At a Glance

Marco was a short-lived hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.Wind shear ultimately weakened Marco as it neared the northern Gulf Coast.Its main impact was flooding rainfall in the Florida Panhandle.

Hurricane Marco wasn't a hurricane long in the Gulf of Mexico before weakening quickly and spinning down to a remnant low along the northern Gulf Coast.

Marco was born as Tropical Depression Fourteen as it was just over 200 miles east of the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua on August 20. Thirty-six hours later, the depression strengthened to Tropical Storm Marco about 180 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico.

For a time on the weekend of Aug. 22-23, Marco formed a small core of convection and appeared it might undergo a brief period of rapid intensification.

Track history of Hurricane Marco from its birth as Tropical Depression Fourteen in the western Caribbean Sea on August 20 to its demise as a remnant low just south of the Louisiana coast on August 25.

(Data: NOAA/NHC)

This concern prompted to be issued for parts of the northern Gulf Coast on the afternoon of August 22.

For awhile, the forecast cones of Marco and what would become Hurricane Laura crossed, something meteorologists here at weather.com couldn't remember happening before.

Around midday on August 23, Marco became a hurricane while it was about 300 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

But it wasn't a hurricane for long.

Less than 12 hours after becoming a hurricane, Marco began to succumb to strong wind shear, which is particularly impactful for small systems like Marco.

By August 24, the wind shear blew most of Marco's thunderstorms northeast of the exposed low-level center, which migrated west.

Marco's center made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River around 6:00 p.m. CDT as a tropical storm, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph.

Marco's Landfall

The most notable impact in the U.S. was rainfall flooding in the Florida Panhandle.

Rainfall totals related to Marco near Apalachicola, Florida, were as high as 11.81 inches. Multiple vehicles were trapped by water up to the doors in Panama City Beach.

Marco was the of any Atlantic hurricane season, 12 days earlier than the previous record earliest 13th storm on Sept. 2 in both 2011 (Lee) and 2005 (Maria), according to Colorado State University tropical scientist, Phil Klotzbach.

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