Its been a very slow hurricane season in the Atlantic--and there are very few complaints about that. When that happens, the eastern Pacific is generally quite active, and that has been the case this year. Former Hurricane Simon, now just a remnant LOW, is about to come ashore over northern Baja; its the 19th named storm of the season for that basin. The western Pacific is always active, though. And heres the latest major tropical cyclone to develop in that basin. Supertyphoon Vongfong is whipping the water to a froth with peak winds that have ranged between 165 and 180 mph during the past 24 hours. Heres a recent picture. Note the symmetric solid red to scarlet ring of very deep convection around the prominent eye. Shear is very low--around 5 mph--so the typhoon is vertically stacked. The water is a balmy 86 to 88F underneath, through a deep layer, so theres plenty of potential energy for the storm to draw on. Central pressure was estimated at 900 mb by the Japanese Meteorological Agency shortly before this picture was taken. The second image shows the forecast track and strength of Vongfong during the next 72-96 hours.--Steve
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 12:39:58 +0000
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