Hurricane Frances

Hurricane Frances was the second of four Atlantic hurricanes to lash Florida during the 2004 season. A deadly and destructive tropical cyclone, it also struck the Bahamas and other portions of the Southeastern United States. A Cape Verde hurricane and the sixth named storm of the season, it formed on August 25 from a tropical wave. By late the next day, Frances attained hurricane status, and it strengthened further to a major hurricane by August 27. On the following day, it became a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, and Frances attained maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) while passing about 135 mi (215 km) north of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The hurricane slowed and weakened dramatically as it moved across the Bahamas, striking several small islands. Wind gusts reached 120 mph (193 km/h) on San Salvador. Across the archipelago, Frances left about US$125 million in damage, with 6,682 homes damaged to some degree. Two people died in the Bahamas, one related to drowning and the other due to electrocution.

Ahead of the hurricane's landfall in Florida, about 2.8 million people were under evacuation orders across 41 counties, which was the state's largest evacuation ever. On September 5, Frances moved ashore Florida as a Category 2 hurricane, producing wind gusts of 108 mph (174 km/h) in Fort Pierce. It was the second hurricane of the season to hit the state, three weeks after Hurricane Charley. Statewide damage totaled over $5 billion, with at least 73,000 homes damaged. Across the state, 4.2 million people lost power, with outages as far west as the Florida panhandle, where Frances made a second, weaker landfall. Frances made a second weaker landfall along the Florida panhandle before moving across the eastern United States. The highest rainfall in the United States was 23.57 in (599 mm) on Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, including 16.50 in (419 mm) recorded on September 8. Across the United States, Frances led to 48 fatalities, of whom six died due to the hurricane's direct impacts. Nationwide damage totaled $9.507 billion, most of it in Florida. Frances transitioned into an extratropical cyclone as it moved across the northeastern United States, producing flooding across portions of eastern Canada. The storm also produced floods across Canada before dissipating over the Gulf of St. Lawrence on September 10.

Frances also produced one of the United States' largest tornado outbreaks related to a tropical cyclone, spawning 103 twisters from Florida to Maryland. The strongest was rated F3 on the Fujita scale, which touched down near Camden, South Carolina, destroying several buildings. It was one of 45 tornadoes in the state, setting a new daily tornado record previously held by 1994's Tropical Storm Beryl.