Survived this hurricane when I was an 8 year old little girl. We lived in a mobile home trailor in Santa Rosa Beach, back when there was no development, nothing but woods and Mack Bayou. Although it was mandatory and law enforcement was going door to door, my parents didn't evacuate us. God must've had mercy on my family and kept us safe!
I was 13 in lyn Haven fla. Gees mobile home was a rocking power lines were in the water ⚡ ing scary good memories now in Gainesville let's see what hurricane Elsa does 2021
I was 8 years old when this storm hit my hometown at the time (Fort Walton Beach). From that point forward, I never lost interest in hurricanes. Hurricane Opal was a beast. No one talks about it. Set a record of being the lowest pressure system without reaching category 5 intensity and rapidly intensified in the Gulf. The storm surge was incredible in FWB and Okaloosa Island where you filmed this. Very good video. I been watching your stuff. Did this storm make you guys nervous at all. You were right next to the eye of Opal.
I'll do you one better I was in the real eye wall in navarre where it actually hit ground zero. It was a beast . I prayed for it. 916mb, Ivan hit on 9/16 , 16 years later sally on 9/16 , none coincidentally. Erin August 3 opal Oct 4. 3+4=7 9+1+6=16, 1+6=7 revelation 1:15
We lost a pond because of Opal. The old dam was not ready for the amount of water Opal dumped on us. The pond lays empty and overgrown with vegetation 'til this day. I will never forget Opal. Enterprise, Coffee County, AL.
This was so bad. My brother was stuck in that traffic - took 4 hours to go two miles. I think the planners learned a lot about evacuation routes that day. Remember the house that was left floating in the Intracoastal and they told the owner "to remove it"?!! That was crazy. I was looking for a picture of that. Thanks for posting this! We were lucky, only lost a few roof tiles and the windows fogged up and had to be replaced in our condo.
I was in the right front quadrant of Opal here in inland Walton County. Opal was the first hurricane for me after living here for 10 years. I can't say that I was terrified since I am a severe weather fanatic, it was more like awe at the incredible power of the wind. As the first bands were coming in that afternoon I'll never forget being able to hear the wind roaring in the distance and getting louder as it was approaching my location, then getting almost calm after it passed. Then a band came in, the highest wind yet hit us, and it kept right on increasing without abating. I saw a report that the wind had reached 110 mph+ at an airport a short distance from me. I have some video that I need to get transferred to disc.
Thank you so much for uploading this! I live right in the area where Opal hit. In fact, I've seen the area in Ft. Walton Beach where you filmed near the water. That complex with those low roofed townhomes near the Days Inn has been bulldozed and now a huge condo is there. Also the courthouse building at the beginning with the double red hurricane flags has been torn down.
Mike, I had not looked at this in quite a while. You really captured some great shots on this day back in 1995. That was an experience that I will never forget. If it was not for JL I would never have been able to witness such a rare event. The guy in the orange raincoat at the start and towards the end of this video still puzzels me. Ha ha.
+moviemagg Hi Steve!!! Thank you so much, as always... it is hard to believe it's already been this long. I'm very grateful to JL too, there were so many amazing experiences we all shared together over the years. And yeah, that orange raincoat guy has always confused me too... lol.
I remember this storm like it was yesterday. I was a little kid and we went to sleep. My dad I remember hes like, "ah that thing won't do shit dont worry about it." When we woke up, it was almost a category 5 and the next thing you knew we were pacniking to get to a shelter in a state of emergency in the path of a huge powerful hurricane. It was awesome, i was so excited and happy. I wanted to be a storm chaser when I was a kid, and I really enjoyed with Erin and Opal came through. It was quite the experience to be right in the most intense quadren or a direct hit from two hurricanes within 2 months of the same year!
i was also a kid and lived in pensacola for erin and opal. it was a very exciting experience for my 8-year-old self. especially with erin. we didnt know it was coming until the day before because we'd just gotten back from a weeklong family reunion/retreat thing, staying in cabins at a ranch in the mountains of georgia with no radio or news and we only listened to tapes on the way home, and didnt bother with the tv when we got there. the next morning we got up to nonstop news coverage of the storm getting ready to make a direct hit that night or the next day, and we had to rush out and clean up all the toys and everything from the yard and secure everything. later, we went out during the eye and there were huge trees and powerlines down everywhere. we were without power for a week. i remember one day me and my brothers were just playing in our room and i suddenly realized that a nightlight plugged into a wall was on. with that, we jumped up and went running through the house turning on light switches and every other electronic device we could find, yelling "the powers back on, the powers back on". with opal, i mainly remember how it blew up the the day before and watching the news showing the major traffic jam where they were telling people it was too late, time to abandon their cars and find shelter. my mom had decided it was too late also and said we were just gonna have to pray and ride it out. afterwards we only lost power for a day and didnt have any major damage. I also remember looking out the window with my siblings and watching for the flashes of light as transformers around the neighborhood exploded. lol the more i think about it, we were so bad. i think we did pretty much everything they make a point to tell you NOT to do durring a hurricane. good times :)
hell yea they were both very exciting in navarre because not only are we right down the road from the beach but we got clipped right by the eye wall and eye of both storms. were were in extreme eye wall of erin and then opal as well cept we caught the actual eye of opal. regardless of not being in the eye of erin, we were right on the wall as i mentioned and it was HELLA INTENSE as was opal. very exhilerating experience. then after wards ( after erin ) you could not walk two feet in our yard it was literally covered with trees ande debre, we had to cut out way out of the yard with a chain saw. i ttook us hours just to make it to the street and it too was completely covered with downed trees. trees were down everywhere it looked like someone took a box of toothpics and justdumped them out everywhere, except they werent toothpicks they were trees and then opal; there was dibris everywhere fthat washed up from the storm surge it was INSANE@!!!
@cali budz That was probably worst of flooding. Which all that looked to be in close proximity of the water on Hwy 98. Wind tore up a lot though through out the whole city. Closer to the water you where the worse it was. Was a kid myself that didnt live far from where this was shot. That sound never leaves you though. Watching this video brought back serious flashbacks.
@cali budz I cant think of one off the top of my head but its always a possibility of rapid intensification of a TS depending a lot on temperatures of the Gulf. This one was a Cat 1&2 all yesterday though. I do expect it to slow down a little right before landfall. They generally all do in the panhandle. Opal went from a 5 to a 3 before landfall. Opal was the worse. Ivan was also bad it almost hit us twice when it circled back around. Hurricanes have a mind of there own and do what they want
Opal on oct 3rd before i went to bed was a min. storm w/90mph winds meandering 5-8mph down near mexico, i woke up to find out it was a cat 4 moving 25mph straight toward where i lived on the coast near panama city fl.. at that speed it arrive at 45 that afternoon. and it did, what i saw from where i was at on the gulf of mexico i was in awe.. i was taking out every house on the beach not on pylons that was left from hurricane eloise cat3 that took the other 1/2 of the houses on slabs in 75... since then thru the 80s and andrew in the 90s and all others it Opal that taught me that what i was seeing from my place on oct 94 at land fal, the sheer power of the things i saw i was struck that it was making landfall at least 75miles to the west of me where i lived close to panama city and that taught me that i would never stay for a 4-5 storm EvER..thru all the hurricanes from eloise i was facinated by these storms and would stay for everyone for everyone of them hoping to experience the eye of these storms... only one went over my house in 85, Kate was a minimal storm and i missed due to having a family and having to move them to panama city.. but as i told eveyone that asked with all storms, tom! where is this one heading! my reply was always this...I just got the latest coordinates and it'll make landfall coming right up 14th... Mexico Beach Fl.. where i ve lived for 50 yrs, last time i used that line was monday oct 10th 2018...Ihate being right all the time because Michael came right up my street 3 days later as a cat 5. my dad always told me my house/property was 17ft sbove sea level, my house at 105 14th st was less than 300ft from the house on a slab built in the 60s... storm surge unfortunately for me was at least 23-25ft where i was it was over my head....the eye made landfall only miles from me, i was 3-4 miles from it, in that NE Quadrant eyewall, the deadliest place to be... every structure, neighbor houses were rubble completely, my house still stood, every window blew out except the room i was in... I shouldn't be here to.... .... Thomas Garcia formerly of105 14th st mexico beach florida
this is some very good eyewall footage. i dont think ive seen any videos from any of the modern storms that really show the intensity of the eyewall like this. just that constant sustained wind and all that water in the air.
well to be fair fortwalton was a little distance from the real eye wall. the eye wall eye wall was in santa rosa county florida where I live, navarre beach and the mainland as well. if you look at the radar loop and find ft walton and navarre, ull notice navarre is clearly in the direct eye wall path. now with that in mind, the severity of this storm in ft walton gives you an idea of the magnitude of Opal. because as far away as ft walton was from the actual core of the storm, it was still hella intense!
While it's true that the center of Opal was farther west from my location in this video, and the "remnant" of the inner eyewall traversed the area between Navarre and Fort Walton Beach, the actual distribution of the maximum sustained winds in the storm (at the time of landfall) was actually displaced a bit to the east of the center (and the remnant eyewall). The core of maximum sustained surface winds (analyzed at ~46 m/s - 100 mph) occurred from near Mary Esther to just west of Destin, with an area of slightly lower winds (35-44 m/s winds (80-95 mph)) occurring between Navarre and Fort Walton. A large area of 44 m/s (95 mph), or greater, occurred from east of Destin all the way over to the eastern end of Choctawhatchee Bay (which corresponds to the wind field observed by reconnaissance aircraft). Based on the reconnaissance observations, it's likely that the strongest winds in the storm actually occurred in this area, but there were few surface observations to corroborate this. The highest surface wind observation was 62 m/s (139 mph) at Hurlburt Field.
Here's a link to Opal's reconstructed wind swath, during the landfall period. This was presented as part of a paper published in the Journal of the American Meteorological Society, in May 1998, authored by Mark Powell and Sam Houston. journals.ametsoc.org/na101/home/literatum/publisher/ams/journals/content/mwre/1998/15200493-126.5/1520-0493%281998%29126%3C1259%3Aswfohe%3E2.0.co%3B2/production/images/large/i1520-0493-126-5-1259-f08.jpeg
i feel ya was there any wind measurement in navarre tho? were a small town and th media and weather officials always ignore us. so i doubt anyone even recorded wind speeds here. thank u for the links and info opal was an impressive storm a magical time fo rme as a child
+skylilly1 Thank you very much for your comment. Opal was one of the most impressive northern Gulf hurricanes that I've ever experienced. Sounds like you had quite an experience of your own with Hugo!
Crazy footage Michael! Stunning video from almost 20 years ago now. Insane wind and storm surge from Opal, especially around the 6 minute mark. Tripoded shots and the high fidelity sound are some nice bonuses as well! Weird to think how I've passed through there many times now for vacation heading to Destin.
+ThatStormEnthusiast Thank you so much, Gavin! I'm glad you enjoyed the re-mastered clip. I'm planning to share it through my social media channels tomorrow, for the anniversary.
I went through this storm. It was an awesome sight to see, but after all the storms I've been through....Opal was the worst bitch ever. Very scary, and I'm a storm lover. This one humbled me.
me too i was 10 years old i prayed for it and drew its chart on a tracking map that it followed to the T! itwas awesome! i was 10! i loved it! erin and opal my fav storms!
This was on my 6th Birthday when I was in Kindergarten, just 4 days before seeing the Last Image of Grandpa before he Passed Away on October 10, 1995, it was a Tuesday Morning.
I was 10 when we had to evacuate, it was supposed to be Cat 5 right before landfall but went Cat 3 afterward. I was in a convoy of cars, a combined number of family members and coworkers at my Grandmas cab company, that headed out to evacuate. After being stuck on the highway and having Opal catch up to us on land, we spent all night trying find shelter. We ended up somewhere near Mobile, Alabama, and there was only 3 cars out of a group that started as 8. Cars broke down on the way left and right. Had falling trees make us take crazy detours just to keep moving, there were tornado spawns from the Hurricane you could see in the lightning flashes in someplaces. I even had to help my Mom and Stepdad push my grandmas car over a small tree in the road so we could stay moving. Was a wild experience for a 10 year old. We used to have the camera roll of photos we took on the way back to Ft. Walton Beach from Alabama, Opal tore some shit up.
We lived in Pensacola during Opal. I remember this so well. We had a generator for the fridge and a box fan. We had to chainsaw trees in order to get out of the driveway. My dad read to us at night to pass the time. I think we made it through several Michael Chricton books before there was power.
Hey Michael, I remember when I was three I was in Wilma, and that's when I realized I was into like hurricanes and storms, it was just so satisfying. But, when you uploaded your Wilma video I watched it non stop and my mom was like " Wtf why do you like destruction." And I go " ITS SO COOL TO WATCH" lmaooo 😂😂
I survived this in Pensacola. I remember being outside looking up at a dark cloud swirling above with a dark center very high in the sky. The atmosphere was very still with grey light and silence. After getting indoors, we waited watching intently, but knew when it got there. The sound and pressure became intense while trees popped out of the ground and swished by the windows sideways like missiles. Then it was just sheets of rain and almost no visibility looking out the wall of windows where we were ...just the eerie sound of an insane train.
Landfall was at Pensacola Beach. I was in Panama City, 80+ miles from landfall. And, people here were buying up, "I survived Opal", T-Shirts. Maybe some of them realized how silly they were being with their T-Shirts after Hurricane Michael.
Thank you so much! This was filmed on a Sony Hi8 Handycam, though I don't remember the specific model number of the camera... but it was likely in the CCD-FX series.
+The90sAreTheBest Thanks for watching and the comment. Opal had actually weakened to a low-end category three by the time of landfall. The conditions I experienced, at my location in this clip, were on the high-end of category two.
+ShadowBeast1263 Nope. At peak intensity (over the Gulf of Mexico) it came close, with sustained winds of 150 mph... a high-end category 4, but the storm weakened to a low-end category three, with sustained winds of 115 mph, at the time of landfall. At my location in Fort Walton Beach, I experienced sustained winds of about 100 mph, gusting to around 125 mph... category two.
+THEreldinacho A Bahamas chase would have been ideal, but picking the right island, and getting there with enough lead-time is a bit challenging. That said, while it's seeming less likely that there will be a U.S. landfall at this point, if something changes with the future track of Joaquin, we're definitely ready for any potential mainland chase opportunities.
Hey guys! I'm a local producer in Destin Florida putting together a historical documentary of the Emerald Coast (Fort Walton Beach and Destin mainly), and Hurricane Opal has a scene that I'm trying to illustrate. It's a self funded project so I can only offer credit, but would it be possible to use a couple of clips from this?
Survived this hurricane when I was an 8 year old little girl. We lived in a mobile home trailor in Santa Rosa Beach, back when there was no development, nothing but woods and Mack Bayou. Although it was mandatory and law enforcement was going door to door, my parents didn't evacuate us. God must've had mercy on my family and kept us safe!
I was 13 in lyn Haven fla. Gees mobile home was a rocking power lines were in the water ⚡ ing scary good memories now in Gainesville let's see what hurricane Elsa does 2021
I was near SanDestin before there was the "new Hwy 98" about a half mile off the beach. Crazy time.
@@jamieadamson1781 It did nothing haha, but it did have some really strong wind near where it made landfall, i saw some pretty impressive video!
Hi I was ten and in navarre off hey 399 I feel the same. Was incredible. My crazy ass prayed for this storm and it happendd!! Erin too.
I was 8 years old when this storm hit my hometown at the time (Fort Walton Beach). From that point forward, I never lost interest in hurricanes. Hurricane Opal was a beast. No one talks about it. Set a record of being the lowest pressure system without reaching category 5 intensity and rapidly intensified in the Gulf. The storm surge was incredible in FWB and Okaloosa Island where you filmed this. Very good video. I been watching your stuff. Did this storm make you guys nervous at all. You were right next to the eye of Opal.
it was incredible
what was the pressure in it, like 896 with 150 wind?
@@tvold9204 nah it was 916, still really impressive for a C4
@@funtimearinze2652 yes, still incredible.
I'll do you one better I was in the real eye wall in navarre where it actually hit ground zero. It was a beast . I prayed for it. 916mb, Ivan hit on 9/16 , 16 years later sally on 9/16 , none coincidentally. Erin August 3 opal Oct 4. 3+4=7 9+1+6=16, 1+6=7 revelation 1:15
We lost a pond because of Opal. The old dam was not ready for the amount of water Opal dumped on us. The pond lays empty and overgrown with vegetation 'til this day. I will never forget Opal. Enterprise, Coffee County, AL.
This was so bad. My brother was stuck in that traffic - took 4 hours to go two miles. I think the planners learned a lot about evacuation routes that day. Remember the house that was left floating in the Intracoastal and they told the owner "to remove it"?!! That was crazy. I was looking for a picture of that. Thanks for posting this! We were lucky, only lost a few roof tiles and the windows fogged up and had to be replaced in our condo.
This brings back soo many memories. I Graduated from Niceville in 95' and I still remember Opal to this day. Thanks for posting this footage.
I was in the right front quadrant of Opal here in inland Walton County. Opal was the first hurricane for me after living here for 10 years. I can't say that I was terrified since I am a severe weather fanatic, it was more like awe at the incredible power of the wind. As the first bands were coming in that afternoon I'll never forget being able to hear the wind roaring in the distance and getting louder as it was approaching my location, then getting almost calm after it passed. Then a band came in, the highest wind yet hit us, and it kept right on increasing without abating. I saw a report that the wind had reached 110 mph+ at an airport a short distance from me. I have some video that I need to get transferred to disc.
Please do I want to see
Raw footage is the best. No stupid talking.
Thank you so much for uploading this! I live right in the area where Opal hit. In fact, I've seen the area in Ft. Walton Beach where you filmed near the water. That complex with those low roofed townhomes near the Days Inn has been bulldozed and now a huge condo is there. Also the courthouse building at the beginning with the double red hurricane flags has been torn down.
Thanks so much for the comment... I'm glad you enjoyed the clip. It's interesting to hear how the area has changed since the time of Opal.
This OPAL CAN FEEL A FLOODS on Florida 1995
How does the hurricane center tell a gender of a hurricane???
i dunno either but she def seemed like a gal. I
Mike, I had not looked at this in quite a while. You really captured some great shots on this day back in 1995. That was an experience that I will never forget. If it was not for JL I would never have been able to witness such a rare event. The guy in the orange raincoat at the start and towards the end of this video still puzzels me. Ha ha.
+moviemagg Hi Steve!!! Thank you so much, as always... it is hard to believe it's already been this long. I'm very grateful to JL too, there were so many amazing experiences we all shared together over the years. And yeah, that orange raincoat guy has always confused me too... lol.
I remember this storm like it was yesterday. I was a little kid and we went to sleep. My dad I remember hes like, "ah that thing won't do shit dont worry about it." When we woke up, it was almost a category 5 and the next thing you knew we were pacniking to get to a shelter in a state of emergency in the path of a huge powerful hurricane. It was awesome, i was so excited and happy. I wanted to be a storm chaser when I was a kid, and I really enjoyed with Erin and Opal came through. It was quite the experience to be right in the most intense quadren or a direct hit from two hurricanes within 2 months of the same year!
?????? why'd u say my user name then opal ?
i was also a kid and lived in pensacola for erin and opal. it was a very exciting experience for my 8-year-old self. especially with erin. we didnt know it was coming until the day before because we'd just gotten back from a weeklong family reunion/retreat thing, staying in cabins at a ranch in the mountains of georgia with no radio or news and we only listened to tapes on the way home, and didnt bother with the tv when we got there. the next morning we got up to nonstop news coverage of the storm getting ready to make a direct hit that night or the next day, and we had to rush out and clean up all the toys and everything from the yard and secure everything. later, we went out during the eye and there were huge trees and powerlines down everywhere. we were without power for a week. i remember one day me and my brothers were just playing in our room and i suddenly realized that a nightlight plugged into a wall was on. with that, we jumped up and went running through the house turning on light switches and every other electronic device we could find, yelling "the powers back on, the powers back on". with opal, i mainly remember how it blew up the the day before and watching the news showing the major traffic jam where they were telling people it was too late, time to abandon their cars and find shelter. my mom had decided it was too late also and said we were just gonna have to pray and ride it out. afterwards we only lost power for a day and didnt have any major damage. I also remember looking out the window with my siblings and watching for the flashes of light as transformers around the neighborhood exploded. lol the more i think about it, we were so bad. i think we did pretty much everything they make a point to tell you NOT to do durring a hurricane. good times :)
hell yea they were both very exciting in navarre because not only are we right down the road from the beach but we got clipped right by the eye wall and eye of both storms. were were in extreme eye wall of erin and then opal as well cept we caught the actual eye of opal. regardless of not being in the eye of erin, we were right on the wall as i mentioned and it was HELLA INTENSE as was opal. very exhilerating experience. then after wards ( after erin ) you could not walk two feet in our yard it was literally covered with trees ande debre, we had to cut out way out of the yard with a chain saw. i ttook us hours just to make it to the street and it too was completely covered with downed trees. trees were down everywhere it looked like someone took a box of toothpics and justdumped them out everywhere, except they werent toothpicks they were trees and then opal; there was dibris everywhere fthat washed up from the storm surge it was INSANE@!!!
@cali budz That was probably worst of flooding. Which all that looked to be in close proximity of the water on Hwy 98. Wind tore up a lot though through out the whole city. Closer to the water you where the worse it was. Was a kid myself that didnt live far from where this was shot. That sound never leaves you though. Watching this video brought back serious flashbacks.
@cali budz I cant think of one off the top of my head but its always a possibility of rapid intensification of a TS depending a lot on temperatures of the Gulf. This one was a Cat 1&2 all yesterday though. I do expect it to slow down a little right before landfall. They generally all do in the panhandle. Opal went from a 5 to a 3 before landfall. Opal was the worse. Ivan was also bad it almost hit us twice when it circled back around. Hurricanes have a mind of there own and do what they want
Went through this hurricane in Southeast Alabama! It was extreme! We thought it would never end...the winds were over 100 mph this far inland!
Opal on oct 3rd before i went to bed was a min. storm w/90mph winds meandering 5-8mph down near mexico, i woke up to find out it was a cat 4 moving 25mph straight toward where i lived on the coast near panama city fl.. at that speed it arrive at 45 that afternoon. and it did, what i saw from where i was at on the gulf of mexico i was in awe.. i was taking out every house on the beach not on pylons that was left from hurricane eloise cat3 that took the other 1/2 of the houses on slabs in 75... since then thru the 80s and andrew in the 90s and all others it Opal that taught me that what i was seeing from my place on oct 94 at land fal, the sheer power of the things i saw i was struck that it was making landfall at least 75miles to the west of me where i lived close to panama city and that taught me that i would never stay for a 4-5 storm EvER..thru all the hurricanes from eloise i was facinated by these storms and would stay for everyone for everyone of them hoping to experience the eye of these storms... only one went over my house in 85, Kate was a minimal storm and i missed due to having a family and having to move them to panama city.. but as i told eveyone that asked with all storms, tom! where is this one heading! my reply was always this...I just got the latest coordinates and it'll make landfall coming right up 14th... Mexico Beach Fl.. where i ve lived for 50 yrs, last time i used that line was monday oct 10th 2018...Ihate being right all the time because Michael came right up my street 3 days later as a cat 5. my dad always told me my house/property was 17ft sbove sea level, my house at 105 14th st was less than 300ft from the house on a slab built in the 60s... storm surge unfortunately for me was at least 23-25ft where i was it was over my head....the eye made landfall only miles from me, i was 3-4 miles from it, in that NE Quadrant eyewall, the deadliest place to be... every structure, neighbor houses were rubble completely, my house still stood, every window blew out except the room i was in... I shouldn't be here to.... ....
Thomas Garcia formerly of105 14th st mexico beach florida
this is some very good eyewall footage. i dont think ive seen any videos from any of the modern storms that really show the intensity of the eyewall like this. just that constant sustained wind and all that water in the air.
Thank you... glad you enjoyed the footage.
well to be fair fortwalton was a little distance from the real eye wall. the eye wall eye wall was in santa rosa county florida where I live, navarre beach and the mainland as well. if you look at the radar loop and find ft walton and navarre, ull notice navarre is clearly in the direct eye wall path. now with that in mind, the severity of this storm in ft walton gives you an idea of the magnitude of Opal. because as far away as ft walton was from the actual core of the storm, it was still hella intense!
While it's true that the center of Opal was farther west from my location in this video, and the "remnant" of the inner eyewall traversed the area between Navarre and Fort Walton Beach, the actual distribution of the maximum sustained winds in the storm (at the time of landfall) was actually displaced a bit to the east of the center (and the remnant eyewall). The core of maximum sustained surface winds (analyzed at ~46 m/s - 100 mph) occurred from near Mary Esther to just west of Destin, with an area of slightly lower winds (35-44 m/s winds (80-95 mph)) occurring between Navarre and Fort Walton. A large area of 44 m/s (95 mph), or greater, occurred from east of Destin all the way over to the eastern end of Choctawhatchee Bay (which corresponds to the wind field observed by reconnaissance aircraft). Based on the reconnaissance observations, it's likely that the strongest winds in the storm actually occurred in this area, but there were few surface observations to corroborate this. The highest surface wind observation was 62 m/s (139 mph) at Hurlburt Field.
Here's a link to Opal's reconstructed wind swath, during the landfall period. This was presented as part of a paper published in the Journal of the American Meteorological Society, in May 1998, authored by Mark Powell and Sam Houston. journals.ametsoc.org/na101/home/literatum/publisher/ams/journals/content/mwre/1998/15200493-126.5/1520-0493%281998%29126%3C1259%3Aswfohe%3E2.0.co%3B2/production/images/large/i1520-0493-126-5-1259-f08.jpeg
i feel ya was there any wind measurement in navarre tho? were a small town and th media and weather officials always ignore us. so i doubt anyone even recorded wind speeds here. thank u for the links and info opal was an impressive storm a magical time fo rme as a child
Wow! Such power! I was inland when Hugo hit, but we had sustained winds over 80mph, very scary.
+skylilly1 Thank you very much for your comment. Opal was one of the most impressive northern Gulf hurricanes that I've ever experienced. Sounds like you had quite an experience of your own with Hugo!
that's incredible to hear from u :)
Crazy footage Michael! Stunning video from almost 20 years ago now. Insane wind and storm surge from Opal, especially around the 6 minute mark. Tripoded shots and the high fidelity sound are some nice bonuses as well! Weird to think how I've passed through there many times now for vacation heading to Destin.
+ThatStormEnthusiast Thank you so much, Gavin! I'm glad you enjoyed the re-mastered clip. I'm planning to share it through my social media channels tomorrow, for the anniversary.
I went through this storm. It was an awesome sight to see, but after all the storms I've been through....Opal was the worst bitch ever. Very scary, and I'm a storm lover. This one humbled me.
me too i was 10 years old i prayed for it and drew its chart on a tracking map that it followed to the T! itwas awesome! i was 10! i loved it! erin and opal my fav storms!
Wow that was a big rain band at 0:23
This was on my 6th Birthday when I was in Kindergarten, just 4 days before seeing the Last Image of Grandpa before he Passed Away on October 10, 1995, it was a Tuesday Morning.
That was my old apartment brings back tons of memories. There's another vid of it nearly under water. Can't seem to find it.
I was 10 when we had to evacuate, it was supposed to be Cat 5 right before landfall but went Cat 3 afterward. I was in a convoy of cars, a combined number of family members and coworkers at my Grandmas cab company, that headed out to evacuate. After being stuck on the highway and having Opal catch up to us on land, we spent all night trying find shelter. We ended up somewhere near Mobile, Alabama, and there was only 3 cars out of a group that started as 8. Cars broke down on the way left and right. Had falling trees make us take crazy detours just to keep moving, there were tornado spawns from the Hurricane you could see in the lightning flashes in someplaces. I even had to help my Mom and Stepdad push my grandmas car over a small tree in the road so we could stay moving. Was a wild experience for a 10 year old. We used to have the camera roll of photos we took on the way back to Ft. Walton Beach from Alabama, Opal tore some shit up.
That is some EXTREME wind!
We lived in Pensacola during Opal. I remember this so well. We had a generator for the fridge and a box fan. We had to chainsaw trees in order to get out of the driveway. My dad read to us at night to pass the time. I think we made it through several Michael Chricton books before there was power.
It's crazy looking at this I was born during this in fort Walton beach
That looked like a crazy hurricane, those power lines and wires were bouncing like crazy!!!!!!!
Hurricane Opal was unfortunately overshadowed in the media by the O.J. Simpson verdict.
I was in this hurricane one turning 2 we were on eglin AFB at the daycare center I remember it being night time and crying that's all I remember.
Hey Michael, I remember when I was three I was in Wilma, and that's when I realized I was into like hurricanes and storms, it was just so satisfying. But, when you uploaded your Wilma video I watched it non stop and my mom was like " Wtf why do you like destruction." And I go " ITS SO COOL TO WATCH" lmaooo 😂😂
Btw, I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS
Hurricane use FLORIDA gods please ago7😅😅😅😅
Lachelle FEMLE ago 1 8■♤♡♡♢♢♢♢♢¡♧♧♧♢♤♤■■■◆●●●●●●●◆◆¤♡♢♢♧♧♧♧■□●■♤♡♢♧♢■•○▪○□□■♤♤♤♡♢♧♧♡■◇●○□■■¤¤¤》♧♧♧♢□●•●■《《》》♢♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♢♧]♧《♤■■□●●●●□◆◆◆■■♤♤♡♢♧♧♧♢♢♧♧♧♧♢♤♡■■■◆◆◇●●♤♡♢♧
8😠□■■♤♡《♤♡♡♡♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢
Here getting ready for Hurricane Michael.
My mom was in this hurricane. The thing is. It was on her birthday
Great Footage
I survived this in Pensacola. I remember being outside looking up at a dark cloud swirling above with a dark center very high in the sky. The atmosphere was very still with grey light and silence. After getting indoors, we waited watching intently, but knew when it got there. The sound and pressure became intense while trees popped out of the ground and swished by the windows sideways like missiles. Then it was just sheets of rain and almost no visibility looking out the wall of windows where we were ...just the eerie sound of an insane train.
Landfall was at Pensacola Beach. I was in Panama City, 80+ miles from landfall. And, people here were buying up, "I survived Opal", T-Shirts. Maybe some of them realized how silly they were being with their T-Shirts after Hurricane Michael.
wow this is insane! so scary
great video
+NatureRecycleFlorida Thanks so much for watching, and for the comment.
What did you use to film this? It looks shockingly good
Thank you so much! This was filmed on a Sony Hi8 Handycam, though I don't remember the specific model number of the camera... but it was likely in the CCD-FX series.
I was thinking it was hi 8 but impressed how good it looked back in 95
i lived one block from most of this mess. right at the corner of hwy 98 and beal pkwy... this was an ugly storm
The year I was born! Was Opal a Category 4 at landfall?
+The90sAreTheBest Thanks for watching and the comment. Opal had actually weakened to a low-end category three by the time of landfall. The conditions I experienced, at my location in this clip, were on the high-end of category two.
+ShadowBeast1263 Nope. At peak intensity (over the Gulf of Mexico) it came close, with sustained winds of 150 mph... a high-end category 4, but the storm weakened to a low-end category three, with sustained winds of 115 mph, at the time of landfall. At my location in Fort Walton Beach, I experienced sustained winds of about 100 mph, gusting to around 125 mph... category two.
I wish you could have been a little further west at my location in Navarre, DEF CAT THREE HERE
I lived in Mobile, Alabama at the time and witnessed yellowish looking wind
Yellowish? What can u elabr
The powerfull hurricane Opal great footoage
Tropmet can you pls upload your footage of Mathew
Holy shut I live in fort Walton beach and ummm yea there was another hurricane that hit us recently
☁ Michael Laca sou tua fã ❣
El'Nineo is snuffing out an otherwise active season. In 2015.
+Fred Thompson Thanks for watching and for the comment, Fred.
+Tropmet | Storm Chasing Are you guys doing hurricane joaquin or are you sitting out on that one
+THEreldinacho A Bahamas chase would have been ideal, but picking the right island, and getting there with enough lead-time is a bit challenging. That said, while it's seeming less likely that there will be a U.S. landfall at this point, if something changes with the future track of Joaquin, we're definitely ready for any potential mainland chase opportunities.
ok thanks
Joaquin proved me WRONG.
Are you going to come to Panhandle for Hurricane Michael this week??
It'd be peculiar if he didn't; the hurricane does have his name on it after all!
Hey guys! I'm a local producer in Destin Florida putting together a historical documentary of the Emerald Coast (Fort Walton Beach and Destin mainly), and Hurricane Opal has a scene that I'm trying to illustrate. It's a self funded project so I can only offer credit, but would it be possible to use a couple of clips from this?
HELP STOP FRIDGE ABUSE
asombroso😻😻
Piękne!
You should have chased hurricane joaquin!
Lol, stupid man lurking outside under deadly blasting winds!
And those howling sounds, like a freight train passing by with high speed!
Mean wile' TS Ida will MULL AROUND in the central Atlantic 9/21 today....LOOK at the Low that left north Fl. up in N/E.
quick question Are you going to do Hermine in 2016
meh cat one
Revelation 1:15 revelation 10 and Noah and the Ark. This was a prophetic storm