Tropical cyclones & hurricanes & typhoons of 2019 (e.g Hurricane Dorian)

Seeing as the last two years brought ... interesting storm systems across the work, let's see what this year is bringing.

First off, as we speak Intense Tropical Cyclone Idai◊ is approaching the coast of Mozambique as the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane - or rather, it is returning there as the storm system in part developed over land and caused severe flooding and over 55 fatalities in Mozambique and Malawi. It is a fairly strong storm for the region, the last time a strong cyclone went over land there was in 2000. In general this year's cyclone season in the Southwest Indian Ocean was unusually active, but none of the big storms made landfall.

Well, it looks like Idai is causing a lot more flooding (both rain and storm surge( than expected in Mozambique, Malawi, Madagascar, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Per Wikipedia, the death toll has already reached 314 and may still increase to over a thousand fatalities. The president of Mozambique is calling it one of the worst disasters within the southern hemisphere.

Meanwhile another tropical cyclone named Trevor is running across northern Australia and after crossing the Cape York Peninsula will likely become rather strong over the Gulf of Carpentaria. It doesn't seem like there is much in that part of Down Under to damage, though.

Number of confirmed deaths at the moment is 417. According to Graça Machel (former first lady of Mozambique, who runs a foundation dedicated to the development of the Mozambican communities), there might be more than 3 million people affected within the country.

There is also a risk of humanitarian crisis, since food supply and health care help and distribution/logistics hasn't been fully established yet.

Edited by Quag15 on Mar 23rd 2019 at 2:53:14 AM

Tropical Cyclone Trevor downgraded to a tropical low as it moves inland but still expected to cause flooding in several river catchements.

Meanwhile Western Australia is bracing as Cyclone Veronica hits the state's north.

While both systems are expected to be no longer cyclones, but there is some concern about what could happen if the two resulting tropical lows collide as they move inland.

According to Wikipedia, Idai's death toll has already risen to 762. Apparently . In the former nation, rescuers were forced to let people die in order to save others. from Wikipedia also.

A rare Southe Atlantic tropical storm has formed off the coast of Brazil, Ida is 778 km northeast of Rio de Janeiro.

Er, it's actually called IBa. It also seems to be unique as it's a fully tropical storm rather than a subtropical one.

Otherwise, as we speak Category 4 cyclone Joaninha is just passing by Rodrigues island in the Indian Ocean.

Edited by SeptimusHeap on Mar 25th 2019 at 7:34:46 PM

Well, looks like the South Atlantic now has a likely hurricane season to worry about.

Global warming isn't going away any time soon. :/

Well, it probably won't develop far ... a little quiz: notice something about its structure?

You mean... apart from making many a wannabe-a-spiral-but-am-still-stubbornly-elliptical galaxy jelly?

It made an honest shot for an eye.

Yes, the blob of clouds offset from the spiral is the classic signal of strong wind shear that's blowing the top part of the storm (the blob of clouds) away from the bottom part of the storm (the spiral).

As someone named Dvorak found out a few decades ago, one can tell from the looks of a storm how strong it is. So the aforelinked image means that it will be a weak one whereas the look in the image below tells us that it's a really strong one:

The death toll for Idai keeps rising, according to Wikipedia it's now up to 894. There is now a cholera outbreak as well.

While not a 2019 storm (since this is the only tropical weather thread), 2018's North Atlantic Hurricane Michael was officially updated to a category 5 (140 knots/160 mph) at landfall by the US National Hurricane Center.

^That makes it the fourth Category 5 hurricane on the continental US in recorded history. Note also that last year Typhoon Yutu also came across US territory as Cat 5.

On the other side of the equator: Since apparently Cyclone Idai wasn't enough Cyclone Kenneth is on its way to northern Mozambique and the Comoros Islands. According to the JTWC forecast it could very well be a major hurricane in the Comoros and a strong one still in Mozambique.

On another note, is it just me or did Idai get rather little attention in the global media? 1000+ fatalities are not a common sight in tropical cyclones even in developing countries but it just feels like this one didn't get much attention.

Pardon the doublepost, but as we speak Cyclone Fani is approaching India and Bangladesh as a strong Category 4 tropical cyclone and is expected to make landfall as Cat 4/Cat 3 in Odisha on India's eastern coast tomorrow. Link to the Indian meteorological service website as they are keeping updates there.

The Cyclone has more or less dissipated. Casualties are, thankfully, low. About 34 people or so, mostly due to very effective Disaster Management systems. 1.2 Million People were evacuated successfully.

Widespread damage to infrastructure and the land, but that was expected. Most of the deaths came from those who did not evacuate despite being told to do so - one of the times Determined Homesteader has Gone Horribly Wrong.

Power has been restored to hospitals and schools. The Bhubaneshwar Airport has reopened and relief supplies are making their way in. The Central Government has also increased the Disaster Relief fund by $144 Million to speed up recovery.

Today the hurricane season begins in the East Pacific and in a few weeks also in the Atlantic (Atlantic and Pacific hurricane name list)

According to the forecasts it seems like between El Niño and a weaker-than-usual Atlantic overturning circulation the Atlantic season will be average to slightly above average. Fair warning to Americans: The (Atlantic-wide) forecast is generally not indicative of what will happen on US coasts.

Watch this space, North American folks.

A tropical depression that has a while ago moved into the eastern Gulf of Mexico is on the cusp of becoming a tropical storm and might become a hurricane in the Louisiana/Texas area.

Wow. This is... early. It's not even the end of July, yet. Barely mid!

Looks like it's a tropical storm now.

There does seem to be some concern that it could continue strengthening into a hurricane, but only barely.

10 am CDT advisory: BARRY BECOMES A HURRICANE AS IT IS MOVING ONTO THE LOUISIANA COAST

1 pm CDT advisory: BARRY MAKES LANDFALL NEAR INTRACOASTAL CITY LOUISIANA AND WEAKENS TO A TROPICAL STORM

Edited by tclittle on Jul 13th 2019 at 12:59:54 PM

One just missed us here in eastern Taiwan, scooting up the coast. We've been lucky the last couple of years- may be due for a big one.

Yeah, Taiwan's dodged quite a few typhoon bullets in the last few years.

Though we've been hit with some pretty bad earthquakes.

Seems like we've got the second record-breaking storm this year with Typhoon Lekima which is the 10th costliest typhoon in recent history. Remarkably, the costliest typhoon was in 1991 and thus quite far back in time.

Doublepost since the Atlantic is finally waking up: While Tropical Storm Chantal dissipated without much fanfare, a tropical storm will form soon east of the Lesser Antilles and will gradually strengthen on its way to Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Also, another tropical depression will likely soon form east of Florida and develop as it moves northeastwards.

(There is also Tropical Storm Ivo and disturbances east of Hawaii, just south of Louisiana and above Baja California Sur but the first is decaying, the third is unlikely to develop, and jury's still out on the second and fourth)

eta: The tropical depression east of the Lesser Antilles is now Tropical Storm Dorian and has some chance of undergoing rapid intensification.

Edited by SeptimusHeap on Aug 24th 2019 at 10:58:52 AM