THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 13, 1995 TAG: 9510130513
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
After stubbornly refusing to surrender its hurricane status - even while crossing over land earlier this week - Roxanne succumbed Thursday over open water as it ran up against another weather system that stole its punch.
The storm remained a huge rain-maker, however, causing flooding and mudslides in Mexico and stirring up strong surf as far away as Texas.
Roxanne's sustained winds dropped to 50 mph Thursday, and it was reclassified as a tropical storm. But ``some strengthening is likely while the center of Roxanne remains over water,'' said Miles Lawrence, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. He said with winds could again be near hurricane force today.
At 5 p.m. Thursday, the center of Roxanne was about 200 miles east of Veracruz, Mexico, in the Bay of Campeche and moving west near 5 mph. That motion was expected to continue through today.
The storm has hugged the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula since moved offshore Wednesday. As a result, tropical-storm-force winds extended more than 300 miles from near Campeche through Coatzacoalcos to near Veracruz.
It had been expected to intensify once it moved over water, regaining the strength it had when it first came ashore on the Yucatan's east coast with 115 mph winds.
Instead, Roxanne ran into a low-pressure system in the upper atmosphere over south Texas. That storm absorbed bands of moisture that otherwise would have fed into the tropical storm's circulation, thus sapping Roxanne's strength.
As a result, widespread showers and a few thunderstorms spread along Texas, and coastal flood watches were in effect.
Roxanne was bringing to Texans conditions that became all too familiar for residents of coastal Virginia and North Carolina this year as a series of storms passed offshore. Twelve-foot seas were pushing high tides into the coast, causing dangerous rip currents, coastal flooding and beach erosion.
A strong cold front, forecast to move through Texas today, is expected to snare the upper-level low and pull it north and east, said Mike Bono, a meteorologist with The Weather Channel in Atlanta. That would ease conditions on the Texas coast but also give Roxanne the opportunity to intensify while still over water.
And Roxanne is strong enough for most Mexicans.
The storm caused heavy damage in dozens of small Mayan Indian towns in the Yucatan jungle, stripping corn from fields and grass-thatched roofs from humble homes.
``The corn harvest is completely lost for the year,'' Victoria Santos told The Associated Press.
Santos spent Thursday carrying buckets of waters from homes in Quintana Roo state in the center of the Yucatan Peninsula. ``Even the animals of the jungle are going to suffer,'' Santos said, ``because all of the wild fruit has been blown from the trees.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
STEVE STONE/Staff
TRACKER'S GUIDE
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB