View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Sunday 16 August 2009

Hurricane update - 16 August

The Atlantic hurricane season has turned into the proverbial number 11 bus service: you wait for ages for one to come, and then three all come at once. Let's have a look.

Tropical storm Ana, a bit of a ragged affair 560 miles east of the Leeward Islands, is making steady progress west and will affect the islands on Monday. Rain appears to be the main danger, although 40 knots of wind (that's force 9 on the Beaufort scale) cannot be dismissed.

Tropical storm Bill is more than 1,500 miles east of the Leeward Islands, and is expected to pass to their north as a category III hurricane on Wednesday or Thursday.

Tropical depression 04L (soon to be Claudette) has sprung up in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, 150 miles south of Apalachicola and is moving north towards the Gulf coast. Winds are expected to rise to 45 knots (that's close on force 10), rainfall up to 10 inches and a 3 to 5 feet storm surge. If you're in the Panhandle, please monitor the 3-hourly output from NHC for updates and warnings.

The Pacific is not quiet either, but for the moment nothing is threatening land. Guillermo is blowing himself out more than 1,000 miles east of Hawaii, and will not affect that state; Maka is in the middle of nowhere (hundreds of miles from Wake Island, if you can find that on a map), although a 75 knot typhoon (by Wednesday) is always worth watching. And something is brewing northeast of the Polynesian island of Pohnpei (again, get the atlas out). If interested, keep an eye on the Joint Typhoon Warning Center's website.

For reference: a typhoon is the same as a hurricane.

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