Category: Posts EN

Sally Intensifies Rapidly, Landfall Late Tonight or Early Wednesday in Mississippi

Written by Team Morecast

 

Sally started the day as a tropical storm but has undergone rapid intensification due to very warm waters and favorable upper level winds. Now a dangerous Category Two, Sally could intensify further before landfall late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Deadly storm surge, destructive winds, and torrential rainfall will hammer the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle.

 

 

For the first time since 1971, five named cyclones occupied the tropical Atlantic basin simultaneously Monday (see map above). Rene has weakened to a remnant low. Tropical Storms Teddy and Vicky pose no immediate threat to land. Paulette passed directly over the island nation of Bermuda on Sunday night into Monday morning as a Category One hurricane. It’s only the tenth time in recorded history that a mature hurricane’s eye passed directly over the island. Some residents reported damage to their homes, but for the most part it seems the island escaped significant impacts.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, Hurricane Sally won’t be so passive. Significant surge flooding is already being reported along the Alabama coast with torrential rainfall over parts of the Florida Panhandle. Sally is moving slowly west-northwest and may slow down even more into Tuesday. The very warm waters over the northeastern Gulf will continue to provide fuel for intensification. Sally may even approach major hurricane status as it approaches the coast. Regardless, locations along the coast from southeast Louisiana to the Florida-Alabama border will be inundated by a deadly storm surge up to nine feet (2.75 m). Destructive winds gusting to 120 mph (190 kph) will bring down numerous trees and powerlines and tear roofs from homes. The slow storm motion will also translate into prodigious rainfall totals up to 18 inches (450 mm) in spots, leading to major freshwater flooding. Conditions will continue to deteriorate through Tuesday in the target zone with landfall expected on Wednesday morning.

Ferocious Fires Consume Millions of Acres in the West & Claim Three Dozen Lives

Written by Team Morecast

 

Months of near-zero precipitation and boiling temperatures have helped spark hundreds of wildfires in the West. More than three million acres as well as thousands of homes and businesses have burned to ashes in California alone. That’s 27 times the acreage burned in all of 2019, and possibly the most in more than a century. Choking smoke has spread across much of the Western and Central US, leading to the worst air quality conditions in decades. Nearly three dozen lives have been lost to the flames.

 

 

Firefighters have worked superhuman shifts to try to control the blazes, some going 48 to 72 hours without a break. Still, the high winds, hot temperatures, and severe drought conditions have turned forests up and down the West coast to kindling. Hundreds of wildfires have stretched fire management resources well beyond the breaking point. Evacuations have been required for hundreds of communities in Washington, Oregon, and California. Despite the evacuations, the death count is up to at least 35, including two dozen in California. Many more are missing as of Sunday night.

 

 

A historic heat wave has been one ingredient in the cataclysmic fires of late. Los Angeles County reported their highest temperature of all time on 6-Sept, 121 deg F ( deg C). Officials have cautioned that such high temperatures will lead to rolling blackouts unless stringent energy conservation measures are taken. To ease the strain on the power systems, California Governor Newsome has temporarily eased emissions regulations on suppliers. Unfortunately that will only decrease air quality as wildfire smoke combines with industrial emissions. Only months after enjoying some of the cleanest air in decades due to the COVID shutdown, ozone levels reached 185 ppb in Los Angeles last Sunday. That’s the highest level since 1994, in the “Very Unhealthy” category. Other major West Coast cities like Portland and San Francisco, and even into southern British Columbia, have reported similarly hazardous air quality readings in recent weeks. Satellite imagery shows smoke from the fires is being carried as far east as the Midwest and Great Lakes.

 

Roiling Tropical Atlantic Threatening Bermuda and Gulf Coast in the Coming Days

Written by Team Morecast

 

The climatological peak of hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin just occurred on 10-September. Appropriately, the tropics are very active. Currently there are four storms rolling across the Basin, including Hurricane Paulette and Tropical Storm Sally, both strengthening. Paulette will pass directly over the island of Bermuda in the next few days. Meanwhile Sally is expected to strengthen rapidly and approach the central Gulf Coast as a hurricane later this week.

 

 

 

Paulette is a minimal hurricane as of Saturday evening, however conditions are favorable for steady strengthening in the next few days. Paulette will continue to move northwestward, bringing the center of the storm directly over Bermuda by Monday morning. Hurricane landfalls are not uncommon for the tiny island nation, occurring every few years, and local residents have well-practiced procedures to deal with the impacts. However, strong winds, heavy rains, and surge flooding can still major disruptions, including power outages. After passing Bermuda, Paulette will turn northeast and accelerate towards the northern Atlantic.

 

 

Tropical Storm Sally has already caused very heavy rainfall and gusty winds over south Florida on Saturday. Now the storm has entered the eastern Gulf of Mexico with warm waters and low shear ahead. Intensification is likely and Sally could be a hurricane by Monday. Steering winds are not very strong and will diminish further in the coming days. Consequently, Sally will slow down as it moves close to the central Gulf Coast. Landfall is projected to occur somewhere between southeast Louisiana and the Florida panhandle on Tuesday. Slow storm motion will lead to heavier rainfall totals, exceeding 12 inches (300 mm) in some areas (see map above), leading to serious freshwater flooding. A life-threatening storm surge and destructive winds will also occur near and just east of the landfall point. Additional updates will likely come out as Sally approaches landfall. Lead photo courtesy flickr user Jerry Angelica.

Typhoon Haishen Rips Through Japan and South Korea

Written by Team Morecast

 

The busy port of Busan, South Korea suffered a direct hit from Typhoon Haishen on Monday morning, just hours after it raked the Japanese island of Kyushu. Fortunately, Haishen had weakened significantly since peaking at Category Five status late last week. Still, the region saw damaging winds and serious flooding as the storm moved through.

 

 

Haishen continues to move rapidly north today, weakening as it does. The storm will be not much more than a remnant low tonight into Tuesday as it moves through North Korea and into eastern China. However, Haishen was a much stronger storm overnight Sunday into early Monday as it passed close to Kyushu Island and slammed into southeast South Korea. Winds gusting in excess of 130 mph (210 kph) were reported in the southern Japanese Islands, along with widespread rainfall around eight inches (200 mm). Rain-prone mountainous areas saw much higher rainfall as much as 23 inches (580 mm)! The typhoon threat provoked nearly a million Japanese residents to evacuate from their homes. Hundreds of thousands were without power due to the storm as of Monday morning.

 

 

Haishen is the third typhoon in the past few weeks to strike the Korean peninsula after Bavi and Maysak. It’s the first time in nearly 75 years that three typhoons have struck the Koreas in the same season. Haishen is also the fifth named storm to strike the peninsula this season, a new record. Lead photo courtesy wikipedia contributor Stephen Wheeler.