2009 Hurricane Season

Here in the Pacific, Hurricane Felicia just missed doing any serious damage to the Sandwich Islands last weekend. Out at sea it was Category 3 or maybe even 4 for a while. By the time it came to within 100 miles of Hawaii it wasn't even a hurricane any more. I'm not even sure if it was a tropical storm any more or just a tropical depression. Brought some heavy rains to the islands of Oahu and Maui and that's about it.

But a new one -- Guillermo -- is forming now!

90L or TD2 both have a good chance of becoming the second named storm in the Atlantic (Bill) and the blob over the FL keys is looking interesting as well.

I live in So CA and we have never had a hurricane. Ah, paradise!

Is that the ground shaking underneath you, Nick?

The hurricane that passed over us last year was initially thought to be going to Florida. There's no room for complacency where storms are concerned.

How true. Instead you get grass fires in the summer; mudslides in the winter; and earthquakes all year 'round. This, not to mention 10.5% income taxes a& 8.5% sales taxes. Ah, paradise !!!

The website for the National Hurricane Center is nhc.noaa.gov
You can view storm activity in the Atlantic and Pacific.
If someone has the time to periodically post map updates, click on a storm and click to enlarge it. I like the 5-day cone, but I can live with any choice. Then transfer it to this thread.
Thanks to any volunteer(s).

Here's Ana



And Bill (which is forecast to become a hurricane within the next five days)



90L won't get circles until it gets named but here are the computer models. 90L is also forecast to reach hurricane strength over the next five days.

Thanks, JPB! If you have time, click on Eastern Pacific. Guillermo looks like it will track north of Sglass and Merryandrew in HI.

Here you go...

Guillermo

Our blob has just been designated 91L. It looks like things are heating up in the Atlantic.

Our blob turned 91L is now TD4 and expected to be TS Claudette in the next few hours. This very fast developing storm is moving fairly quickly over the GOM and doesn't have time to develop further before reaching landfall.



In the meantime, Ana and Bill are moving west (Ana) and WNW (Bill) and will affect the islands later in the week. Bill is worth keeping a close eye on as conditions are favorable for continued strengthening as it approaches the eastern seaboard some time next weekend. Best estimates today are that Bill will get caught up in an upper trough and get pulled back out to sea without making landfall in the US.

The model maps above for Ana and Bill update automatically so I won't re-post them here.

If that wasn't enough to keep watch on, we may have invest 92L soon as another wave is pushing off the African coast.

Here is satellite imagery for some perspective on the locations of all of these storms in relation to each other.

Indeed, we now have Claudette. The maximum wind is only expected to be about 35 mph when it makes land east of Pensacola, perhaps Ft Walton Beach, in a few hours. There could be a bunch of rain there and in Western and Central Alabama (Birmingham) tomorrow.

Thanks for starting the thread rjb, and for the excellent images, JPB. Let's hope it's the calmest season on record.

Thank you, JPB. And thank you for suggesting it to JPB, realjohn. I've been monitoring the NOAA site myself from time to time but it's nice to see it on the monitor.

Ah, but the price yall will have to pay is reading a long, languid story from me after storms A, B, and C play out. It is written. Maybe Wednesday, the 19th, will work. Be forewarned: It is long.

How -- long - - is - - it, - - john - -?

Long. Amusingly enough, the lovely Ms Letty gets a mention in the true story.
You can, of course, scroll through it or vote it down.

I am looking forward to it, John.