Tropical Update

Since my last post on Hurricane Ike, three other named tropical storms have formed across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, exams and Penn State Football has dominated my life over the past two weeks, so this is this the first chance I have had to write about them. Anyway...

Hurricane Kyle formed in the Caribbean from a strong tropical low pressure system. Kyle proceeded to strengthen over the Gulf Stream reaching its maximum intensity on September 28th with winds of 80 mph and an estimated minimum pressure of 984mb. Kyle proceeded make landfall in Nova Scotia before becoming extratropical over the cold waters of the North Atlantic. Interestingly enough, the hurricane warnings issued by the Canadian Hurricane Centre. Hurricane advisories were not issued in Canada prior to 2004, but that policy was changed after Hurricane Juan devastated Halifax in 2003.

Tropical Storm Laura formed shortly after Kyle from a strong subtropical wave over the Central Atlantic. Laura never interacted with land, and only held tropical characteristics for a few hours before becoming an extratropical cyclone.

Most recently, Tropical Storm Marco formed just yesterday from a low pressure system in the Bay of Campeche. Marco is an unusually small system, and had tropical storm winds that only extended 15 miles out from the center at landfall. It is without a doubt the smallest named storm in the Atlantic Basin that I have ever seen in my 12 years of being obsessed with tropical meteorology. Marco made landfall this morning in Mexico with winds of 65 mph. Marco will continue to move inland over Mexico, and will likely lose its tropical characteristics later tonight.

Dolly Slams Southern Texas

Hurricane Dolly made landfall near South Padre Island in Texas this morning. Dolly was a category two storm packing winds of 100 mph when she came ashore. She is expected to bring up to a foot and a half of rain and up to eight feet of storm surge across the region. Dolly will continue to weaken as it continues to move NW into central Texas. Hurricane warnings are still in effect from San Fernando, Mexico to Corpus Christi, Texas.

Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Cristobal is becoming extratropical over the open waters of the Atlantic as it rapidly moves northeast away from the United States. A tropical wave has also formed off of the coast of Africa and the National Hurricane Center will be observing the system over the next week as it moves to the west at about 20 mph. Any development of this system will be slow to occur.


(Radar imagery taken from NOAA)