Category: Tropical
The World of Tropics
A quick look at all the ocean basins of the world. We notice that they are two active tropical systems. One of them in the Southern Indian Ocean, the other in the Western Pacific Ocean.
Cyclone Claudia is our system in the Southern Indian Ocean. Claudia is a category 3 storm will maximum sustained winds of 115 mph. Not much land in the Southern Indian Ocean for Claudia to affect. Claudia will continue to move south and should only be affecting the shipping lanes. I always enjoy getting images of these southern hemisphere storms. It is not often we get to see clockwise cyclonic flow on such a large scale. Claudia has a well defined eye in the center of her convection and is expected to maintain her strength until she reaches 20 degrees South, where she is then expected to begin to weaken.
The second system is Typhoon 26 W. This was Super Typhoon Bopha earlier in the week. Bopha made landfall in the southern Philippines causing massive destruction and killing hundreds of people. This typhoon is now affecting the northern islands of the Philippines where it continues to cause flooding. Winds are sustained at 95 mph, but this system is very poorly organized as many of the thunderstorms and convection are displaced away from the center. This system is expected to curve back south and slowly dissipate over the next few days.
Tropical Storm Boldwin
Even though hurricane season officially ends at the end of November. No development is expected and we should end this very active hurricane season ending on the “T” storm, as Tropical Storm Tony was our last storm to be named.
However, with our season winding down, other parts of the world are beginning their tropical seasons. Case in point, the Southern Indian Ocean where Tropical Storm Boldwin has developed. Boldwin is not expected to impact any land masses, but there is some great satellite imagery of this system. Since Boldwin is in the Southern Hemisphere, you will notice that it has clockwise cyclonic flow, which is something that we are not use to seeing in the Northern Hemisphere. Boldwin is moving southwest at 8 knots and it will also continue to move off to the south and west towards the south pole. Maximum sustained winds are 45 knots (approx. 50 mph) and gusting to 55 knots (63 mph).
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up…
In October 1997, emergency management officials in Westchester County, New York ran a hurricane simulation for their area.
The fictional storm was loosely based on the 1938 Long Island Express Hurricane, which caused extreme devastation on Long Island and in Westchester County.
The practice hurricane was set to come inland on Saturday evening, October 4th as a category two hurricane just east of New York City.
The advisories used in the drill were eerily predictive of what would happen just over fifteen years later as a very real and very serious Hurricane Sandy came ashore. The central pressure in the advisories 12 hours before landfall was 935 millibars. The maximum winds were similar. The track even curved around eastern North Carolina before turning toward the north.
But what made it really eerie was that the name of the practice hurricane. Can you guess what it was?
Sandy.
Here is some more information on the simulation.
Disturbing Reports
From the NWS New York City:
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
949 PM EST MON OCT 29 2012
…RECORD HIGH WATER LEVEL AT THE BATTERY NY…
A RECORD HIGH WATER LEVEL OF 13.88 FEET WAS SET AT THE BATTERY NY
TODAY AT 9:24 PM. THIS BREAKS THE OLDEST OFFICIAL RECORD OF 10.02
FEET SET IN 1960 WITH HURRICANE DONNA.
$$
MALOIT
Some good news…the tide is now falling at The Battery in Lower Manhattan. Reading at 13.63′ down from 13.88′ a few minutes ago.
Disturbingly, they also sent this report:
UPDATE AT 9:00 p.m. News Media is reporting that this report is false. Flooding is in basement only.
at 09:27 PM EDT — New York Stock Exchange trading floor under 3 feet of water.
Water is flooding into the Battery Tunnel. And water was flooding into the PATH train station at Hoboken, NJ across the Hudson River. There is serious flooding in Hoboken. Serious flooding is also reported in all of the boroughs.
Here is a picture from about an hour ago from Twitter and Instagram on 20th Street on the Lower East Side at Avenue C (near the FDR):
Tide at Battery Park
The tide at Battery Park is now approaching 8 feet above mean lower low water. The astronomical tide right now should be about 1 foot above mean lower low water, which means that the tidal level at the Battery at the south end of Manhattan is now 7 feet above normal and climbing as we head toward high tide just after 8 p.m. EDT tonight.
Here is a good graphic from NOAA of the water rise.
Winds will become more southeasterly in the New York area as the center moves inland, pushing more water into New York Harbor.
Many tidal stations can be seen on this site.
