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And now, the more unpleasant welcome to the 2010 Atlantic/East Pacific seasons
The season has already gotten off to a deadly start, with at least 143 people dead from Tropical Storm Agatha, which blasted central America with far, far, far too much rain at once, causing floods and mudslides everywhere. The only good news from this, and I admit I'm reaching here, is that most models are predicting fairly quiet east and central Pacific hurricane seasons, so that may end up being the year's worst blow from the Pacific.
Over in the Atlantic, things are a bit different. My inbox has been lighting up with various dire predictions from everybody short of the Muppets. Much of this is oceanographers attempting to work on wave models to attempt to determine what effect a hurricane might have on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (I will summarize: "It depends.") and in a somewhat more desperate attempt to get clean up crews to place the booms on the shoreline properly, which is not getting done now.
(I do not know that much about the drilling side of things, but those I've spoken to who do sound grim: given the pressures, temperatures, and water density involved at the depth of the spill, they believe that the only actual way to stop the leak may be the drilling of the two relief wells, which as I understand it will not be completed until August. I hope this is wrong.)
(Also, do not talk to me about the Corexit 9500 dispersant BP has been using, which will make your pictures much prettier but are certainly not going to help out your fish, since THEY THINK IT'S FOOD, and will eat it, chemicals and all. Public relations aren't everything.)
But I have gone off target. As I was saying, over in the Atlantic, we have already had a few Invests (this is the National Hurricane Center's way of saying "a storm worth investigating and running a computer model on") and as I type we have one right now, although it's not expected to turn into anything major. This and other factors, including high sea surface temperatures and La Nina conditions, have led various people, not me, to predict an active hurricane season. (Not me, because my last attempt to predict a hurricane season was my disastrously wrong statement that the 2005 hurricane season couldn't possibly be as bad as 2004.)
Here are some helpful hurricane websites:
The National Hurricane Center. The site for official predictions, satellite photos, helpful sheets from NOAA explaining hurricane histories and more.
Weather Underground: Tropical Weather. This site also includes information on Pacific and Indian ocean typhoons and systems. Also helpful: Dr. Jeff Masters' blog, which has some of the most helpful, comprehensible and understandable hurricane discussions around. Many of the commenters on his blog are severe weather addicts and and provide still more info.
Wikipedia keeps track of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season here; other articles detail previous hurricane seasons. Particularly large or important storms, of course, get their own Wikipedia page or pages. Also fascinating: The Accumulated Cyclone Energy page which allows you to quickly compare the overall strength of various hurricane seasons.
And with that, let's all hope for a season as inactive as 1983, everybody's favorite hurricane season ever!
The season has already gotten off to a deadly start, with at least 143 people dead from Tropical Storm Agatha, which blasted central America with far, far, far too much rain at once, causing floods and mudslides everywhere. The only good news from this, and I admit I'm reaching here, is that most models are predicting fairly quiet east and central Pacific hurricane seasons, so that may end up being the year's worst blow from the Pacific.
Over in the Atlantic, things are a bit different. My inbox has been lighting up with various dire predictions from everybody short of the Muppets. Much of this is oceanographers attempting to work on wave models to attempt to determine what effect a hurricane might have on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (I will summarize: "It depends.") and in a somewhat more desperate attempt to get clean up crews to place the booms on the shoreline properly, which is not getting done now.
(I do not know that much about the drilling side of things, but those I've spoken to who do sound grim: given the pressures, temperatures, and water density involved at the depth of the spill, they believe that the only actual way to stop the leak may be the drilling of the two relief wells, which as I understand it will not be completed until August. I hope this is wrong.)
(Also, do not talk to me about the Corexit 9500 dispersant BP has been using, which will make your pictures much prettier but are certainly not going to help out your fish, since THEY THINK IT'S FOOD, and will eat it, chemicals and all. Public relations aren't everything.)
But I have gone off target. As I was saying, over in the Atlantic, we have already had a few Invests (this is the National Hurricane Center's way of saying "a storm worth investigating and running a computer model on") and as I type we have one right now, although it's not expected to turn into anything major. This and other factors, including high sea surface temperatures and La Nina conditions, have led various people, not me, to predict an active hurricane season. (Not me, because my last attempt to predict a hurricane season was my disastrously wrong statement that the 2005 hurricane season couldn't possibly be as bad as 2004.)
Here are some helpful hurricane websites:
The National Hurricane Center. The site for official predictions, satellite photos, helpful sheets from NOAA explaining hurricane histories and more.
Weather Underground: Tropical Weather. This site also includes information on Pacific and Indian ocean typhoons and systems. Also helpful: Dr. Jeff Masters' blog, which has some of the most helpful, comprehensible and understandable hurricane discussions around. Many of the commenters on his blog are severe weather addicts and and provide still more info.
Wikipedia keeps track of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season here; other articles detail previous hurricane seasons. Particularly large or important storms, of course, get their own Wikipedia page or pages. Also fascinating: The Accumulated Cyclone Energy page which allows you to quickly compare the overall strength of various hurricane seasons.
And with that, let's all hope for a season as inactive as 1983, everybody's favorite hurricane season ever!