Category: Hurricanes

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Before-and-after satellite photos reveal devastation left by Hurricane Michael

sudshr47 October 13, 2018

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Hurricane Michael — the fourth Category 4 storm to pummel the United States in 14 months — snapped pine trees like toothpicks, washed neighborhoods into the sea, and shredded the hangars off an Air Force base. 

Before the storm’s 155 mph winds struck the Florida Panhandle on Oct. 10, storm scientists predicted Michael would be an extremely intense storm, in large part because it passed through ocean waters that were 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit above normal — and hurricanes thrive on warm water.

The devastation, seen by satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above, is ghastly. 

Some of the images of destruction from #HurricaneMichael have been devastating, but I wasn’t prepared for these before/after aerial shots provided by @NOAA‘s post storm survey of #MexicoBeach

Most buildings in this area are completely gone.

Link:https://t.co/VEM6x3fEQK pic.twitter.com/cQwdzSbY1b

— Philippe Papin (@pppapin) October 12, 2018 Read more…

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Watch as Florida man experiences eerie calm inside Hurricane Michael’s eye

sudshr47 October 11, 2018

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When the steep-walled eye of Hurricane Michael passed over Stefan Melendez Wednesday afternoon, he stepped into the temporarily tranquil Florida environment and saw blue skies above.

Melendez captured the footage during a Facebook Live video, soon after Category 4 Hurricane Michael — packing 155 mph winds — became the third-strongest cyclone to make landfall in U.S. history. 

The storm is now the most powerful storm on record to strike the Florida Panhandle.

Violent winds thrashed communities like Panama City and Marianna Florida, while surges of ocean water — pushed into the shore by winds — submerged coastal homes in Mexico Beach, Florida. Read more…

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Hurricane Michael is primed to grow stronger and pummel the Florida coast. Here’s why.

sudshr47 October 9, 2018

Hurricane Michael has matured, developed an eye, and is gathering strength as it churns on a direct path towards the Florida Panhandle. 
National Hurricane Center scientists expect the storm to strike land on Wednesday as a major storm, with win…

View More Hurricane Michael is primed to grow stronger and pummel the Florida coast. Here’s why.
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Watch as a cruise ship gets battered by Hurricane Michael

sudshr47 October 9, 2018

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Once again, rough weather has disrupted what should have been a leisurely cruise. The outer bands of Hurricane Michael tossed a cruise ship around, jostling hundreds of vacation-goers in the Gulf of Mexico.

Royal Caribbean’s Empress of the Seas ship was caught up the roiling seas just off the coast of Isla de la Juventud, Cuba, according to CNN. 

One passenger caught video of the choppy water. 

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Remarkably warm oceans spawned 2017’s massive hurricanes

sudshr47 September 27, 2018

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There’s no doubt that hurricanes are complicated beasts with complex origins. 

But following the Atlantic’s extremely active 2017 hurricane season, a group of scientists at Princeton University’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory have identified a connection between the six major hurricanes — with winds over 110 mph — that churned in the ocean, three of which pummeled the U.S. 

All were supercharged by unusually warm waters, and these warm conditions outweighed other weather factors. 

This research — published on Thursday in the journal Science — has significant climate change implications, as the world is expected to continue its accelerating warming trend.  Read more…

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How bad was Florence? Here’s a boat motoring down the interstate

sudshr47 September 18, 2018

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While flying a drone over the completely flooded four-lane Interstate 40 on Monday, the North Carolina Highway Patrol spotted an unusual sight: A motorized boat leaving a large wake over the highway. 

The storm formerly known as Florence — which hit North Carolina as a Hurricane last Friday and then proceeded to drop historic rainfall over much of the state — has brought catastrophic and deadly flooding to inland cities and coastal communities alike. 

Florence has demolished rainfall records. 

Previously, North Carolina’s rainfall record from a storm was 24 inches, set by Hurricane Floyd nearly twenty years ago. On Monday, the National Weather Service reported that nearly 36 inches fell on Elizabethtown, North Carolina. At least 11 other areas also broke the old record. Read more…

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How flocks of birds got trapped inside the eye of Hurricane Florence

sudshr47 September 15, 2018

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In 1969, researchers spotted a black and white sooty tern in Michigan. This hardy seabird, however, had little business visiting the Midwest. The saltwater species usually spends its life in the tropics, more than 1,000 miles away. 

Hurricane Camille — one of the most powerful storms in U.S. history — had trapped and carried the foreign creature to this distant land. Now similarly, tropical storm Florence, which made landfall Friday morning in North Carolina as a hurricane, has also ensnared birds deep inside the cyclone. 

Using radar, several meteorologists have spotted the birds flying inside Florence’s eye. But why are they there?  Read more…

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The Atlantic Ocean is packed with storms. What’s going on?

sudshr47 September 13, 2018

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The Atlantic Ocean is alive.

Including Hurricane Florence, there are currently four named storms — tempests with winds of at least 39 mph — churning in the Atlantic. This ties the record for the most named storms in the Atlantic at any one time. 

And there could be more: There’s yet another collection of thunderstorms off in the Gulf of Mexico that has a decent, 50 percent shot, of becoming the fifth well-developed, named storm. 

While there’s substantial evidence that climate change is having a major impact on the behavior of hurricanes, this current flurry of storms falls within the realm of expected activity for this time of year.  Read more…

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