Category: Elsewhere in Weather News

Elsewhere in Weather News: November 2nd, 2013

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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)
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

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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.

NSW fires

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

Francisco

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.

Elsewhere in Weather News: October 12th, 2013

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India Braces for Super Cyclone Phailin

An extremely powerful cyclone churning in the Bay of Bengal is targeting India’s east coast and is expected to make landfall this morning. This is one of the strongest cyclones India has seen in recent history and the strongest since 1999. Phailin has maintained category five status since Friday afternoon and is expected to only slightly weaken to a high end category four (as its eyewall moves over land) before making landfall. Conditions were primed for quick intensification on Thursday; SSTs approaching the 30°C mark and shear quite low. Phailin went from a tropical cyclone to category four on Thursday thanks to these ideal conditions for intensification. Already, India has evacuated tens of thousands of residents from low lying coastal areas but Phailin still has the potential to wreak much havoc on India. Already one death has been reported associated with a tree falling onto a house as of Friday night.

Phailin

Incredible image of Phailin just before it makes landfall; a well defined eyewall and very cold cloud tops are present showing that the storm is well-organized. (Source: CIMSS)

Storm surge will be a real problem with this cyclone – a forecasted 11 foot storm surge is expected to arrive as Phailin makes landfall near Brahmapur. The good news is that the coastline goes up in elevation fairly quickly as you move inland, therefore residents that should be most concerned with storm surge should be the ones that live near shorelines. With category five cyclones like this one winds as well as flooding problems are almost a given. In this case, winds will be sustained over 240km/h, gusting over 300km/h, and anywhere from 200mm to 350mm can be expected to fall around where Phailin makes landfall. The cyclone is expected to move inland and die off fairly quickly as it moves over land as opposed to being over warm ocean waters.

SST and shear

Sea surface temperatures, overlayed with shear. Note the low shear values (5-10 knots) and SSTs between 29°C and 30°C; sufficient to sustain category five storms. (Source: CIMSS)

Another storm; typhoon Nari is currently threatening Vietnam to make landfall at the beginning of next week. It is still recovering from its passage over the rugged islands of the Philippines but is expected to strengthen to a category three typhoon over the South China Sea before landfall. Models are suggesting yet another typhoon to spin up behind Nari but this one is expected to take a turn towards Japan. So, overall a very active weekend and upcoming week cyclone and typhoon-wise!

Elsewhere in Weather News: October 5th, 2013

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Quadruple threat in the US this Week

All kinds of extreme weather have been plaguing the United States this week; from tropical storms, tornadoes to blizzards to severe Santa Ana winds, they’ve just about seen it all. It was all happening yesterday due to a dynamic low pressure system centered in the Northern US Plains. High pressure building behind the low pressure system was responsible for the Santa Ana winds. The tropical storm, a completely separate system, has been targeting the gulf shores for a few days now.

The powerful fall low pressure system was drawing in brisk air from the north behind it which helped produce ideal conditions for blizzard conditions in the Black Hills. It was not unusual to see snowfall rates in excess of 5cm/h throughout the day on Friday in the region. The hardest hit area in regards to snow looked to be Lead, SD, which by Friday night had received 110cm (in less than 48 hours!), and another 20-30cm could fall before deformation zone moves off.

Lead, SD snow

Streetcam picture of the snow accumulated in Lead, SD. Keep in mind there was no snow on the ground less than 48 hours ago! (Source: Twitter: @TylerJRoney)

Deadwood, SD snow drifts

Incredible image of a large snow drift almost completely covering the front door in Deadwood, SD. (Source: Twitter: @ReadingReineke)

In the warm sector of the same system severe thunderstorms were spawned on Friday. A few supercells formed in the late afternoon near the triple point in northern Nebraska/extreme southern South Dakota. With extremely favourable conditions for tornadoes, storms quickly started rotating. The number of tornadoes is still unclear at this time but a violent, long tracked, wedge tornado which was reported to be over a mile wide, touched down. Per initial reports it appears as though Wayne, NE was the hardest hit on Friday by this tornado. Houses and factories were completely demolished and two dozen people were reported injured. A squall line also evolved further south into Kansas and Oklahoma where large hail and severe wind were the main threats.

Wayne, NE damage

Damage of a factory destroyed in Wayne, NE from the tornado that hit the town. (Source: Twitter: @action3news)

The Santa Ana winds have been a treat to California this week, too. These winds get funneled through the Mountains of Southern California, subsequently warm and dry as they descend in elevation. Gusts in excess of 110km/h have been tearing through Southern California bringing with them an extreme fire risk. This prompted the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue multiple red flag warnings for the area – these warnings are issued when conditions are ideal for wildfires and quick intensification. The NWS also added that these were the worst winds in five years.

As for the tropical storm (Karen) spinning in the Gulf of Mexico, it does not appear that it will become a significant hurricane. Strong wind shear has been affecting its development for the past few days. It will likely make landfall as a tropical storm with winds of tropical storm force, but possibly even weaker depending on how much the shear tears the storm apart. The location of the landfall looks to be on the south-east gulf shores of Louisiana. It doesn’t appear as though its effects will be too significant to the US – heavy rain will be the main threat with Karen. Otherwise, the tropics continue to remain unusually calm and no other developments elsewhere in the Atlantic basin are expected in the near future.