Hurricane Melissa

JohnC6

Suspended / Banned
Messages
11,799
Name
John
Edit My Images
Yes
I've been looking at footage of the storm .It must be pretty scary to experience sustained winds of 185mph. Some gusts were reported at 200mph and what made it worse was the storm travelled at only 5mph. This morning a live webcam shows Kingston Harbour has lots of debris floating in it. Climate scientists are saying that the number of hurricanes each season (June 1st to November 30th..Sept being the height) are pretty much the same but they are more severe and track more slowly causing more damage also, a lot more rain as warm air holds more moisture. The National Hurricane Center (USA) forecast 2'6" of rain.The lowest pressure of the storm was 903mb and is the lowest recorded so late in the season.To put it into perspective, when we have named storms the pressure is usually around 970hPa/ mb. Storm Amy, 1st-6th. of this month, set a record for the lowest pressure in the UK with a central pressure of 947.9 hPa recorded in Baltasound, Shetland. The so-called "Great Storm" of 1987, recorded 953 hPa/mb.

In 2023, a study found that Atlantic hurricanes are now more than twice as likely to intensify rapidly from minor storms to powerful, catastrophic events.The study analysed a total of 830 tropical storms in the Atlantic since 1971 and found that the rate of rapid intensification has more than doubled in the last 20 years. I heard that the water temperature in the Caribbean Sea is significantly above average for this time of year .. about 1.4°C higher with some areas south of Jamaica exceeding a surface temperature of 30ºC (87ºF) ...27ºC is the minimum required to generate and sustain hurricanes. In addition to the surface temperature , the water was also exceptionally warm hundreds of feet below the surface. The consequence was a very slow-moving and extremely powerful hurricane.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6AOHEXxMEM


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HhhV5eHkhs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dskQDUEJr0
 
To put these numbers into perspective, a well maintained house in the UK is expected to withstand wind of up to 90mph without damage.

Anything over 100mph is enough to blow an adult a distance. (Depending obviously on weight and clothing).

My car weighs 2 tonnes and is fairly close to the ground and aerodynamic. So Copilot says it would need a speed of at least 150 mph to pick it up when parked.

185 would be terrifying.
 
Head to wind, I'd hope that even 150MPH wind wouldn't lift it!
 
Global warming is driving Hurricanes to be stronger and more deadly year after year.
 
Back
Top