of.  More will be coming in, so we will be stocking up.  I also still need to get gas, both in the truck, and 5 extra gallons for emergency.
     Today will be dedicated to helping Jeff prepare the house for the storm, and then look at starting our way toward the coast.  Although might wait till tomorrow.   Have to wait and see.