on september 11, a tropical wave emerged into the atlantic from the west coast of africa. the wave remained disorganized until nearing the yucatán peninsula, where it became a tropical depression on september 27 while south-southeast of cozumel. the depression slowly moved over the yucatán peninsula for a few days, eventually emerging off the north coast, where it was upgraded to tropical storm opal on september 30. after becoming a hurricane on october 2, the cyclone rapidly intensified and began moving north across the gulf of mexico. at 10:00 utc on october 4, opal peaked as a category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of and a minimum barometric pressure of . shortly thereafter, the storm began weakening. upon making landfall in pensacola beach, florida, around 22:00 utc on october 4, winds had decreased to 115 mph (185 km/h), which is category 3 intensity. opal weakened rapidly after moving inland, deteriorating to a tropical storm early on october 5 and then to a tropical depression about six hours later. at 18:00 utc on october 5, opal became extratropical over kentucky. the extratropical storm dissipated over ontario on october 6.