Photo: The Canadian Press Buildings and homes have been damaged in the wake of Hurricane Laura. It’s been quiet — very quiet — this Atlantic hurricane season, forecasters and storm-prone residents whisper almost as if not tempting fate. A record-equalling inactive August is coming to an end and no storms have formed, even though it’s peak hurricane season and all pre-season expert forecasts warned of an above-normal season. Almost all the factors forecasters look for in a busy season are there. Warm ocean water for fuel? Control. Not much wind shear decapitating storms? Control. La Nina, the natural cooling of the central Pacific changing global weather patterns and increasing storm activity in the Atlantic? Control. However, zero storms formed. Surprised experts point to the unusually persistent dry air and a few other factors. But every time they and the computer simulations think something is brewing, nothing comes of it. “It’s been surprisingly and incredibly quiet in the Atlantic,” said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy, noting that weak Tropical Storm Colin made landfall on July 2 and has not seen anything since. It will be the first time since 1941 that the Atlantic will go from July 3 to late August without a named storm, said University of Colorado hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. Since 1950, only 1997 and 1961 have had no named storms in August, and 1961 became hyperactive in September, including the deadly Carlas, he said. In Lake Charles, Louisiana, one of the most weather-beaten cities in the past decade, residents have noticed how quiet the hurricane season has been so far and are almost “tempting fate” to show it off, Mayor Nic Hunter said. . From August 2020 to August 2021, the city was hit by two hurricanes – Laura and Delta – just six weeks apart, a deep freeze and spring flooding. Residents still have blue tarps on their roofs. “I think there is a lot of knock on wood. There are a lot of prayers,” Hunter said. “Until the season is over, I don’t think anyone will have a sigh of relief.” Certainly not 74-year-old Shirley Verdin, who lives about 200 miles (320 kilometers) away in Bayou Point-Au-Chien, where Hurricane Ida struck on August 29 last year. She now lives in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer next to her home that will be torn down to the stilts this weekend so it can be rebuilt. There are noses from potential storm systems swirling in the Atlantic that forecasters are watching, and so is Verdin. Closely. “I know there’s something out there right now,” he said. The National Hurricane Center is tracking three storm systems in the Atlantic and gives them all at least a 50 percent chance of becoming a named tropical storm, with one of them an 80 percent chance. But Colorado State’s Klotzbach has seen that before this year and isn’t counting on them. As recently as late last week, computer forecast models predicted three to four storms would form, including one that would become a major hurricane with winds of more than 110 mph (177 km/h), Klotzbach said. Then nothing. Over the past month and a half, storms that could be hurricane seeds have been coming out of Africa and looking pretty strong “but then they meet very dry air that’s right over the Atlantic,” said University at Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero . “The dry air was really the main thing that kept the storms from really starting.” The relative humidity is about 15 percent below normal, and there is dust from the Sahara that makes it drier, McNoldy and Klotzbach said. Dry air does a few things, Corbosiero said. These storms become stronger and gain energy as warm moist air rises from the ocean. The ocean is warm enough, but the dry air causes that water to evaporate, cool and go down, not up, he said. That dry air also helps create crosswinds about 2 miles up (3 to 4 kilometers) “that can really do damage to a storm that’s trying to form,” Corbosiero said. Matthew Rosencrans, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said he sees signs that the dry air is ending and normal moisture will return, which could mean more storms. Rosencrans also says crosswinds at other heights, especially in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, have also been a factor in dampening storm activity so far. Other factors include a patch of air sinking over the Atlantic, a poorly positioned high-pressure system also linked to the European heat wave and dust, scientists said. It was also strange in the tropics, but in a different way, Klotzbach said. Before this year, the northern Indian Ocean had only one named storm in August. this year there are two, he said. And in the Pacific, Supertyphoon Hinnamnor is not only the most powerful storm on Earth this year, but it’s moving southwest when storms of this type typically move west to east, Klotzbach said. “There are some weird things going on,” Klotzbach said. But in the Atlantic nothing really happens, and the victims of past years’ storms don’t want to be fooled. “Wouldn’t that be great?” Louisiana resident Thomas Halko asked if the so far quiet hurricane season will continue. Halko lives in Jefferson Parish in southeast Louisiana, an area that was hit by Hurricane Ida last year. A house on his property was lifted off its foundation and had to be demolished. “We’ve made it through the week and it looks like we’re in pretty good shape for the next five days or so,” he said of the upcoming weather report. But it’s hard to appreciate the quiet when you feel a “nervous anticipation of doom” thinking about the ongoing hurricane season. “There’s this feeling that it’s really not going to go away,” he said. Hurricane season peaks around September 10th and runs through November 30th. “It’s important to remember the lessons from Hurricane Andrew, which devastated South Florida and Louisiana in an otherwise quiet year,” National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rome said in an email. “It only takes one hurricane that makes landfall to make it a bad season for you, and we still have many months left in hurricane season.”
title: “Calm Before The Storms Strangely Quiet Atlantic Despite Forecasts World News Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-03” author: “Katie Williams”
Photo: The Canadian Press Buildings and homes have been damaged in the wake of Hurricane Laura. It’s been quiet — very quiet — this Atlantic hurricane season, forecasters and storm-prone residents whisper almost as if not tempting fate. A record-equalling inactive August is coming to an end and no storms have formed, even though it’s peak hurricane season and all pre-season expert forecasts warned of an above-normal season. Almost all the factors forecasters look for in a busy season are there. Warm ocean water for fuel? Control. Not much wind shear decapitating storms? Control. La Nina, the natural cooling of the central Pacific changing global weather patterns and increasing storm activity in the Atlantic? Control. However, zero storms formed. Surprised experts point to the unusually persistent dry air and a few other factors. But every time they and the computer simulations think something is brewing, nothing comes of it. “It’s been surprisingly and incredibly quiet in the Atlantic,” said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy, noting that weak Tropical Storm Colin made landfall on July 2 and has not seen anything since. It will be the first time since 1941 that the Atlantic will go from July 3 to late August without a named storm, said University of Colorado hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. Since 1950, only 1997 and 1961 have had no named storms in August, and 1961 became hyperactive in September, including the deadly Carlas, he said. In Lake Charles, Louisiana, one of the most weather-beaten cities in the past decade, residents have noticed how quiet the hurricane season has been so far and are almost “tempting fate” to show it off, Mayor Nic Hunter said. . From August 2020 to August 2021, the city was hit by two hurricanes – Laura and Delta – just six weeks apart, a deep freeze and spring flooding. Residents still have blue tarps on their roofs. “I think there is a lot of knock on wood. There are a lot of prayers,” Hunter said. “Until the season is over, I don’t think anyone will have a sigh of relief.” Certainly not 74-year-old Shirley Verdin, who lives about 200 miles (320 kilometers) away in Bayou Point-Au-Chien, where Hurricane Ida struck on August 29 last year. She now lives in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer next to her home that will be torn down to the stilts this weekend so it can be rebuilt. There are noses from potential storm systems swirling in the Atlantic that forecasters are watching, and so is Verdin. Closely. “I know there’s something out there right now,” he said. The National Hurricane Center is tracking three storm systems in the Atlantic and gives them all at least a 50 percent chance of becoming a named tropical storm, with one of them an 80 percent chance. But Colorado State’s Klotzbach has seen that before this year and isn’t counting on them. As recently as late last week, computer forecast models predicted three to four storms would form, including one that would become a major hurricane with winds of more than 110 mph (177 km/h), Klotzbach said. Then nothing. Over the past month and a half, storms that could be hurricane seeds have been coming out of Africa and looking pretty strong “but then they meet very dry air that’s right over the Atlantic,” said University at Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero . “The dry air was really the main thing that kept the storms from really starting.” The relative humidity is about 15 percent below normal, and there is dust from the Sahara that makes it drier, McNoldy and Klotzbach said. Dry air does a few things, Corbosiero said. These storms become stronger and gain energy as warm moist air rises from the ocean. The ocean is warm enough, but the dry air causes that water to evaporate, cool and go down, not up, he said. That dry air also helps create crosswinds about 2 miles up (3 to 4 kilometers) “that can really do damage to a storm that’s trying to form,” Corbosiero said. Matthew Rosencrans, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said he sees signs that the dry air is ending and normal moisture will return, which could mean more storms. Rosencrans also says crosswinds at other heights, especially in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, have also been a factor in dampening storm activity so far. Other factors include a patch of air sinking over the Atlantic, a poorly positioned high-pressure system also linked to the European heat wave and dust, scientists said. It was also strange in the tropics, but in a different way, Klotzbach said. Before this year, the northern Indian Ocean had only one named storm in August. this year there are two, he said. And in the Pacific, Supertyphoon Hinnamnor is not only the most powerful storm on Earth this year, but it’s moving southwest when storms of this type typically move west to east, Klotzbach said. “There are some weird things going on,” Klotzbach said. But in the Atlantic nothing really happens, and the victims of past years’ storms don’t want to be fooled. “Wouldn’t that be great?” Louisiana resident Thomas Halko asked if the so far quiet hurricane season will continue. Halko lives in Jefferson Parish in southeast Louisiana, an area that was hit by Hurricane Ida last year. A house on his property was lifted off its foundation and had to be demolished. “We’ve made it through the week and it looks like we’re in pretty good shape for the next five days or so,” he said of the upcoming weather report. But it’s hard to appreciate the quiet when you feel a “nervous anticipation of doom” thinking about the ongoing hurricane season. “There’s this feeling that it’s really not going to go away,” he said. Hurricane season peaks around September 10th and runs through November 30th. “It’s important to remember the lessons from Hurricane Andrew, which devastated South Florida and Louisiana in an otherwise quiet year,” National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rome said in an email. “It only takes one hurricane that makes landfall to make it a bad season for you, and we still have many months left in hurricane season.”
title: “Calm Before The Storms Strangely Quiet Atlantic Despite Forecasts World News Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-19” author: “Jesse Colbert”
Photo: The Canadian Press Buildings and homes have been damaged in the wake of Hurricane Laura. It’s been quiet — very quiet — this Atlantic hurricane season, forecasters and storm-prone residents whisper almost as if not tempting fate. A record-equalling inactive August is coming to an end and no storms have formed, even though it’s peak hurricane season and all pre-season expert forecasts warned of an above-normal season. Almost all the factors forecasters look for in a busy season are there. Warm ocean water for fuel? Control. Not much wind shear decapitating storms? Control. La Nina, the natural cooling of the central Pacific changing global weather patterns and increasing storm activity in the Atlantic? Control. However, zero storms formed. Surprised experts point to the unusually persistent dry air and a few other factors. But every time they and the computer simulations think something is brewing, nothing comes of it. “It’s been surprisingly and incredibly quiet in the Atlantic,” said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy, noting that weak Tropical Storm Colin made landfall on July 2 and has not seen anything since. It will be the first time since 1941 that the Atlantic will go from July 3 to late August without a named storm, said University of Colorado hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. Since 1950, only 1997 and 1961 have had no named storms in August, and 1961 became hyperactive in September, including the deadly Carlas, he said. In Lake Charles, Louisiana, one of the most weather-beaten cities in the past decade, residents have noticed how quiet the hurricane season has been so far and are almost “tempting fate” to show it off, Mayor Nic Hunter said. . From August 2020 to August 2021, the city was hit by two hurricanes – Laura and Delta – just six weeks apart, a deep freeze and spring flooding. Residents still have blue tarps on their roofs. “I think there is a lot of knock on wood. There are a lot of prayers,” Hunter said. “Until the season is over, I don’t think anyone will have a sigh of relief.” Certainly not 74-year-old Shirley Verdin, who lives about 200 miles (320 kilometers) away in Bayou Point-Au-Chien, where Hurricane Ida struck on August 29 last year. She now lives in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer next to her home that will be torn down to the stilts this weekend so it can be rebuilt. There are noses from potential storm systems swirling in the Atlantic that forecasters are watching, and so is Verdin. Closely. “I know there’s something out there right now,” he said. The National Hurricane Center is tracking three storm systems in the Atlantic and gives them all at least a 50 percent chance of becoming a named tropical storm, with one of them an 80 percent chance. But Colorado State’s Klotzbach has seen that before this year and isn’t counting on them. As recently as late last week, computer forecast models predicted three to four storms would form, including one that would become a major hurricane with winds of more than 110 mph (177 km/h), Klotzbach said. Then nothing. Over the past month and a half, storms that could be hurricane seeds have been coming out of Africa and looking pretty strong “but then they meet very dry air that’s right over the Atlantic,” said University at Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero . “The dry air was really the main thing that kept the storms from really starting.” The relative humidity is about 15 percent below normal, and there is dust from the Sahara that makes it drier, McNoldy and Klotzbach said. Dry air does a few things, Corbosiero said. These storms become stronger and gain energy as warm moist air rises from the ocean. The ocean is warm enough, but the dry air causes that water to evaporate, cool and go down, not up, he said. That dry air also helps create crosswinds about 2 miles up (3 to 4 kilometers) “that can really do damage to a storm that’s trying to form,” Corbosiero said. Matthew Rosencrans, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said he sees signs that the dry air is ending and normal moisture will return, which could mean more storms. Rosencrans also says crosswinds at other heights, especially in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, have also been a factor in dampening storm activity so far. Other factors include a patch of air sinking over the Atlantic, a poorly positioned high-pressure system also linked to the European heat wave and dust, scientists said. It was also strange in the tropics, but in a different way, Klotzbach said. Before this year, the northern Indian Ocean had only one named storm in August. this year there are two, he said. And in the Pacific, Supertyphoon Hinnamnor is not only the most powerful storm on Earth this year, but it’s moving southwest when storms of this type typically move west to east, Klotzbach said. “There are some weird things going on,” Klotzbach said. But in the Atlantic nothing really happens, and the victims of past years’ storms don’t want to be fooled. “Wouldn’t that be great?” Louisiana resident Thomas Halko asked if the so far quiet hurricane season will continue. Halko lives in Jefferson Parish in southeast Louisiana, an area that was hit by Hurricane Ida last year. A house on his property was lifted off its foundation and had to be demolished. “We’ve made it through the week and it looks like we’re in pretty good shape for the next five days or so,” he said of the upcoming weather report. But it’s hard to appreciate the quiet when you feel a “nervous anticipation of doom” thinking about the ongoing hurricane season. “There’s this feeling that it’s really not going to go away,” he said. Hurricane season peaks around September 10th and runs through November 30th. “It’s important to remember the lessons from Hurricane Andrew, which devastated South Florida and Louisiana in an otherwise quiet year,” National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rome said in an email. “It only takes one hurricane that makes landfall to make it a bad season for you, and we still have many months left in hurricane season.”
title: “Calm Before The Storms Strangely Quiet Atlantic Despite Forecasts World News Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-16” author: “Nellie Maranda”
Photo: The Canadian Press Buildings and homes have been damaged in the wake of Hurricane Laura. It’s been quiet — very quiet — this Atlantic hurricane season, forecasters and storm-prone residents whisper almost as if not tempting fate. A record-equalling inactive August is coming to an end and no storms have formed, even though it’s peak hurricane season and all pre-season expert forecasts warned of an above-normal season. Almost all the factors forecasters look for in a busy season are there. Warm ocean water for fuel? Control. Not much wind shear decapitating storms? Control. La Nina, the natural cooling of the central Pacific changing global weather patterns and increasing storm activity in the Atlantic? Control. However, zero storms formed. Surprised experts point to the unusually persistent dry air and a few other factors. But every time they and the computer simulations think something is brewing, nothing comes of it. “It’s been surprisingly and incredibly quiet in the Atlantic,” said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy, noting that weak Tropical Storm Colin made landfall on July 2 and has not seen anything since. It will be the first time since 1941 that the Atlantic will go from July 3 to late August without a named storm, said University of Colorado hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. Since 1950, only 1997 and 1961 have had no named storms in August, and 1961 became hyperactive in September, including the deadly Carlas, he said. In Lake Charles, Louisiana, one of the most weather-beaten cities in the past decade, residents have noticed how quiet the hurricane season has been so far and are almost “tempting fate” to show it off, Mayor Nic Hunter said. . From August 2020 to August 2021, the city was hit by two hurricanes – Laura and Delta – just six weeks apart, a deep freeze and spring flooding. Residents still have blue tarps on their roofs. “I think there is a lot of knock on wood. There are a lot of prayers,” Hunter said. “Until the season is over, I don’t think anyone will have a sigh of relief.” Certainly not 74-year-old Shirley Verdin, who lives about 200 miles (320 kilometers) away in Bayou Point-Au-Chien, where Hurricane Ida struck on August 29 last year. She now lives in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer next to her home that will be torn down to the stilts this weekend so it can be rebuilt. There are noses from potential storm systems swirling in the Atlantic that forecasters are watching, and so is Verdin. Closely. “I know there’s something out there right now,” he said. The National Hurricane Center is tracking three storm systems in the Atlantic and gives them all at least a 50 percent chance of becoming a named tropical storm, with one of them an 80 percent chance. But Colorado State’s Klotzbach has seen that before this year and isn’t counting on them. As recently as late last week, computer forecast models predicted three to four storms would form, including one that would become a major hurricane with winds of more than 110 mph (177 km/h), Klotzbach said. Then nothing. Over the past month and a half, storms that could be hurricane seeds have been coming out of Africa and looking pretty strong “but then they meet very dry air that’s right over the Atlantic,” said University at Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero . “The dry air was really the main thing that kept the storms from really starting.” The relative humidity is about 15 percent below normal, and there is dust from the Sahara that makes it drier, McNoldy and Klotzbach said. Dry air does a few things, Corbosiero said. These storms become stronger and gain energy as warm moist air rises from the ocean. The ocean is warm enough, but the dry air causes that water to evaporate, cool and go down, not up, he said. That dry air also helps create crosswinds about 2 miles up (3 to 4 kilometers) “that can really do damage to a storm that’s trying to form,” Corbosiero said. Matthew Rosencrans, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said he sees signs that the dry air is ending and normal moisture will return, which could mean more storms. Rosencrans also says crosswinds at other heights, especially in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, have also been a factor in dampening storm activity so far. Other factors include a patch of air sinking over the Atlantic, a poorly positioned high-pressure system also linked to the European heat wave and dust, scientists said. It was also strange in the tropics, but in a different way, Klotzbach said. Before this year, the northern Indian Ocean had only one named storm in August. this year there are two, he said. And in the Pacific, Supertyphoon Hinnamnor is not only the most powerful storm on Earth this year, but it’s moving southwest when storms of this type typically move west to east, Klotzbach said. “There are some weird things going on,” Klotzbach said. But in the Atlantic nothing really happens, and the victims of past years’ storms don’t want to be fooled. “Wouldn’t that be great?” Louisiana resident Thomas Halko asked if the so far quiet hurricane season will continue. Halko lives in Jefferson Parish in southeast Louisiana, an area that was hit by Hurricane Ida last year. A house on his property was lifted off its foundation and had to be demolished. “We’ve made it through the week and it looks like we’re in pretty good shape for the next five days or so,” he said of the upcoming weather report. But it’s hard to appreciate the quiet when you feel a “nervous anticipation of doom” thinking about the ongoing hurricane season. “There’s this feeling that it’s really not going to go away,” he said. Hurricane season peaks around September 10th and runs through November 30th. “It’s important to remember the lessons from Hurricane Andrew, which devastated South Florida and Louisiana in an otherwise quiet year,” National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rome said in an email. “It only takes one hurricane that makes landfall to make it a bad season for you, and we still have many months left in hurricane season.”
