Wrong Way Hurricane Lenny

On this date in 1999, Hurricane Lenny was churning through the Caribbean Sea.The most unusual aspect of Lenny was that it was the first storm to have anextended west-to-east track across the central and eastern Caribbean. A largedip in the jet stream centered over the western Atlantic helped steer Lenny inthis unusual fashion.

Lenny strengthened into a dangerous Category 4 hurricane on the 17th. Maximumsustained winds increased to 155 mph, and its central pressure dropped to 933millibars during the afternoon. Due to that extremely low pressure, Lenny isnow tied with Hurricane Michelle from 2001 as the strongest November AtlanticHurricane on record. Lenny was also blamed for the deaths of 17 people.