The story of Hurricane Elena is about the movement of high pressure systems that created steering channels, blocking fronts, and stationary fronts.
The life of Elena begins as so many hurricanes do- with a dust storm out of the Sahara Desert in late August. What happened next played havoc along the Gulf Coast as meteorologists scrambled to keep up with Elena's ever changing path.
While Elena was captured on film from the space shuttle and monitored by reconnaissance flights, technology used today to track a hurricane was in its infancy. Evacuation orders were issued and cancelled with every twist and turn of the track.
Elena made landfall after warnings were cancelled resulting in billions of dollars in damage. Needless to say, it was a Labor Day weekend that few who lived through it will ever forget. But Elena was not done. She dumped flooding rains across the Tennessee Valley and Kentucky.
Coordinate Data for Elena (pdf)
Shifting high pressure between August 29 and September 2 kept meterologists guessing and Elena twisting around the Gulf coast.