Hurricane Gustav making landfall; TD #9 forms in Atlantic
Mon Sep 1 2008 @ 11:47 EDT
New Orleans, LA Doppler Radar
The latest storm information is available in the Tropical Center.
Hurricane Gustav is making landfall along the coast of Louisiana. The center made landfall near Cocodrie, LA at 10:30 EDT (14:30 UTC) as a strong Category 2 hurricane. The storm was a Category 3, but has weakened recently due to interaction with land. This puts Gustav only west of the landfall location of Hurricane Katrina, but with weaker wind speeds, which will be a relief to many along the coast.
Media and cameras
News stories
Local information
Weather data
Latest information on Tropical Storm Fay
Wed Aug 20 2008 @ 06:08 EDT
Tuesday 5:00 PM Update: Tropical Storm Fay has not weakened after it moved onto land over Florida. Because of this, the storm may intensify into a hurricane as it moves out into the Atlantic Ocean later this evening. A Hurricane Watch is now in effect from Flagler Beach, Florida north to Altamaha Sound, Georgia. A Tropical Storm Watch is now in effect from Altamaha Sound to the Georgia/South Carolina border.
Tropical Storm Fay, the sixth tropical storm of the 2008 Atlantic season, is approaching the mainland of Florida as of 5:00 PM Monday. The storm has moved very slowly through the Caribbean and Cuba, and only recently has it picked up speed as it moves North into a ridge of high pressure over the Southeastern United States. The mountainous terrain of Haiti and the Dominican Republic kept the storm from intensifying. However, the storm is now over very warm waters near the Florida Keys and could intensify before making another landfall on the Western Florida coast.
Media
- Live weather data in Melbourne, Florida
- Video update from the Key West weather service office
- Weather cams in Florida
- Key West, FL radar
- Tampa Bay Area, FL radar
Long string of severe weather; Parkersburg tornado on video
Sun Jun 8 2008 @ 21:45 EDT
ATM surveillance camera captures Parkersburg EF-5 tornado as it destroys several homes across from the ATM.The Parkersburg tornado was over 3/4 mile wide when it passed through Parkersburg. Seven people were killed in the tornado, and more than 288 homes were destroyed in Parkersburg, 88 in New Hartford, 15 in Hazelton and another 50 in Black Hawk County.
The Parkersburg tornado was caught on camera by several security cameras at a bank in the town. First State Bank released video footage from their ATM and indoor security cameras showing the tornado approaching and then passing over the bank. Trees and bushes can be seen blowing around as the tornado approaches. On one of the indoor cameras, debris then starts passing outside before the building's windows are blown out. The camera is then thrown around the room.
The National Weather Service office in Des Moines has more information on the Parkersburg tornado.
More recently, a stalled out front (stationary front) has been the focus of severe weather and flooding over the past week. Tornadoes and wind damage have been reported from Kansas all the way East to the Atlantic seaboard. Over 10 inches of rain fell in portions of Indiana, and over 8 inches of rain fell in Ohio.
On Saturday, seven tornadoes were reported from Odell, Illinois northeast to the Chicago suburb of Lansing.
See also: Tornado deaths spur warnings for motorists
Severe weather in the Plains
Mon May 26 2008 @ 16:44 EDT
Photo courtesy of KUSA-TV.On both Thursday and Friday, numerous tornadoes were reported in Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. 13 tornadoes alone were reported in the Tri-State (Colorado-Kansas-Nebraska) area. The strongest tornado was an EF4 (second strongest tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale) three miles southwest of Quinter, Kansas.
Over the weekend, the storm system moved Northeast and spawned several large tornadoes in Iowa and Minnesota. In Parkersburg, Iowa, a small town in the Northeast corner of the state, a mile-wide tornado tore through the area and damaged over one-third of Parkersburg. 6 people were killed and 72 injured by this tornado. The damage appears to be consistent with an EF4 tornado. More information is available from the Des Moines Register.
Further severe weather is already occurring on Memorial Day as the weather system progresses East into the Midwest. Return to weatherUSA for the latest information.
Atlantic hurricane outlook released, calls for above-normal season
Mon May 26 2008 @ 15:33 EDT
Forecasted Atlantic tropical patterns in August through October (click to enlarge).On Thursday, NOAA and the Climate Prediction Center released its outlook for the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane season, which runs from June 1st through November 30th. The outlook calls for normal to above-normal activity in the Atlantic, with a 65% chance of an above-normal season. The outlook indicates 12-16 named storms (tropical storms or above), 6-9 hurricanes, and 2-5 major hurricanes (category 3, winds over 111 MPH).
An average season has 11 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 2 major hurricanes.
Various climate patterns point to a normal or above-normal season, including:
- The continuance or dwindling of La Niņa, which is a lower-than-average sea surface temperature off the coast of Peru and into the equatorial Pacific Ocean. La Niņa has been associated with above-normal hurricane seasons due to decreased winds in the Atlantic, which don't break apart hurricanes as higher winds do.
- Warm sea surface temperatures, a continuance of a pattern since 1995. Sea surface temperatures are already above-normal off the coast of Western Africa, and water temperatures in the middle Atlantic are starting to rise to normal or above-normal values.
For comparison, Klotzbach and Gray, a team from Colorado State University who also issue tropical activity forecasts, are calling for 15 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and 4 major hurricanes. Their outlook points to several of the same conditions as the NOAA report lists. The team will update their forecast on June 3rd, and we will be sure to correct this outlook at that time.
However, neither of these reports are designed to predict where tropical storms will make landfall. The Colorado State team lists above-normal probabilities of hurricane landfall along the US coast. It is very important to note that the weather patterns which steer hurricanes are not well forecast more than a few days before landfall. Tropical storms are steered by high and low pressure systems, trade winds, and other patterns, which are constantly changing every day.