It looks like Florida’s hurricane drought will come to an end after all. After so much uncertainty about what was then Invest 99L – whether it would become a major hurricane or fail to make it to a tropical depression – it looks like Florida will see its first hurricane since Wilma stormed ashore southwestern […]
Will Invest 99L End Florida’s Hurricane Drought?
Recently, there has been a lot of buzz in the meteorological community about “Invest 99L,” a large, disorganized area of convection stretching northeastward from Jamaica and Hispaniola with a weak center of circulation near the Turks & Caicos. On satellite, it looks like a train wreck of a system, but many models take it straight […]
Why Did Yemen and Socotra Just Get Hit By Consecutive Tropical Cyclones?
Saturday, November 7, 2015 2:13 pm Less than a week ago, Cyclone Chapala slammed into Socotra, a small Yemeni Island some 150 miles east of the Horn of Africa, and Yemen, a small country on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula currently embroiled in a brutal civil war, becoming the first hurricane-force cyclone to hit […]
An Overview of Hurricane Patricia And Its Relationship To El Nino
Saturday, October 24, 2015 8:09 pm Visible satellite image of Hurricane Patricia at record intensity approaching the Western Mexico Coast. Taken October 23, 2015. Credit: NASA Terra/MODIS Satellite Patricia was the deepest cyclone ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. Deeper than Wilma, deeper than Katrina, deeper than Camille, and far deeper than Sandy (all these storms […]
Will Hurricane Oho Impact the Pacific Northwest?
Tuesday, October 6, 2015 3:29 pm A tower atop Campbell Hall, Western Oregon University collapsing under the 100+ mph winds of the Columbus Day Storm. Credit: Wes Luchau, Statesman Journal The Pacific Northwest has never gotten hit by a hurricane and never will. Our waters are simply too cold to sustain a tropical system. For a […]
Tropical Storm “Dolphin” Near Pohnpei, Micronesia!
Saturday, May 9, 2015 11:46 pm Me in a mangrove forest as part of a UW study abroad trip in Pohnpei, Micronesia during the summer of 2013. Almost two years ago, I went on a UW study abroad trip to Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia to learn about coastal ecosystems, and it was […]
Odile’s Rain
Wednesday, September 17, 2014 5:54 pm Hurricane Odile at peak intensity on 9/14/14 as a category 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds and a central pressure near 922 mb. Cabo San Lucas is your typical Baha-Californian tropical paradise (technically it’s subtropical, but subtropical paradise just sounds… not as good as a tropical paradise, and Cabo […]
The Landfall of Super Typhoon Haiyan
Thursday, November 7, 2013 8:17 p.m. A visible satellite image of Super Typhoon Haiyan as it makes landfall Friday morning Philippine time. Credit: NOAA. A few hours ago, Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest, and, pending further investigation, quite likely THE strongest tropical cyclone in recorded history not only at landfall but at peak […]
A Record-Breaking Storm
Monday, October 29, 2012 3:06 P.M. 19 years old, and Spongebob is still my favorite cartoon. It seems like everywhere I go, people are talking about Hurricane Sandy. Most of what I’m seeing are Facebook posts from people on the West Coast praying for the health and safety of those affected by this massive storm. […]
The “Frankenstorm” of 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012 2:51 P.M. Hi everybody. I just finished a hectic week. Two midterms. A ton of homework. I even finished an entire package of Omega-Three gummy bears from Costco. Maybe it’s a stress thing. But honestly, the thing that made this week the most hectic, was this. This, my friends, is a […]