WILL NOVEMBER BRING A STORM TO THE GULF? ALSO, A LOOK AT PAST EL NINOS AND THE FOLLOWING HURRICANE SEASONS
October was very quiet across the Atlantic Basin. Only two tropical storms formed- Grace and Henri. Now that we are in the last official month of the hurricane season, overall activity really drops off if we look at the climatological norm. However, I am seeing indications from some of the global models that suggest we could see a tropical system develop somewhere in the southern Gulf of Mexico over the coming week. In addition, the NHC has been watching a non-tropical area of low pressure well east of Bermuda for possible development. It seems that its chance to do something may have come and gone over the weekend as deep thunderstorms over the center have diminished. So, the only area to monitor will be the western Caribbean and southern Gulf of Mexico. This morning, we do see a loosely defined area of showers and thunderstorms to the west of the Yucatan peninsula, in the Bay of Campeche. There is also some increasing convection down in the SW Caribbean. The models suggest that this whole mess will slowly organize and could produce a tropical depression in the region towards the end of the week or next weekend. It is tough to say where this might happen as unsettled weather should prevail across the western Caribbean and southern Gulf for the time being. It will be interesting to watch. I would put my money on something developing in the Caribbean over the Gulf but we will see. What ever happens, if anything at all, will be slow going.
In El Nino related news, you may have heard recently that the current El Nino has strengthened some. We are now in a moderate event with fairly significant anomalies in the sea surface temps across a great deal of the Equatorial Pacific. I thought it would be interesting to compare this El Nino with some of the recent past- dating back to the 1982-83 event to current. I am looking for what happened during the hurricane seasons following these warm events, possibly finding clues to what might take place next season. Here is what I found:
El Nino of 1982-1983: following hurricane season in 1984 had 13 named storms. Most notable was hurricane Diana which became a category four hurricane just off the North Carolina coast before making landfall near Wilmington as a category one.
El Nino of 1986-1987: following hurricane season of 1988 had 12 named storms including powerful hurricane Gilbert which struck Jamaica and then the Yucatan before making a final landfall in Mexico, just south of Brownsville, TX. Note too that 1989 featured hurricane Hugo- the category four monster that made landfall near Charleston, SC.
El Nino of 1991-1992: following hurricane season in 1993 had eight named storms with the most notable being category three hurricane Emily which came within 20 miles or so of making landfall at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
El Nino of 1997-1998- strongest on record to date: the following hurricane seasons of 1998 & 1999 (the El Nino dramatically reversed in 1998) had a combined total of 26 named storms. Of note were hurricanes Bonnie and Georges in 1998 and Bret, Dennis and Floyd in 1999. Also, hurricane Irene struck south Florida in October of 1999.
El Nino of 2002, fairly weak but still an El Nino year: the following season of 2003 had sixteen named storms including category 5 hurricane Isabel which hit North Carolina as a category two hurricane. Also had hurricane Fabian which struck Bermuda and hurricane Juan which severely impacted Nova Scotia.
El Nino of 2006- also a fairly weak event: the following hurricane season of 2007 was marked by mainly low-latitude strong hurricanes which impacted Central America and quick-fuse hurricane Humberto which hit near High Island, Texas.
The bottom line is that in all but two of the last six El Nino events, the United States was significantly impacted by hurricanes the following non-El Nino season. Note that post-1995 seasons would all be within ths recent up-tick in hurricane activity for the Atlantic Basin where as the 1980s events were not during a warm Atlantic period. Does this lend any clues as to what we might expect for 2010? Possibly. We know that an El Nino event in the Pacific usually acts to thwart development in the Atlantic and is sure seems to have played that role this season. If we do not have an El Nino present next season, that would at least remove the negative conditions brought on by the warmer Pacific. However, other factors are involved such as African dust outbreaks, the strength and position of the Bermuda/Azores High and sea surface temperatures across the Atlantic Basin. Since wek now that El Nino is usually an inhibiting factor for Atlantic hurricane development, we can at least track its progress during the next seven months and see where we end up by June of 2010. If the Pacific cools to neutral but not a strong La Nina, then I would imagine we will see a much more active season next year. It is unusual for El Nino to stick around for more than a year- but nothing is impossible. I'll post updates about the current El Nino throughout the off-season and we'll address it in detail on future editions of our HurricaneTrack News/Talk program. For now, we can expect the current moderate event to stick around through the winter months at least.
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Ben benieuwd of 2010 idd meer orkanen brengt... maar hey, meer dan 2009 is haast onvermijdelijk

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El Niño: Terug van weggeweest?