This year's fast-forming hurricanes buck trend, puzzle meteorologists

From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

By Robert Nolin
Staff Writer
Posted September 20 2005

This year, hurricanes just aren't acting like they used to.

The major storms are bucking traditional patterns by forming in the western, rather than eastern, Atlantic Ocean. Instead of taunting worried residents for days, they materialize, it seems, overnight.

The trend has baffled scientists and ratcheted up panic levels for South Floridians.

"It's crazy," said Robin Wagner, 45, of Hollywood. "They come so quick. With Katrina, before we knew it, it was on us."

Hurricane Katrina swept through Broward and Miami-Dade counties last month as a Category 1 storm -- a scant two days after developing in the Caribbean. Storms typically come to life in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean, often near Cape Verde, then pinwheel westward for several days, their ultimate course studied with dread speculation by those in its path.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cwestcanes20sep20,0,95848.story?track=mostemailedlink

Nah, Bush sees no evidence of it.

or something.

:sarcasm:

ocean convection?!?! Uh, I know this sounds far fetched and....errr...extreme and all........

At least that's what the Extremist Christian Clerics keep telling us.

...Pat Robertson said so!

If the president and his Republican assholes say it's not a problem, then it's not a problem.

:sarcasm:

Or we might LOOK. BAD.

It's as if our planet is getting warmer or something.

were gonna tear the rest of Alaska up anyway.

Courtesy of Bill Maher. MKJ

Dry African Air & Dust Storms have been identified by several experts as inhibiting tropical system development, including experts cited in the linked article.

From the linked article:

"It might have to do with the dusty Sahara, said Stanley Goldenberg, a meteorologist with the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Key Biscayne. Dry air from the massive African desert could have blown out over the eastern Atlantic.

"Those outbreaks of dry air can tend to inhibit hurricane formation," Goldenberg said. A predominant atmospheric trough could also make conditions unfavorable for storm development in the eastern ocean. But that doesn't translate into fewer storms, Goldenberg cautioned.

"Even though they're not developing there, you still have this energy, and they're going to develop one way or another," he said."


Another article:

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050823/WEATHER01/508230459/1075

Africa's impact

Africa is helping us. When dry air and dust rises in the Sahara Desert it rides the trade winds across the Atlantic. Desert dust and hot air can take the moisture from the air over both the ocean and the gulf. No moisture, no hurricanes.

"I think it is good we've had this weather. We needed this break to let us catch up from last year," said Cape Coral resident Rebecca Lo Piccolo, 25. "It doesn't mean we aren't prepared for this year. Hurricanes could still come."

This has been discussed by others experts, including Accuweather's Tropical Discussion that was posted earlier this evening:

http://hurricane.accuweather.com/hurricane/regions.asp
Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

A tropical low near 45 west, south of 20 north was moving westward at 10-15 knots. Showers and thunderstorms are accompanying this wave, and development is possible over time. A tropical wave was along 28 west south of 20 north, moving west at 10-15 knots. Nearby African dust is limiting convection with this system, so no development is likely in the near future.

Additional research has been conducted by NOAA (as discussed in this press release).

http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2004/apr04/noaa04-034.html

Additional research has been conducted concerning the impact of African Dust on coral development:

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/african_dust/

Um, global warming???

somehow controlling, or at least purposely impacting, the weather was too tinfoil hat even for me . . .

but the more I've learned, the less sure I am . . . I've seen legislation about weather modification that has been passed by Congress . . . and I've seen just what BushCo is capable of . . .

yes, they could be affecting the weather . . . I'm not saying that they are -- only that they could be . . . and that's scary enough . . .

"yes, they could be affecting the weather . . . I'm not saying that they are -- only that they could be . . . and that's scary enough . . ."

I've found myself thinking of late that as bad as the actual acts of Bush and company are, they're nothing compared to the terror they've instilled in my everyday life - knowing that they are capable of ANYTHING! (Sorry for yelling - it's that fight or flight instinct, and I can't think of a way to fly at this time ...)