Looking ahead, Chapter 5 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth (http://SimpleSolutionsBook1.com) talks about hurricanes. This has been an unusual 24 hour period for storm formation, so let me attach here an excerpt from that book:
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Both William Gray and Max Mayfield, icons in hurricane prediction and observation, have said that there is no link between global warming and hurricanes. However, Environmental Science and Technology reports on two studies in Science and Nature which have found hurricanes growing fiercer. Peter Webster and Judith Curry believe that there is an unambiguous connection between warmer ocean surface temperatures and increase in hurricane intensity.65 Curry, chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, was asked why Gray and Mayfield feel the way they do, and her response was, “these are hurricane scientists who don’t know a lot about global climate warming.” Kerry Emmanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has reported that over the past 30 years hurricanes have become more powerful, where both wind speed and duration have increased by 50%. The blame was squarely placed on global warming. These storms trigger twisters and floods, so the effect multiplies.
Hawaii is in the path of hurricanes. I have not experienced one yet in my life, but during the writing of this section, Daniel was approaching our state as a Category 5 hurricane. Thankfully, it dissipated, but further east, Typhoon Saomai slammed into China in August of 2006 as the strongest storm in 50 years. It was only a Category 4 typhoon (hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are the same, and the name depends on where they impact, with the southern hemisphere ones circulating clockwise and northern, counter-clockwise, caused by the rotation of the plane—sort of like how your bathtub water drains), but 1.6 million were evacuated, 50,000 homes were wrecked, and nearly 500 were killed. What was particularly ominous about the 2006 season was that two hurricanes FORMED just south of Hawaii, but thankfully, drifted West, and one of them, Ioke, became a Category 5 hurricane, and the strongest to ever be recorded in the Central Pacific. Maybe time to move to Kansas or the Equator, because—something called the Coriolis force being too weak to induce air to rotate around low pressure cells—hurricanes don’t start nor go there. Delete Kansas. They have twisters there that should also gain in ferocity.
Then, in June of 2007, Cyclone Gonu hit Oman and Iran. This was the strongest storm since record-keeping began in 1945. Even though oil fields were spared, the price of petroleum jumped past $71/barrel. Any excuse works for oil, but, the point is that something is happening to our weather.
So back to today, the Atlantic is suddenly jumping with storms. Tropical Storm Bertha remains unusually potent in those colder waters east of Maine and heading further northeast away from the U.S. However, out of nowhere, Tropical Storm Christobal suddenly formed off the coast of South Carolina…yes, not off Africa, and dumped some rain and caused heavy surf for the Carolinas. The expectation is that Christobal might intensify over the next few hours, but soon weaken and move northwest, with the eye moving parallel off the east coast. A tropical depression is from 23 to 39 MPH, tropical storm from 39 to 74 MPH and hurricane from 74 MPH. Today, Tropical Storm Dolly was named, forming just east of the Yucatan Peninsula in the extreme western Caribbean. Dolly should hit the Peninsula, weaken, then enter the Gulf of Mexico.
In the Pacific, Elida has weakened into a tropical depression, and should continue to move west, becoming a remnant south of the Big Island in a few days. Fausto remains a hurricane at 85 MPH and is still headed north of the Big Island. However, the odds are that he will weaken by midweek.
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Hawaii is in the path of hurricanes. I have not experienced one yet in my life, but during the writing of this section, Daniel was approaching our state as a Category 5 hurricane. Thankfully, it dissipated, but further east, Typhoon Saomai slammed into China in August of 2006 as the strongest storm in 50 years. It was only a Category 4 typhoon (hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are the same, and the name depends on where they impact, with the southern hemisphere ones circulating clockwise and northern, counter-clockwise, caused by the rotation of the plane—sort of like how your bathtub water drains), but 1.6 million were evacuated, 50,000 homes were wrecked, and nearly 500 were killed. What was particularly ominous about the 2006 season was that two hurricanes FORMED just south of Hawaii, but thankfully, drifted West, and one of them, Ioke, became a Category 5 hurricane, and the strongest to ever be recorded in the Central Pacific. Maybe time to move to Kansas or the Equator, because—something called the Coriolis force being too weak to induce air to rotate around low pressure cells—hurricanes don’t start nor go there. Delete Kansas. They have twisters there that should also gain in ferocity.
Then, in June of 2007, Cyclone Gonu hit Oman and Iran. This was the strongest storm since record-keeping began in 1945. Even though oil fields were spared, the price of petroleum jumped past $71/barrel. Any excuse works for oil, but, the point is that something is happening to our weather.
So back to today, the Atlantic is suddenly jumping with storms. Tropical Storm Bertha remains unusually potent in those colder waters east of Maine and heading further northeast away from the U.S. However, out of nowhere, Tropical Storm Christobal suddenly formed off the coast of South Carolina…yes, not off Africa, and dumped some rain and caused heavy surf for the Carolinas. The expectation is that Christobal might intensify over the next few hours, but soon weaken and move northwest, with the eye moving parallel off the east coast. A tropical depression is from 23 to 39 MPH, tropical storm from 39 to 74 MPH and hurricane from 74 MPH. Today, Tropical Storm Dolly was named, forming just east of the Yucatan Peninsula in the extreme western Caribbean. Dolly should hit the Peninsula, weaken, then enter the Gulf of Mexico.
In the Pacific, Elida has weakened into a tropical depression, and should continue to move west, becoming a remnant south of the Big Island in a few days. Fausto remains a hurricane at 85 MPH and is still headed north of the Big Island. However, the odds are that he will weaken by midweek.
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