Tag Archives: typhoon

This year’s global hurricane boom could go into overdrive

The powerful weather pattern known as El Niño has been blamed for massive wildfires, crippling droughts, and global food shortages. And it’s looking increasingly likely that another one is on the way.

The latest outlook from the National Weather Service, out Thursday, says there’s a 70 percent chance that El Niño will arrive before the end of the year. Summertime outlooks for El Niño are generally pretty accurate, so it’s a big deal that the weather pattern is still in the forecast.

Another El Niño would carry far-reaching consequences for the world’s weather, one of which may have already arrived: Hurricanes and typhoons have been popping up more often than normal this year. (Both are place-specific names; the meteorological term for these storms is tropical cyclone.) El Niño warms the waters of the Pacific Ocean, providing additional fuel for tropical cyclones and increasing their activity by about 15 percent.

As of Thursday, according to Grist’s analysis of available weather data, cyclone activity in the Pacific Ocean is running about 42 percent above normal; in the Indian Ocean, it’s about 40 percent above normal. But in the Atlantic, it’s a whopping 370 percent above normal. Some of this is just random chance, but at least in the Pacific, the early signs of El Niño have already arrived.

All this has already led to several cyclone disasters in a season that’s just getting started.

In May, Cyclone Mekunu struck Oman, bringing two years’ worth of rainfall in a few hours and creating a huge swath of temporary lakes in one of the driest deserts on Earth. This week, more than 600,000 people were evacuated in China’s Fujian province before Typhoon Maria made landfall. Meanwhile storm-weary Puerto Rico received a scare from Hurricane Beryl, before it fizzled shortly after reaching the Caribbean.

Earlier this month, Typhoon Prapiroon kicked off a record-breaking torrential downpour in southern Japan. More than 70 inches of rain have fallen — about four-months worth in 11 days — a precipitation level on par with what Texas experienced during Hurricane Harvey last year. More than 200 people have died so far as a result, and the damage is so widespread that Japanese officials are comparing it to the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

To be clear, El Niño is a natural, cyclical phenomenon that the Pacific Ocean has undergone for millennia. And just because there’s an El Niño brewing doesn’t mean every rainstorm everywhere is connected to it. But there’s growing evidence that climate change is starting to make stronger El Niños happen more often. And that evidence, combined with the fact that climate change is increasing cyclone-related rainfall intensity anyway, is easily enough implicate human activity in the worst of  floods that occur against the backdrop of an El Niño year.

We need to look back only to 2015 — the last visit from El Niño — to find the busiest tropical cyclone season in recorded history. So far, this year is just a storm or two off that pace.

Over the past 15 years, the National Weather Service has called for an impending El Niño in their July outlooks six times. They’ve been wrong only once, in 2012. Sure, they could be wrong this year, but don’t bet on it. If the building El Niño arrives, global air temperatures will surge, lagging a few months behind the warmer oceans. That would give 2019 a good shot at knocking off 2016 as the warmest year on record. With a strong El Niño, global temperatures might even tiptoe across the 1.5 degree-Celsius mark — temporarily crossing a major milestone that climate campaigners are fighting to prevent.

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This year’s global hurricane boom could go into overdrive

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We Were Blown Away By This Beautiful Wind Map

Mother Jones

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This story was first published by CityLab and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Though software engineer Cameron Beccario did it first with “Earth,” now NOAA has launched its own real-time wind model displayed over the gorgeous backdrop of the world at night.

Or day—you can change the time to see current and future conditions, and even watch the sun line swoop across the globe. (The model is refreshed with new forecasts every six hours.) This is North America with the day-night terminator halfway across the continent:

Winds are displayed as blue lines bunching in tight swirls in low-pressure areas. Shown above is Typhoon Soudelor menacing Taiwan on Thursday, and here are gusty ocean breezes flowing down the California coast:

The temperature filter transforms the world into a seeming lake of fire. Look at the hot weather in the South and cooler conditions in the mountainous West:

Typhoon Soudelor again, looming like a humongous, ghostly whirlpool in the model’s moisture filter:

And here is the equator’s famous rain band, which is predicted to shift north as the climate warms, screwing up farming for millions of South Americans:

Originally posted here – 

We Were Blown Away By This Beautiful Wind Map

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This guy’s typhoon tweets make the climate crisis urgent, touching, and funny all at once

This guy’s typhoon tweets make the climate crisis urgent, touching, and funny all at once

By on 4 Dec 2014 1:15 pmcommentsShare

The worst storm of 2014 is moving across the Western Pacific, headed for the Philippines. There’s a chance it will just graze the island nation — but there’s also a chance that Super Typhoon Hagupit is headed straight for the area hit so hard last year by Super Typhoon Haiyan.

Writes USA Today:

Hagupit strengthened into a typhoon Tuesday and continued to strengthen Wednesday, with sustained winds of 150 mph, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said.

That is equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. A typhoon is the same type of storm as a hurricane but is called a typhoon in the western Pacific Ocean.

The storm was about 800 miles east of the Philippines and could be near the island nation by Saturday.

When Haiyan struck last year, 7,000 were killed or went missing, and, more than a year later, the country is still recovering. Many people still live in temporary shelters, made homeless by the most powerful typhoon to ever hit land.

At the time, there was also a U.N. climate conference underway in Warsaw, Poland. The Philippines’ climate change commissioner, Yeb Saño, had his hometown destroyed, and went on a hunger strike during the conference in hopes of spurring “meaningful” progress.

Now, as Hagupit bears down, there’s another U.N. climate conference underway, in Lima, Peru. This time, Saño is at home. He is again trying to raise awareness about his vulnerable country’s plight in the face of climate change. Notably, on Twitter:

And sometimes, with a sense of humor about the whole thing:

Fingers crossed that this year’s summit won’t get the same kind of deadly and urgent reminder of the threat of climate change that Haiyan delivered in 2013.

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This guy’s typhoon tweets make the climate crisis urgent, touching, and funny all at once

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This Is What the Most Powerful Storm of the Year Looks Like From Space

Mother Jones

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Super Typhoon Vongfang is mercifully expected to weaken before making landfall in Japan Monday, but at its peak it has reached wind speeds up to 180 mph, making it the most powerful storm of 2014 (so far).

Thursday morning, NASA astronaut Reid Weissman showed the world just what that type of storm looks like from, well, above the world.

(via Wired)

Credit:

This Is What the Most Powerful Storm of the Year Looks Like From Space

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PHOTOS: Devastation in the Philippines After Haiyan Hits

Mother Jones

Super Typhoon Haiyan, perhaps the strongest storm ever recorded on Earth, made landfall in the Philippines on Friday. The result was catastrophic, with 10,000 feared dead, according to the Associated Press. The storm made landfall again in Vietnam on Monday morning local time. Here are photos of the preparation for, and aftermath of, Haiyan’s arrival.

A child wraps himself in a blanket inside a makeshift house along a fishing village in Bacoor, south of Manila. Ezra Acayan/ZUMA

Various government agencies monitor the path of Super Typhoon Haiyan inside the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) office in Quezon City, Philippines. Rouelle Umali/ZUMA

This NASA MODIS Aqua satellite image shows Super Typhoon Haiyan shortly before it smashed into the Philippines with 200 mph winds and 50-foot waves. Lightroom Photos/Nasa/ZUMA

Dark clouds from Super Typhoon Haiyan loom over the skyscrapers of metro Manila. Rouelle Umali/ZUMA

People reinforce dykes ahead of Super Typhoon Haiyan in Phu Yen province, central Vietnam. Vna/ZUMA

Local residents are evacuated to safe places before Super Typhoon Haiyan hit Vietnam in Da Nang city, central Vietnam. Vna/ZUMA

Aerial photo taken on November 10 shows the scene after Typhoon Haiyan hit Leyte Province, Philippines. Ryan Lim/ZUMA

Aerial photo shows the scene after Typhoon Haiyan hit Leyte Province. Ryan Lim/ZUMA

Filipino typhoon survivors from Tacloban City disembark from a C130 military plane in an airport in Cebu City, Philippines. Ritchie Tongo/ZUMA

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PHOTOS: Devastation in the Philippines After Haiyan Hits

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World Briefing | Asia: The Philippines: Strong Typhoon Lands

The United States Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii said the typhoon, Haiyan, had maximum sustained winds of 195 miles per hour, with gusts up to 235 m.p.h. View post:  World Briefing | Asia: The Philippines: Strong Typhoon Lands ; ;Related ArticlesNational Briefing | South: Arkansas: ExxonMobil Fines Proposed After Oil SpillColorado Cities’ Rejection of Fracking Poses Political Test for Natural Gas IndustryCase of Insect Interruptus Yields a Rare Fossil Find ;

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World Briefing | Asia: The Philippines: Strong Typhoon Lands

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