After two relatively quiet years in the Atlantic Tropical Basin, things did pick up again in 2008. As of today, there have been 17 depressions, 16 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and 5 major hurricanes. A major hurricane, one with winds of Category Three strength or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, occurred at least once over five straight months, which set a new record that surpassed the one made back in 2005. Speaking of the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season, this soon to be finished season was much like 2005 for the communist island nation of Cuba.
Over the years and centuries, Cuba has seen its share of big storms such as what would become the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Hurricane Frederic (1979), Hurricane Charley (2004), and Hurricane Dennis (2005). However, the island, which boasts of high mountains that reach some 8,000 feet into the air, hasn’t had a season like this in a very long time. There were at least four different storms that affected Cuba. Two of them struck in the same location just about a week apart. Fay was the first storm to affect the island with heavy rains and gusty tropical storm force winds. Then, Gustav blew through with 150 mile per hour winds in the area of the Isle of Youth on the Friday and Saturday before Labor Day.
Like the Great Galveston Storm of 1900, Hurricane Ike passed through Cuba on its way to its final destination, struck the same location as Gustav about a week later. So, within a three or four week span, the communist nation, which is still going through a period of transition after Fidel Castro stepped down due to health reasons a couple years ago, was battered by heavy rains and wind from three tropical storms including two major hurricanes. Recently, another major storm affected the island when Category Four strength Paloma struck the eastern portion of Cuba a couple weeks ago with 145 mph winds before heading out to sea and dissipating. In 2005, the United States suffered a similar fate when four major hurricanes struck its coastline over a span of four months with Dennis (July), Katrina (August), Rita (September), and Wilma (October). Three of those four storms were Category Five strength at one point before weakening.
Hurricane Ike was the worst hurricane to strike anywhere along the U.S. Coastline since Katrina, which is now the costliest disaster on record in U.S History. Since 1995, the Atlantic has been undergoing a period of increased activity in the Atlantic. Only 1997 and 2006, which were El Nino years, were either average, or below average seasons. This era of very busy activity is expected to continue for more years to come.
As the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season is drawing to a close, now is a time to look back on what happened during the season. This season, there was to date 17 tropical depressions, 16 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and 5 major hurricanes. The five major hurricanes: Bertha, Gustav, Ike, Omar, and Paloma occurred in five different months. As a matter of fact, there was a major storm in each of the last five months, which is a record. The previous record was set in 2005 with major hurricanes in four straight months: Dennis and Emily (July), Katrina (August), Rita (September), and Wilma (October).
A major hurricane is a storm that attains winds in excess of 111 miles per hour, or is a minimal Category Three Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. The first of the major storms in 2008 occurred in July with Hurricane Bertha. Gustav followed in late August and early September. Hurricane Ike was the big story of the season as it crossed through Cuba, and made an impact directly over Galveston, Texas on September 13th as a very strong Category Two system. Omar directly impacted the Northeastern Leeward Islands in the Caribbean in October. It was the second storm on record to hit the Caribbean from the West. The first since Hurricane Lenny struck there in November 1999.
As you may already know, the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season was a record breaker in so many ways. There were 28 named storms, 15 hurricanes, 7 major hurricanes, and 4 Category Five Hurricanes. It was also a year when the complete list of storm names was exhausted, and storms had to be represented by letters in the Greek Alphabet. It was the first time such a thing had happened. There was also a storm that formed in the far eastern Atlantic in Hurricane Vince that ultimately went into Portugal and Spain as a depression. The first time on record that had happened. So, for the 2008 season to surpass a mark from that historic season was quite impressive.
Initial projections for the season called for 15 named storms, and then in August, those numbers were revised to have 17 named storms. So, the 16 that have actually occurred to this point (with still two weeks to go in the season), is pretty much on the mark. Another possible record is the number of storms and hurricanes that affected Cuba this season: Fay, Gustav, Ike, and Paloma. A couple modest tropical storms affected the Northeast and New England in the form of Hanna and Kyle. Both storms had been hurricanes at one point.
Good morning again. As you could see in my previous blog post, it has been a bit stormy, windy, and wet here in New Jersey. Thursday started things off as a coastal storm brought some rain to the area during the day, especially in the afternoon. On Friday, there were some showers around, but it was mainly cloudy, and even foggy in the morning, and at night. Saturday was the big day though. According to the NOAA Almanac for the Month of November that is kept on Greg’s Weather Center, the high temperature reached 70 degrees while the maximum rain for the month so far fell with 0.87 inches.
It was a vigorous storm system that blew through on Saturday. Feeding off quite a vast temperature difference, or gradient, the storm first came up from the south ushering in showers from the Southwest to the Northeast starting in the morning. However, by afternoon there were some breaks in the clouds, and patches of blue sky emerged. Perhaps that occurrence provided a spark or a catalyst to the weather in the form of sunshine to cook up things in the atmosphere. A Tornado Watch was in effect in Southern New Jersey, and at about 4:30 PM EST, the skies began to grow more ominous although night was also starting to set in.
Heavy rains began to fall in the area around Raritan Center at about 6:30 PM EST on Saturday night. It sounded like a torrential downpour characteristic of a summer thunderstorm. On this early Sunday morning though, things have cleared out, but there is still the wind to contend with. According to the National Weather Service, there is a Gale Warning in effect for the coastal waters of Middlesex County as well as the rest of the Jersey Shore. Today’s forecast for Northwest Middlesex County calls for temperatures to only reach a high of 51 while dropping to 42 by about 5:00 PM EST Sunday afternoon.
The coldest weather of the season will be upon us this week as a Continental Polar air mass descends in from Canada following this unusually deep trough. One thing you’ll learn about meteorology is that strong highs tend to follow strong lows, and that is what we are seeing here. The rest of the week shows a couple chances for snow on Monday night into Tuesday (30 percent along with a mixture of rain), and on Thursday. Temperatures on Tuesday are expected to drop to 39 for a high while the low is expected to be 29. On Thursday, temps are anticipated to be around 38 for a high.
For the year, South Plainfield has received 35.78 inches of rainfall including 2.19 so far this month. The most rain observed on a single day so far in 2008 was on September 6th when Tropical Storm Hanna came through. Rainfall amounts topped out at 3.25 inches. So far this month, there have been eight days with at least .01 inches of precipitation, and seven of those days have seen over 0.1 inches. Surprisingly, there were no reports of severe weather in New Jersey yesterday as of the time of this report. As a matter of fact, there was only eight reports total throughout the entire United States, and all of them were confined to the Eastern third of the nation.
Good morning everyone. Well, it’s been quite a stormy past three days, and we’re still not through yet. Windy conditions dominate this early morning as high pressure is moving in with the unseasonably cold weather that will characterize this mid-November week. Temperatures are expected to be in the low 40s by Tuesday. Anyway, here is time lapse video photography of the opening salvo of all this storminess, heavy rains on Thursday.
Good afternoon everyone. Here is a time lapse video of a recent Nor’easter that brought some rain and wind to Central Jersey on November 8th. This was your typical mid-latitude cyclone that characterizes the most common weather in the Northeastern United States this time of year. Hope you enjoy.
Good afternoon once more. Here is the final in a series of several timelapse photography videos by the Greg’s Weather Center Webcam. This one is from Wednesday when the latest Nor’easter began to clear out. However, it wasn’t before there was a bit more rain and wind for Middlesex County residents to deal with. Take a look, and enjoy.
Good afternoon again. Here is the second of several timelapse photography videos that I’ve just posted to YouTube. This one is of the second Nor’easter in several days to hit the Central Jersey area, and actually bring some snow. Although it didn’t stick here in Northwestern Middlesex County, it did up in Northwestern New Jersey, where High Point in Sussex County received 14 inches of the white stuff. Once again, enjoy!
Good afternoon everyone. I know that it has been a while since I last posted to this web site, but I’ve been busy with my job, and the fall league season for high school basketball for my hoops site. Anyway, I have been working on putting together some time lapse photography videos for all of you to look at. Several of which I’ve just posted to YouTube. One of them is of a Nor’easter that came through Central Jersey last Saturday, and brought some wind and rain to the area. I hope you enjoy.
Good morning everyone. I’m going to try and keep this brief since I have to go to work in a bit. However, I was woken up this morning to the sound of my television, which I kept on. It was tuned to the Weather Channel, and I was watching Mike Bettes try and battle the elements as Hurricane Ike was crashing ashore near Galveston Island.
TWC and CNN have blanketed the Southeast Texas area with reporters to cover the storm like both always do. Jim Cantore was on Galveston Island along with Stephanie Abrams, and Cantore was in amazement over the power and fury of Ike’s western eyewall, which appeared to be much stronger in force than the eastern side. Debris was flying everywhere, and even almost got a piece of the longtime TWC reporter, who was in studio when Hurricane Andrew came ashore in August 1992.
Despite the fact that Ike didn’t exactly get up to major hurricane status (technically just one mile per hour away), it still has created a great deal of havoc in terms of just the wind alone. Watching the palm trees swaying violently on television even in the middle of the night told me that this was a very bad storm, and could have been a lot worse had it strengthened as many forecasters indicated earlier this week. Well before landfall, there had already been a great deal of flooding on Galveston Island and nearby beaches along the Upper Texas Coast. Meanwhile, the Southwestern Bayou of Louisiana including Cameron and Lake Charles, which were hit hard by the surge produced by Hurricane Rita in September 2005 were hit even harder this time.
Note: Some of this was written on Tuesday, September 9th.
Good afternoon everyone. Sorry that I didn’t post to the blog on Monday evening, but I was trying to rest my back. It’s getting better, but it can still be quite painful. Nevertheless, I still managed to update the home page several times with the latest info on Ike. The next several days I’ll have off so I will have some time to update the site and the blog more often. Anyway, I’ve continued to track Ike just like mostly everyone, and the storm’s track is becoming more and more interesting since the storm keeps going west.
During much of Ike’s lifetime, there has been a strong ridge of high pressure over the Atlantic. Two things people need to understand with hurricanes are: 1.) They move like a hockey puck in that they need some other force to push it along, and 2.) They often take the path of least resistance. So, for example, our subtropical ridge that has been dominant in the Atlantic over the past week, and actually was also responsible for the very warm weather in the Northeast last week, has been driving our Hurricane Ike along to the West or West-Northwest. It also was responsible for a bit of the West to Southwest jaunt the storm had late last week.
In addition, there have been shortwave troughs that have been pushing into the Eastern United States over the past several days including one that brought some severe thunderstorms with torrential rains to the Northeast on Tuesday morning. Hurricanes look for these troughs because they erode the strong ridge, and provide those weaknesses that these tropical systems look to exploit. Well, the troughs have kept bypassing the ridge, and not forcing it to relent. It even appeared at one point that Hurricane Ike was going to head west into Northeastern Mexico, and miss the United States completely.
Starting on Wednesday though, things began to change as the models began to show the ridge dominating much of the Southeastern United States, especially East Texas was pushing eastward, which created the alleyway for Ike to come up into the Upper Texas Coast. The storm has turned to the right in the last 24 hours because it is simply moving around the periphery of the ridge. Now, on Wednesday, forecasters had also indicated that the intensity of Ike would be around a Category Three or Four when it made landfall. Unfortunately, forecasting the future intensity of a hurricane is much more difficult than predicting the future track. The dynamics of the inner core of a hurricane are still a mystery to forecasters and researchers, and Ike was a classic example of why.
