Tropical weather
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University of Arizona researchers have shown that the number of hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea was 75% lower during the Maunder Minimum, a time period from roughly 1645-1715 AD. This is called the Maunder Minimum because there were fewer sunspots in that time period, which is also linked to a time of low solar activity. The…
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Last weekend I pointed out that Fiji was about to take a direct hit from strong tropical cyclone Winston. NOAA’s Climate blog has a post-storm analysis of Winston at https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/tropical-cyclone-winston-causes-devastation-fiji-tropical-paradise. According to Investment Fiji, “Agriculture (is) the mainstay of Fiji’s economy, and contributes around 28% to total employment in the formal sector, indirectly employing many more.…
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EarthSky reported today on Cyclone Winston, which hit the island of Fiji over the weekend with sustained winds of 185 miles per hour and caused enormous devastation, although reports are just starting to come in. This is the strongest hurricane to ever hit Fiji and the strongest storm so far in 2016, although of course…
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A lot of good weather-related videos have shown up in my Facebook feed this week. You might enjoy them too. Marshall Shepherd of UGA pointed out a humorous short video called “Blame it on El Niño–Do you know what it really is?” here. The New York Times posted a descriptive video about how hurricanes form here.…
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Subtropical Storm Alex transitioned and strengthened today and was declared the first Atlantic hurricane for 2016, a full six months earlier than the average date of the first named storm. This means that Alex has set a number of records. Some of these are detailed in this post at : Alex is only the 2nd-known…
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Today the National Hurricane Center noted the development of the first named storm of the year, Subtropical Storm Alex, in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. This is the first time since 1978 that a named storm has formed in January, according to the Capital Weather Gang in a story here. A subtropical storm has some characteristics…
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NOAA’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center has upgraded Tropical Storm Pali to a hurricane. It is the earliest recorded hurricane in a calendar year in the Central Pacific. The previous record was held by Hurricane Ekeka in January 1992. Hurricane Pali is centered about 650 miles (1045 km) south-southwest of Johnston Island and 1320 miles (2125…