Matthieu, Author at A Weather Moment • Page 21 of 39

Elsewhere in Weather News: November 16th, 2013

November 16, 2013April 3, 2015 Matthieu Leave a comment

Typhoon Haiyan Final Update, Moderate Risk for Midwest US

It’s been over a week since super typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines and a second landfall over Vietnam. The impacts in the Philippines and Vietnam are just now starting to surface and the reports coming out of the countries are not good.

Vietnam had had quite a bit of time to prepare for the storm and 70,000 people were evacuated from low lying areas. These preventive measures surely saved lives in the flood-prone and landslide-prone areas of Vietnam, but unfortunately five people still lost their lives in the floods. Storm surge was not as big an issue as it was for the Philippines as Haiyan had significantly weakened by the time it made landfall in Vietnam.

For the Philippines the death toll continues to climb (3,600 people) as the cleanup continues. One neighbourhood of Tacloban City of about 10,000 people has been literally washed off the map according to the city’s mayor, with no houses left. An early estimate for the damage is 12-15 billion dollars.

Aerial picture of Guiuan, one of the hardest hit areas, to the east of Tacloban. (Source: National Post)

Unfortunately, this past week another tropical disturbance made its way to Vietnam and brought anywhere from 250mm to 500mm in the central part this past week. To the already saturated grounds, this was enough to cause some more flash flooding. As of Friday night’s reports 3,500 houses had been lost and power was out for various cities in central Vietnam. In total, 17 people had lost their lives from this event.

In other weather news this week, a negatively tilted trough will be making its way across the US Midwest and has the chance to produce some severe weather on Sunday. SPC has outlined a 45% hatched area, moderate risk stretching up to Southern Ontario. Though CAPE is limited, shear is quite impressive, thus, severe winds will be the main threat with this event. If the sun does get a chance to heat up, brief spin-ups could become a threat with the low cloud bases. It is not all that common to see severe events of this magnitude stretching up to Southern Ontario in the middle of November.

45% hatched area for the US Midwest, the main threat will be wind damage. (Source: SPC)

Elsewhere in Weather News: November 9th, 2013

November 9, 2013April 3, 2015 Matthieu Leave a comment

Super Typhoon Haiyan Plows into Philippines

One of the strongest storms ever recorded on the planet formed this week in the Western Pacific and eventually made landfall over the Philippines on Thursday. Early estimates from satellite data suggest that this super typhoon was the fourth strongest ever recorded and strongest to make landfall, since record keeping began.

Impressive image of Haiyan Thursday afternoon as it neared peak intensity, about 5 hours before making landfall. Extremely cold cloud tops can be seen around the eye. (Source: Co. State University)

Haiyan brought just about every type of severe weather you could experience with a typhoon; extremely strong winds with central pressure below 900mb, very heavy rains causing flooding and a powerful storm surge. The category five typhoon brought intense sustained winds in the order of 300km/h, gusting to over 350km/h and a storm surge of over 15 feet. Reports of damage are still coming in as of Friday night as communication to the islands hardest hit has been knocked out. Tacloban, a city of about 215,000 residents looks to be the hardest hit where damage is significant, storm surge swamped first and second floors of buildings and high winds tore apart buildings. It’s difficult to put an estimate on damage and death toll at this point.

Picture of some of the damage to a bus terminal in Ormoc City (located south-west of Tacloban). (Source: R. Deleon)

Haiyan continues its trek this weekend as it moves over the South China Sea towards Vietnam. It is expected to make landfall on Saturday overnight as a category two typhoon. Haiyan’s passage over the Philippines weakened its inner core as well as slightly cooler sea surface temperatures and higher shear values have all contributed to Haiyan’s slow weakening. Regardless, the typhoon still needs to be watched closely as it approaches Vietnam as flooding and landslides are expected to be a big problem.

Footage of super typhoon Haiyan making landfall in the Phillipines

An update on Haiyan as well as an update on the cleanup in the Philippines will be posted later this weekend.

Elsewhere in Weather News: November 2nd, 2013

November 2, 2013April 3, 2015 Matthieu Leave a comment

Strong Mid-Latitude Cyclone Whips Europe

An extremely powerful mid-latitude cyclone sitting off the coast of Scotland affected parts of Europe such as England, Denmark and Germany early last week. Winds were the main threat associated with this storm as gusts reached just below 200km/h in Denmark. The reason why this storm was not classified as a hurricane, even though it had hurricane strength winds, is because hurricanes have a warm core and do not have well defined fronts like low pressures systems do. Here, a mid latitude cyclone was the case as fronts were well defined and other various characteristics did not match one of a hurricane.

A house in Germany was completely destroyed by winds gusting over 100km/h this past week. (Souce: Christiane Boose)

In total, 15 people died from this storm, most due to falling trees. This storm left about 500,000 people without power as trees snapped like twigs and fell on power lines. Off France’s coast waves as high as 5-6m were reported and about 1,300 flights were grounded because of the strong winds.

These very powerful low pressure systems are not unheard of for Europe, though storms with gusts of this intensity do not occur on a yearly basis. This low has since moved off into Russia and is no longer affecting the region. Gusty conditions are expected to return to the UK this weekend as an active pattern, which is not out of the usual for this time of the year, continues.

In other weather news, an unusually strong typhoon (Krosa) has spun up and as of Friday night was of category three intensity. Conditions are not particularly favourable for further development in the South China Sea and the typhoon should gradually weaken as it drifts towards Vietnam.

Elsewhere in Weather News: October 19th, 2013

October 19, 2013April 3, 2015 Matthieu Leave a comment

Australia Torched by Wildfires

This past week wildfires have been sweeping across New South Wales (NSW), a state located in the south-eastern part of Australia. A few thousand residents have been evacuated due to the fires, about 200 properties have been destroyed and one resident has died from the fires. West/northwest winds have been pushing plumes of smoke towards Sydney and dropping ash at the same time causing low visibilities at times and trouble for asthmatics. Currently, it’s not clear what started the fires. Some 60 fires were burning as of Thursday and about a third of them were not contained.

A few of the larger fires burning in NSW. Satellite image shows the plume of smoke over Sydney. (Source: NASA)

Unseasonably warm and dry weather is a factor as firefighters continue to battle the blaze in addition to dealing with gusty winds. A large high pressure sitting just off Australia’s east coast is to be blamed for bringing in the gusty northwest winds fuelling the fires. The next shot NSW will have at rain looks to be Tuesday as an area of low pressure passes to the south; the bulk of the rain will stay south but showers are still possible.

Yet Another Super Typhoon Forms

Super typhoon Francisco on Saturday morning. Note the well defined eye. (Source:CIMSS)

Super typhoon Francisco formed earlier this week and has already reached category five status as it churned over the very warm waters of the Northwest Pacific. This morning, a very well defined eye could be seen as Francisco started to move northwest, taking aim at Japan. It is expected to make landfall somewhere on the south-eastern coast of Japan, though there is some uncertainty as to where exactly since it still has four to five days to travel over ocean waters. Regardless of where it makes landfall it will pose a flooding threat to all of Japan’s four main islands. Thankfully, by the time Francisco reaches Japan it will have weakened as lower sea surface temperatures will make it tough for Francisco to sustain itself. The typhoon will likely be of category one or two as it makes landfall next week.

A Weather Moment

Author: Matthieu