A summary of hurricane Paloma


Hurricane Paloma: The second strongest November hurricane on record
Paloma began as a weak low level spin in the southwest Caribbean Sea on the tail end of the monsoon trough. After several days, it began to organize. The low was officially classified as a tropical depression on November 5, just east of Nicaragua and Honduras. By Thursday, November 6, Paloma was a strengthening tropical storm. It was moving steadily northward and became a hurricane Thursday night. Hurricane Paloma showed steady strengthening all day Friday and was heading straight for Grand Cayman. It veered east of the island at the last couple of hours to allow the worst of the destructive winds to pass about 25 miles to the east. At the time, hurricane Paloma was at 120 mph. Grand Cayman actually suffered little damage as the core of hurricane force winds was very small.

During the night it appeared that Paloma would move near or just west of Little Cayman. It took a small jog east and moved barely east of Little Cayman and over Cayman Brac. Both of those islands suffered extensive roof damage and flooding. Hurricane Paloma was near its top strength during its life cycle at 140 mph. It maxed out at 145 mph just northeast of the Cayman Islands. This would make it the second strongest November hurricane, behind Hurricane Lenny in 1999. Rainfall approached 10 inches in parts of the Cayman Islands.

Wind shear began taking its toll on Paloma as it approached the southern coast of Cuba. It made landfall officially at Santa Cruz Del Sur at 125 mph by Saturday evening. The wind shear totally stripped the convection from Paloma so that it weakened very rapidly over Cuba. By Sunday night it was no longer even a tropical depression.

Do you want to find out more about other hurricanes of 2008? Check out our 2008 hurricane summaries.