Monday, September 13, 2010

Helping Along the Hurricanes

"Weather shift may increase hurricanes" by Associated Press | September 10, 2010

WASHINGTON — The La Nina climate phenomenon is strengthening, increasing the likelihood that an active hurricane season could get even busier.

We are only up to the letter H, and none have been terrible.

The update from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration yesterday comes as residents of Texas are cleaning up from the deluge of Tropical Storm Hermine, and as Tropical Storm Igor is drifting in the Atlantic.

La Nina is marked by a cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean and was reported to be developing a month ago. It strengthened throughout August and appears likely to last at least through early next year, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Service said....

Related: Winter Weather Forecast

Yeah, I no longer listen to what NOAA or government say.

La Nina’s cooling of the tropical Pacific is the opposite phase of the El Nino event, which is marked by unusually warm tropical water in that region....

What?


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So we are up to the letter I now, huh?


"Hurricane Igor now a Category 4, may strengthen" by Associated Press | September 13, 2010

MIAMI —Hurricane Igor has rapidly strengthened to a Category 4 storm in the open Atlantic, with maximum sustained winds of 135 miles per hour, forecasters said yesterday.

Igor had maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour and was moving west at 14 miles per hour yesterday. Some additional strengthening is expected in the next two days.

The center of the storm was about 1,065 miles east of the Northern Leeward Islands.

A tropical depression off the coast of Africa prompted officials to issue a tropical storm warning for the southern Cape Verde Islands yesterday.

I'm not going to worry about it just yet.

That storm was moving west-northwest at 14 miles per hour and was about 190 miles southeast of the islands, the center said.

Igor is the ninth named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, as many as all of last year, according to the hurricane center. The season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, and an average year has 11 storms with winds of at least 39 miles per hour.

The storm is expected to begin a turn to the west-northwest on Wednesday. Some strengthening is forecast during the next two days, the center said. The system’s hurricane-force winds stretch as far as 40 miles out, and tropical storm-force winds as far as 160 miles, the center said.

By Friday, Igor is expected to be north of Puerto Rico and well to the east of the Bahamas, the center said, based on a five-day forecast track.

There is a 50 percent chance of an area of disturbed weather south of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, containing the Dominican Republic and Haiti, may become a tropical cyclone during the next two days, the center said.

Just what Haiti needs.

Related:
What's New in Haiti Lately?

Globe has pretty much forgotten all about them.

And that possible cyclone sure seems like more of an immediate threat, doesn't it?


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