Are Warmer Seas Fueling Hurricanes This Season?

 This year's hurricane season has been unusual. According to the following article, the four major Atlantic hurricanes that spun toward the Caribbean in the past month were fueled by record warm seas and formed in an unprecedented 20 days. With 10 weeks left in the hurricane season, more may be coming.
'The season may be busy for another month', “All the ingredients’’ are in place for major hurricanes to form this year' said Simon Young, chief executive of the insurer Caribbean Risk Managers.
   . . . June


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Warmer seas fueling hurricanes
The Boston Globe:

The four major Atlantic hurricanes that spun toward the Caribbean in the past month were fueled by record warm seas and formed in an unprecedented 20 days. With 10 weeks left in the hurricane season, more may be coming.

The storms that were born off west Africa gathered strength by absorbing the ocean’s heat and swelled into Category 4-level hurricanes on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. While none hit land at full speed, each packed winds of at least 131 miles an hour, stronger than Katrina’s Category 3 winds when it devastated New Orleans in 2005.

After Igor churned past Bermuda Monday and cut power to two-thirds of the island’s residents, Tropical Storm Lisa formed yesterday in the east Atlantic. While the six-month season is past its statistical peak, forecasters and insurers said warmer seas can lengthen the danger period to property, from beach homes in Florida to rigs and refineries in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.

“The hotter the water, the higher the octane level, and there [are] going to be far more Category 4 and 5 hurricanes,’’ said Jim Rouiller, an Air Force meteorologist for 20 years who works for Planalytics Inc. in Berwyn, Pa.

The season may be busy for another month, said Simon Young, chief executive of the insurer Caribbean Risk Managers. “All the ingredients’’ were in place for major hurricanes to form this year, he said.

The National Hurricane Center predicts 2010 will have as many as 20 storms of at least 39 mile-per-hour winds, meaning they will be named, compared with 11 in a typical year. Lisa’s formation yesterday brought this year’s tally to 12. The Miami-based center has identified five major hurricanes in 2010 compared with two in an average season when waters are cooler.

Read on . . .

Category 4 Hurricane Earl may rake U.S. east coast

The hurricane season in here and this latest storm named Earl was expected to veer off and just swipe the coast. However, it has strengthened to a Category 4 and  its path is less certain, according to the article below. It could do some major damage anywhere along the coast. We'll just have to stay tuned . .
   . . June


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Strengthening Hurricane Earl may rake U.S. east coast

Tuesday August 31, 2010

"MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Earl strengthened into a powerful Category 4 storm on Monday after lashing the northeast Caribbean islands, and was expected to swipe the U.S. East Coast in the next few days, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said.
Hurricane Danielle is (L) is seen southeast of Bermuda and Tropical Storm Earl (C) is pictured west of the Cape Verde Islands, in this National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite image taken August 26, 2010 and released August 28. (REUTERS/NOAA/Handout)

But the Miami-based forecasters said it was too early to say which part of the U.S. eastern seaboard might be impacted by Earl, the second major hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season."

Earl had sustained winds of 135 mph (215 kph) and could strengthen in the next two days, the forecasters said.

The hurricane was moving west-northwest on a curving track that the National Hurricane Centre said would take it near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on Thursday and Friday.
A direct hit could not be ruled out, and Earl was expected to bring drenching rain, dangerous seas and surf and gusting wind to the Atlantic Coast from North Carolina to New England and Canada, said Alex Sosnowski, a senior meteorologist for private forecaster AccuWeather.

"How nasty the weather gets in this region will depend on the exact track of Earl and its proximity to the coast," Sosnowski said in a posting on the AccuWeather website.
If Earl swings farther west than expected, heavy rain could sweep the Interstate 95 corridor from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City, he said.

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