Notable History Of Humberto and Imelda: Texas Flooding, Rapid Intensification And A Couple Of Duds

Two blobs are being monitored by the National Hurricane Center in the Atlantic Basin, both with chances of development in the coming days.

With Humberto and Imelda next in line for the names of tropical systems, it is worth looking back at what previous storms with these names have done.

Let’s start with Imelda, the storm with the shorter history.

This name has only been used once in the Atlantic, back in 2019.

Quick, Rainy and Devastating (2019): The only Atlantic storm to be named Imelda first began to be monitored on September 14th in the Gulf near coastal Texas. The storm began to get its act together and was named a tropical storm at 12:45 pm CDT on September 17th.

This storm had a very brief life as a named system. It was only a tropical storm in the Gulf for less than an hour, making landfall at 1:30 pm CDT.

It weakened to a depression later that night and slowed to a crawl and, though losing its wind threat, brought insane rainfall to parts of Texas.

Rainfall totals of 30-44 inches were recorded during the storm. A devastating 44.29 inches storm total was reported near Fannett, Texas. Of that total, 31 inches fell in only 12 hours.

Imelda, despite being only a brief tropical storm, was the 7th wettest tropical cyclone to impact the U.S., the 5th wettest for the contiguous U.S. and the 4th wettest in the state of Texas.

There were sadly five fatalities directly linked to Imelda.

The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information reported that the total damage from Imelda was estimated to be near $5 billion.

It goes to show that even weak storms can still wreak havoc.

On To Humberto

Humberto has been named a few more times than Imelda, so there is a little more to go through here. Humberto storms include a few duds and a few with a bit more of a lasting impact.

Big Ol' Fish (1995): The first use of the name Humberto in the Atlantic Basin was 1995. The storm reached tropical storm strength August 22 and rapidly intensified into a hurricane the next day. Humberto ‘95 reached a max wind speed of 110 mph, Category 2 intensity, on August 24 as it moved north through the central Atlantic.

(MORE: What The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale Means, And What It Doesn't)

This storm threatened the fishes, but caused no damage or injuries to people. It fell apart by the end of the month.

Barely impacting Bermuda (2001): The next Humberto was in late September. The storm was named September 22 and steadily strengthened to a hurricane by September 23. It reached its max speed of 97 mph before eventually weakening as it moved into cooler waters.

Rapidly intensifying before Texas landfall (2007): This Humberto is where we get to the good stuff.

Humberto ‘07 is notable because it rapidly intensified from a tropical depression the morning of September 12, to a hurricane early on September 13.

What makes this special? It is very rare for a hurricane to strengthen this quickly this close to landfall.

In southeastern Texas, Humberto caused about 60 million dollars in damage and left about 120,000 customers without power. Rainfall storm totals of 6-12 inches were reported across parts of southeastern Texas and southern southwestern Louisiana, and gusts over 80 mph were reported across the region.

Zombie Storm (2013): The 2013 iteration of Humberto is notable in that the storm fell apart but came back to life and became a tropical storm again.

(FOR MORE: Humberto 2013 Recap)

This storm first brushed the Cabo Verde Islands as a tropical storm and then reached a hurricane two days later at 5 am, September 11. After briefly reaching winds of 85 mph, the storm was shredded by wind shear and cooler ocean temperatures, falling apart to a remnant low on September 14.

But the storm was not done yet. Monday morning on September 16, the storm became a tropical storm again.

The storm fell apart for the second and final time on September 19.

Grazing the Bahamas, Slamming Bermuda (2019): The latest Humberto was also in mid-September, and it is notable for its impacts on Bermuda.

(FOR MORE: Humberto 2019 Recap)

The storm was first named Humberto on September 13 as it moved just to the east of the Bahamas, fortunately sparing the nation of severe impacts.

However, Bermuda was not as lucky. The storm reached hurricane strength on September 15 off the east coast of Florida.

Continuing to strengthen, the storm passed within 75 miles of Bermuda as a Category 3 hurricane on September 18. A wind gust of 115 mph was reported at Wade International Airport, while an automated weather station at Pearl Island reported a wind gust of 123 mph. There were also rainfall reports greater than 3 inches.

We will see if Humberto and Imelda, the 2025 editions, will be ones for the history books or duds.

Rob Shackelford is a meteorologist and climate scientist at weather.com. He received his undergraduate and master’s degree from the University of Georgia studying meteorology and experimenting with alternative hurricane forecasting tools.