Hurricane!

Small islands are struggling with Mother Nature.

As a Pacific island destination, Lateu struggles to sell itself. A typhoon wiped away its only beach a few years ago and today a handful of squalid thatched huts stand forlornly on its coastline. It will soon be a deserted village, its population the first real victims of rising sea levels brought about by global warming.

After doing damage through the Carribean, Hurricane Ernesto pouring rain on the east coast while Hurrican John is about to savage Baja California.

Water temperatures along the Pacific coast of Mexico are 1-2 degrees C above normal all the way to the California coast, giving 2006 the possibility of allowing a tropical storm to reach California. It is very rare for an Eastern Pacific storm to move far enough north to affect the Arizona or California. Since 1900, only four tropical cyclones have brought tropical storm force winds to the Southwestern United States: an unnamed tropical storm that made landfall near Long Beach, CA, in 1939 (52 mph winds south of L.A.); the remnants of Hurricane Joanne in 1972; the remnants of Hurricane Kathleen in 1976 (76 mph wind gust at Yuma, AZ); and the remnants of Hurricane Nora in 1997. In addition, a hurricane just missed making landfall in October 1858 and brought hurricane force winds to San Diego and tropical storm force winds all the way to Los Angeles.

Hurricane Ernesto and Hurricane Shields.

With Ernesto bearing down on Florida after rolling through Cuba, I’d like to discuss the Hurricane Shield that exists around the Tampa Bay area.

It's hard to believe it's been one year since Hurricane Katrina.

I remember seeing the news in the days running up to the event. I remember we were at my brother's girlfriend's house for some sort of party (her graduation party? Kind of late for it, in September...). I remember Max Mayfield of NOAA (who is to retire in January) warning everyone to leave on the The Weather Channel. I remember Kanye West.

There are also scientists who claim that evolution is incorrect.

On July 2, MIT professor of atmospheric science, Richard Lindzen, published an opinion in The Wall Street Journal stating, among other things, that there is no consensus in the scientific community about global climate change. His opinion, “Don’t Believe the Hype: Al Gore is wrong. There’s no ‘consensus’ on global warming,” can be read here.

Hurricane Wilma has made Cancun residents uneasy about any nearby tropical storms.

Just heard on the TV that meteorologists are keeping a close eye on Tropical Strom Chris which is developing some way off to the South West. With Hurricane Wilma still very much in everyones memory here in Cancun any potential hurricane is closely monitored.

The jury is out on Tropical Storm Chris at the moment.

It’s clear from the 5:00 AM discussion that the National Hurricane Center really doesn’t have a terribly good handle yet on the track or intensity forecast for this storm. “Last night’s computer model runs did not start out with a very good initial picture of the current strength of Chris, and dissipated the storm within 72 hours,” writes Dr. Jeff Masters. “We need to wait until the next set of model runs based on this morning’s 8am EDT (12Z) data are available before taking much stock in both the track and intensity forecasts of the models.” The 12Z model runs will be incorporated into the 11am EDT (8am MST) NHC advisory, so that forecast will be worth watching for.