Tag Archives: hurricane

Hurricane Barry Makes Landfall in Louisiana, Soaking Gulf Coast

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Hurricane Barry made landfall at Intracoastal City, Louisiana on Saturday. It was the second named storm and first hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic season.

Coming ashore with winds measured up to 75 mph, Barry was classified as a category one hurricane. But, it was rain rather than the wind that had the biggest impact on the area. Moving slowly at about 7mph, the storm dumped heavy precipitation across the region, causing widespread flooding.  Some parishes even saw the water overtop levees in spots. The highest rainfall total of 23.58 inches was reported near Ragley, LA.  

Extensive power outages were also reported across Louisiana. According to state energy officials, more than 120,000 customers were in the dark in the wake of the storm.

While downgraded to a tropical storm after landfall, Barry is still laden with moisture. It is expected to bring heavy rain and flooding to regions further inland as it travels north into Arkansas.

Hurricane Barry. Credit: NOAA

After Review Hurricane Michael Upgraded to Rare Category-5 Status

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Hurricane Michael, which pummeled the Florida panhandle in October, has been upgraded from a category-4 to a category-5 storm, the strongest on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

According to a report by the National Hurricane Center, the storm’s winds reached 160mph when it made landfall near Mexico Beach, FL. That is a 5mph increase from the estimate used last autumn. The agency says the uptick was the result of a re-analysis of reams of data, including aircraft winds, surface winds, surface pressures, satellite intensity estimates, and Doppler radar velocities.  The review also took into account data that was not available in real time.

In the grand scheme of things, an increase of 5mph may not sounds like a lot, but it puts Michael in rare company. It now ranks as the fourth category-5 storm on record to make landfall in the US. The other three were the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Camille in 1969, and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Michael is also the third cat-5 storm to hit the Sunshine state.

Regardless of the technical upgrade and historic statistics, Hurricane Michael was a devastating storm that will be long remembered by those it affected. The storm claimed the lives of 16 people and caused an estimated $25 billion in damage. More than six months after coming ashore, much of the area is still recovering.

Hurricane Michael making landfall as a Category 5 storm along the Florida Panhandle on October 10, 2018. Credit: NOAA

Report Finds Hurricane Harvey’s Record Rainfall Linked to Climate Change

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Hurricane Harvey – one of the big names of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season – unleashed catastrophic flooding in southeast Texas at the end of August. Now, after months of reviewing the data, scientists say the storm was exacerbated by climate change.

According to a peer-reviewed report by World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international coalition of scientists, human-caused climate change made Harvey’s devastating rainfall three times more likely to occur and fifteen percent more intense. Using historical rainfall data and high-resolution climate models to compare conditions in a pre-warming world to those at the time of the storm, the WWA team was able to separate the climate signal from natural variability. They found that the deluge caused by Harvey would have been a 1-in-2400-year event in the absence of global warming, but is now a 1-in-800-year event and becoming more likely.

Heavy rainfall events, in general, are becoming more frequent in many different places, because as the atmosphere warms it can hold more moisture. In fact, it can hold four percent more moisture for every 1°F of warming. This means there is more water vapor available in the air that can fall as precipitation.

After rapidly intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Harvey made landfall as a category-4 storm in the Texas Coastal Bend region on August 25. It then stalled over the area for several days, unleashing massive amounts of rainfall. Cedar Bayou, outside of Houston, reported a staggering 51.88 inches of rain, setting a new record for the continental US. The storm claimed the lives of 80 people and more than 120,000 residents across the area had to be rescued from their homes. The economic impacts of the deluge are still being tallied, but it is expected to be one of the most expensive in US history.

The WWA study only analyzed the impact of climate change on Harvey’s rainfall, not its role in the storm’s formation or strength.  Those connections remain an active area of research.

Climate change made Hurricane Harvey’s rainfall worse. Credit: Climate Central. (World Weather Attribution is led by Climate Central, a non-profit research group.)

The Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season is Underway

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Hurricane season in the eastern Pacific begins today.

Tropical cyclones, known as hurricanes in the United States, develop around the globe at different times of the year. In the northeastern Pacific, they tend to form between May 15 and November 30. This early start is related to the basin’s warm sea surface temperatures and relatively low wind shear.

While powerful, these Pacific storms are generally not as familiar to Americans as those that form in the Atlantic. This is because they rarely make landfall in this country. In fact, it has only happened twice. A hurricane slammed San Diego, CA in 1858 and a tropical storm battered Long Beach, CA in 1939. This low rate of occurrence is attributed to the cold water of the California Current that flows south along the west coast. Nonetheless, Pacific hurricanes can still impact the US.

Developing in the tropics, Pacific storms deteriorate as they travel north to cooler waters and in some cases over the mountains of Mexico. However, their remnants are still laden with moisture when they reach the southwestern US, where they often unleash flooding rains.

East Pacific storms can also cross into the Central Pacific and affect Hawaii. (The dividing line between the two basins is 140°W longitude.) One such storm was Hurricane Iniki in 1992, the worst hurricane in the state’s history. With wind speeds measured up to 145mph, it was rated category-4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

This year, the eastern Pacific hurricane season got off to a record early start, with the development of Tropical Storm Adrian on May 9. No other storm in the basin has formed earlier during the satellite era.

Source: WMO

Subtropical Storm Ana: First Named Storm of 2015 Atlantic Season

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Subtropical storm Ana, the first named storm of the 2015 Atlantic Hurricane Season has officially formed. With winds measured at 45mph earlier today, the center of this pre-season storm is located about 180 miles southeast of Myrtle Beach, SC.

According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Ana is expected to bring heavy rain and gusty winds to parts of both North and South Carolina over the next few days. It will also produce rough surf and dangerous rip currents along the coast.

A subtropical storm is a hybrid of a regular storm, fueled by the clash of warm and cold air, and a tropical storm, powered by the heat and moisture of warm ocean waters. Ana’s hybrid nature means that it has the potential to transition into a fully tropical system, especially as it sits over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. This is why the NHC assigned it a name.  In May 2012, this type of transition happened with Tropical Storm Beryl, which was the strongest pre-season tropical cyclone to make landfall in the US.

While pre-season storms tend to occur every five years of so, Ana is the earliest named storm to form in the Atlantic since April 2003 when a tropical storm also named Ana developed. The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins on June 1.

Satellite view of Subtropical Storm Ana off the Carolina coast. Image Credit: NASA

Satellite view of Subtropical Storm Ana off the Carolina coast. Image Credit: NASA

Super-Storm Sandy: Two Years Later

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Two years ago today, Super-storm Sandy slammed the New York City tri-state area.  Despite being downgraded from hurricane to post-tropical status just prior to landfall, Sandy was the second costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The question is, can it happen again?

Coming ashore with tropical storm-force winds at high tide during a full moon, Sandy was an unprecedented storm. It formed late in the season, grew as it moved north, and instead of turning out to sea like most tropical systems, it made that now famous left hook toward the coast. Statistically, Sandy’s unusual trajectory was a 1-in-700-year event, according to a recent study by researchers at NASA and Columbia University. That said, as sea levels continue to rise, future storm surges will have a higher starting point and be able to reach further inland. So, a lesser storm could produce similar, if not worse, flooding in the future. A different study in the journal, Nature Climate Change, predicts that a current “500 year” storm surge event in NYC could happen every 50 to 240 years by the end of the century.

Sandy caused a record 13.88-foot storm surge at the Battery in lower Manhattan.  It flooded many low-lying areas, including parts of the NYC subway system.  The massive storm, according to the CDC, directly claimed the lives of 117 people in the U.S – mostly by drowning. Damaging or destroying more than 650,000 homes, Sandy displaced thousands of people and caused approximately $70 billion in property damage in addition to knocking out power to 8.5 million people for multiple days.

In reaction, many government agencies – at all levels – have been re-evaluating their strategies for dealing with future storm surge flood disasters.  The National Hurricane Center changed its policy for issuing warnings on post-tropical storms and has developed an experimental Potential Storm Surge Flooding Map that depicts the risk associated with a storm surge during a tropical cyclone. In NYC, the Office of Emergency Management   re-drew its hurricane evacuation zones to reflect the threat of higher sea levels.

As these types of important improvements are being made, the arduous process of rebuilding homes and installing physical defenses against future storms is still ongoing, especially in  the region’s hardest hit areas.

Hurricane Gonzalo Blasts Bermuda

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Gonzalo, the 7th named storm of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season, made landfall in Bermuda on Friday night. Despite being downgraded from a category-3 to a category-2 hurricane just prior to coming ashore, the storm still caused extensive damage.

Producing a top wind gust of 140-mph and generating waves over 40 feet high, the storm toppled trees and downed power lines. Approximately 90% of the island chain lost power. Crediting advanced preparations, local officials say no fatalities or serious injuries have been reported.

Gonzalo was the second tropical system to hit Bermuda is less than a week. Tropical Storm Fay slammed the popular vacation spot just last Sunday with strong winds and heavy rain. The last time Bermuda was hit twice in one week was when Tropical Storm Emily and Hurricane Floyd both moved over the archipelago in early September 1981.

Hurricane Gonzalo makes landfall in Bermuda. Credit:

Hurricane Gonzalo makes landfall in Bermuda. Credit: PTZ_TV

Two Tropical Storms Cause Flood Disaster in Mexico

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The hurricane season in the U.S. has been fairly slow this year – at least so far.  Mexico, our neighbor to the south, however, has not been so lucky.

Hit from both sides, Mexico was slammed by two separate tropical storms this week.   Manuel moved in from the Pacific and Ingrid came ashore from the Gulf.  Both storms brought torrential rain that caused widespread flooding, landslides, and power outages.  Impacting millions of people across the country, this one-two punch of extreme weather claimed the lives of at least one hundred people and displaced thousands more. 

One of the hardest hit areas was Acapulco on the west coast, where 7.43 inches of rain is reported to have fallen in one twenty-four hour period.  The flooding was so severe in this popular resort town that it turned roads into raging muddy rivers and carried crocodiles into the city.  With the only highway out of town destroyed in a landslide and the airport submerged in waist deep water,  locals along with nearly forty-thousand tourists have been stranded there for days.  

According to the Mexican National Weather Service, the last time Mexico was hit by two tropical storms within a span of twenty-four hours was back in 1958.

Sandy Wallops New York City

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Barreling through New York City late last night, post-tropical storm Sandy caused widespread damage and power outages.  Eighteen storm-related deaths – so far – have also been reported across the city’s five boroughs.

Powerful winds – with gusts reaching 79 mph – toppled countless trees and helped create a record storm surge of 13.88 feet in lower Manhattan.  As a result, streets flooded and the subway tunnels were inundated with water.  In addition, the encroaching seawater shorted out power substations, leaving a large part of southern Manhattan in the dark.

The city’s outer boroughs were also seriously battered in this storm.  Many homes and businesses in the low lying coastal areas of Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx were damaged or destroyed by unprecedented flooding.

The extensive damage from Sandy is still being assessed, but officials say this storm may be the worst in New York City’s history.