Tropical weather
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I sent out this email to my Extension colleagues in Georgia at noon today. Still valid as of 9 pm tonight. Key points: The current forecast path of Hurricane Florence reduces but does not eliminate the direct impacts of the storm on Georgia, including high winds, storm surge, and heavy rain. There is still considerable…
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The latest monthly outlooks from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center for September 2018 shows that warmer and wetter than usual conditions are expected again this month. Nighttime temperatures are likely to be more above normal than daytime temperatures due to the cloud cover associated with the rainstorms, although there should be plenty of sunshine, especially in…
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Thirteen years ago today, Hurricane Katrina came onshore in eastern Louisiana. While the winds were down to 75-80 mph, the storm surge was massive, in some places higher than 28 feet, and wiped out blocks along the coastline stretching from the Florida Panhandle well across most of Louisiana. Two days later, New Orleans started to…
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Thirteen years ago today, Major Hurricane Katrina was barreling north towards the Gulf Coast as a category 5 storm. Robert Ricks of the National Weather Service put out one of the most chilling weather forecasts that I and my husband (also a meteorologist) had ever seen. Sadly, some people and even news agencies thought it…
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After a very quiet couple of months, the Atlantic tropics are beginning to heat up, just as the most active period of hurricane development begins. The sea surface temperatures, which were near record-setting cold earlier in the year, are now close to normal, and the plumes of Saharan dust which were also inhibiting storm formation…
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As we approach the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, I am seeing many stories in my social media feeds about the anniversaries of past tropical systems that have affected the Southeast. Here is one remembrance of TS Bonnie from the State Climate Office of North Carolina discussing why Bonnie has been overlooked in the…
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If you have not been following the recent weather news, you may have missed the news that a Category 4 hurricane named Lane is bearing down on the Hawaiian Islands and is expected to cause impacts there even if the center misses the islands, as it is expected to do. As bad as the winds…