Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Pacific Ocean filled with tropical cyclones

There are currently three hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean, one of which is about to cross over to the western Pacific and become a typhoon, and at least one of which is forecast to impact Hawaii, who usually dodges bullets when it comes to hurricanes. This has put increased attention on the eastern Pacific basin, which is unusual as attention from the United States mainland is usually focused on the Atlantic basin, which produces nearly all U.S.-landfalling tropical cyclones.

The biggest concern is Hurricane Iselle, on a path toward the Hawaiian Islands, which has prompted a tropical storm warning on Maui, and a hurricane warning on the "big island". Behind Iselle is Hurricane Julio, which is on a similar westward path as Iselle, but is not expected to get quite as close to Hawaii. Then there's Genevieve, which has a very unusual history. It formed nearly two weeks ago, but only hit tropical storm status briefly before weakening to a depression and then a post-depression. Genevieve then strengthened back to a depression and tropical storm twice, and managed to become a hurricane today. It is now in the process of crossing the International Date Line into the western Pacific region, which will make it a typhoon.

There is also a tropical storm in the Atlantic, Bertha, which is off the east coast and is forecast to maintain tropical storm strength up toward the British Isles. Bertha brought some rain to Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands and appeared to be headed toward southern Florida, but forecast models soon had it turning north parallel to the coast, so Bertha never had any threat to the United States, unlike Arthur last month. So the Atlantic is having it good in the way of hurricanes compared to the Pacific right now.

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