Wet, windy Nor'easter slams Northeast; season's first Category 5 storm is Ului
An extremely wet and windy Nor'easter whipped through the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. over the weekend, dropping rains in excess of six inches over some regions, and driving high winds gusting near hurricane force. On Saturday afternoon, JFK Airport in New York City recorded sustained winds of 45 mph, gusting to hurricane force--75 mph. Soils already saturated from run-off due to all the melting snow from the heavy winter snows have been unable to absorb the heavy rains. As a result, there is widespread minor to moderate river flooding, and many power poles have toppled due to the high winds and wet soil. Over half a million people were without power in the region over the weekend. The Nor'easter will continue to bring strong winds and moderate rain to the region today, then gradually weaken and move away from the Northeast on Tuesday.
Figure 1. Estimated precipitation from the weekend Nor'easter over the Northeast. Rainfall amounts in excess of six inches (pink colors) occurred in New York and Connecticut.
Ului: first Category 5 storm of the year
The first Category 5 tropical cyclone of the year has arrived. Over the weekend, Tropical Cyclone Uliu intensified into a lower-end Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds in the open waters of the South Pacific, east of Australia. Ului has weakened slightly into a still-powerful Category 4 storm with 150 mph, but is projected to significantly decay as the week progresses, due to high wind shear. Some of the models foresee that Ului will be a long-range threat to the Queensland coast of Australia by the end of the week, but the storm should be in a much weakened state by then, and may also turn out to sea without hitting land. Australia has had a remarkably easy hurricane season so far--no tropical cyclones entered Australian waters during the month of February, the first time that has happened since 1944. That would be equivalent to the U.S. having no tropical storms near our coast in the hurricane-prone month of August.
Figure 1. Tropical Cyclone Ului at peak strength at 22:22 UTC Saturday, March 13. At the time, Ului was a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds and a minimum pressure of 918 mb. Image credit: NRL Monterey.
Tropical Cyclone Tomas
Meanwhile, Category 3 Tropical Cyclone Tomas is causing trouble in the Fiji Islands, where the cyclone's 125-mph sustained winds are being felt in the less populated eastern islands. Tomas has already claimed one life, ripped off roofs, and caused extensive power outages in the Fiji Islands, according to news reports. However, the cyclone is missing the two largest and most populated islands.
I'll have a new post on Tuesday.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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Haha yeah well I do for the time being because I'm done with school but haven't found a job yet for the summer, so I have lots of time to just be bored and look at things. I really hope I can be here for the entire hurricane season but if I go to college in August I probably won't be able to.
We are being taxed now. Every person that goes into an Emergency Room without insurance, we the taxpayers, is paying for.
I'm sure you will still find some time.Remember college students don't sleep.LOL
He is hanging out with Gator23 and JFV. Just kidding he is still around
One thing I've always wondered... why does it seem like there are always "pulses" of warm anomalies in the gulf stream, off the east coast?
yep, quite true XD lol
Because there ARE pulses of warm anomolies of the east coast. The South Florida coast is some of the warmest in the US
Yelp have been paying for it for the last 32yrs so I do understand.... But they will add even more "Tax" and thats the sad part....
Taco :0)
Right. But why does it pulse like that?
Link
does anyone know the best site to get weather history for the last 5 days for the GOM? I just returned from a 7 day cruise and the trip thru the GOM was a trip!..lol..I am just curious as the the winds and wave heights..needless to say, I am sure glad that I had some bonine and my sea legs with me!..lol
Hope for a strong trough or a mostly negative MJO throughout the season.
And what's amazing is looking at our analog set for this year and comparing it to your image. Look at the similarity. How much better than that can you get? The hurricane seasons of these nine years averaged 15 named storms and 4 U.S. landfalls.
SST Anomalies for February and March of the years 1958, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1978, 1995, 1998, 2005, and 2007:
Also look at the winter temperature anomalies for the analog year set....look familiar?
Hey Ally,
Welcome Home :0)
As for the last 5 days for the GOM, I have yet to find that info but I am looking....
Taco :0)
sst's around around the gulf/eastcoast will warm pretty quickly from here on out.
There are almost always warm anomaly eddies and pulses along the gulf stream because the gulf stream is always there, bringing deep warm water northward. The surface anomalies all around may be cold, but the warm, deep-water current of the gulf stream will always be periodically warming the surface water in spots.
all I know is that winds gusted over 60 mph (at least)!..lol
Not sure, but I was in Biloxi for the last 4 days fishing and the NWS was reporting winds sustained at 25 knots and waves up to 8 ft in the open waters of the gulf for the last couple of days
Well we had a severe weather event in the south and a front swung through the gulf a few days ago. A low developed along this front and slammed Florida. That's probably what spiced up the weather on your cruise. I hope you enjoyed it despite that lol.
2007:
---------------------------------------------------
2010:
U.S. Precipitation Anomalies for the winter so far:
U.S. Precipitation Anomalies for the hurricane analog year set:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You just CANNOT ask for better than that!
Probably caused by the reformation of the Arctic vortex, which allowed the cold air to settle back into the Arctic area. For most of the winter the negative AO has allowed the Arctic air to flood into the Northern Hemisphere continents while the warmer air flooded the Arctic Ocean.
Wow.
Lol...well someday I'd love to be at one of those things. I've never even been out of Alaska before lol. On my life wish list I want to see cloud-to-ground lightning and experience a real thunderstorm with the downpour, gust front, and everything. Then I want to live through a hurricane without dying lol (jking, but if it was a realistic idea, I'd want to).
I wont ever leave, maybe in 2020.. maybe.
Sunspot 1054 has a "beta-gamma" magnetic field that harbors energy for C- and possibly M-class solar flares. Credit: SOHO
oughtta be a bannable offense...
I highly doupt 2010 will come anywere close to the anomaly of 2005. Keep in mind 05 saw some of the most favorable conditions in every level you can think of. There is lots to be determined before aug-oct come around.
once every 50 year event.
1933 is just flat scary...21 storms all west of 55 west, not even counting what could have been unobserved out in the eastern Atlantic! That map is the worst it can get for the Caribbean.
Oh don't go there lol :P
We don't know that 1933 had no CV hurricanes. Remember before weather satellites got launched in the mid-1960s, we had to rely on ships making chance encounters with hurricanes out at sea. For that reason, there is an undercount bias in the hurricane seasons prior to the 1960s. 1933 could very well have had even more storms than 2005 if we had had satellite technology to track them.
Tomorrow and Weds,Baton Rouge
2010 Central Gulf of Mexico Hurricane Conference
Presented by C4G and NOAA
March 16th & 17th, 2010 at the Lod Cook Alumni Center
Don't ask. You don't ever visit many of the other blogs, do you...
I once saw ground to cloud lightning, it went up like an oak tree
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