Hurricane Hortense
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- This article is about the hurricane of 1996. For other storms of the same name, see Hurricane Hortense (disambiguation).
Hurricane Hortense occurred between September 3 and September 16, 1996. It was the second category four hurricane of the season. Hortense was a wet storm, causing 21 deaths from resulting floods.
The hurricane began as a strong low-pressure system over Senegal on August 30, then moved west. Strong upper winds allowed the system to strengthen, and the storm became Tropical Depression 8 on September 3. The storm intensified no further until reaching the Lesser Antilles, where upper-level winds transformed the depression into Tropical storm Hortense. An upper-level short wave caused vertical wind shear and, for a while, Hortense stopped strengthening. But in the early hours of the 9th, a burst of convection gradually intensified the storm to hurricane strength. The new hurricane slowed down southeast of Puerto Rico, with the eyewall located southwest of Guanica. The storm moved northwest toward the Turks and Caicos Islands where hurricane conditions were reported. Hortense then continued north, weakened considerably. The storm became extratropical as it made its way to Nova Scotia and then to Newfoundland on September 15 and 16.
The name Hortense was retired in 1997 and was replaced with Hanna in 2002.