Latest Annular hurricane Stories
The Prediction Intensity Interval model for Hurricanes (PIIH) algorithm seeks to mitigate damage by the "evil god of winds and destruction" Each year, hurricanes cause tremendous destruction across the globe. It is not a coincidence that the word "hurricane" derives from Huracán, Hunraken or Jurakan, the evil god of winds and destruction in Mayan civilizations of Central America and the Tainos of the Caribbean. But what makes them so menacing and powerful to deserve such mythos? "A...
A NASA-supported study has introduced a new way to detect lightning outbreaks inside a hurricane from thousands of miles away, giving forecasters new insight into just how powerful an oncoming storm will be. As a result, researchers can now investigate with greater accuracy how the rate of lightning strikes produced within a hurricane's eyewall is tied to the changing strength of that hurricane. A hurricane's eyewall is the inner heat-driven region of the storm that surrounds the "eye" where...
WASHINGTON -- Watching for changes in the inner eyewall of a hurricane may help forecasters overcome one of their most perplexing challenges: predicting sudden strengthening or weakening.The ability to predict what path a hurricane will follow has improved dramatically in recent years, but anticipating sudden changes in intensity has remained a problem.And knowing a hurricane's strength is vital to making decisions about evacuating areas when a storm approaches.Now, a research team led by...
MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Epsilon, the 14th hurricane of a record-breaking Atlantic storm season, weakened back into a tropical storm on Sunday as it drifted eastward over open waters, U.S. forecasters said. The storm posed no threat to land and its maximum sustained winds had dropped to 70 mph (110 kph), just below the threshold for it to be categorized as a hurricane, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Epsilon was around 790 miles west-southwest of Portugal's Azores islands...
MIAMI -- Hurricane Epsilon, the 14th hurricane of a record-breaking Atlantic storm season, defied expectations that it would weaken over cool Atlantic waters on Saturday and continued to churn slowly eastward.Epsilon's maximum sustained winds at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) remained at 75 mph (120 kph), just over the threshold for a tropical storm to be categorized as a hurricane, but the cyclone posed no threat to land, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.The storm was about 1,000 miles west...
By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The brutal 2005 hurricane season may have more unpleasant shocks in store for coastal areas reeling from an almost unprecedented run of vicious storms, including deadly Hurricane Katrina and this weekend's powerful Rita. "We're still in the peak of the season here, that goes for another month or so. (It) makes me think that not only will we have more storms and hurricanes, but we could have another major hurricane or two," said Max Mayfield,...
By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of strong hurricanes -- like the devastating Katrina -- significantly increased in the last 35 years, fueled by hotter seas that have been linked to global warming, researchers reported on Thursday. Twice as many of the most powerful hurricanes, those ranked Category 4 or 5, have been detected since 1990 as were seen in the period from 1970 to 1985, scientists found in a global survey. But the overall number of hurricanes has...
