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Sunday, September 02, 2007
This scares the hell out of me: Possibly the first hypercane
I was on Dr. Master's Wunderblog on Weather Underground, and they were talking about how the Hurricane Hunters had to abort due to extreme graupel, and that winds of 214 mph and 200 mph were spotted at an elevation of about 300 feet. Also, a dropsonde dropped in the southwest quadrant landed in the northeast quadrant. Read this blog, and remember that it's normally a pretty jovial, relaxed place. One person remarked that it's the most serious he's seen it in over 2 years, a time frame which included Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. I have never heard of the Hurricane Hunters being forced to abort due to extreme conditions; that's what they're there for. My name on that board is VentoTresandando, which means "reeking wind" in Portuguese. I realize that a true hypercane technically would require 122 degree Fahrenheit waters and would have winds of about 500 km/h, but this looks like it could be about as bad without reaching that threshold. Please let me know if I am wrong. I pray that I am, but this scares me to the depths of my soul, and I'm not even near its projected path.
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4 comments:
I'm going to check this out - sounds very interesting. Felix went to Cat 5 in a very short time, it seems to me. That's pretty scary.
In the meantime, FYI, the ad for One billion bulbs in your sidebar is obscuring part of the text in your posts (at least on my screen.)
It's the same in my screen as well. I did not know Felix was at a cat 4 or 5, that is serious. I hope things are find for the people where Felix hits. Thanks for the link as I am not knowledgeable about Hurricanes or tornados. I will try to keep up with Felix directions and cat changes.
The storm took itself down in force in an unusual speed an manner as well.
It is possibly a sign of things to come.
There is a point where a storm can become self sustaining, unaffected (in a major sense) by external forces of land and typical highs and lows.
I don't know where that point is (do you?) but if it ever happens it will change the entire world.
I believe the point at which a storm becomes self-sustaining is the aforementioned true hypercane, with an internal pressure around 700 millibars and sufficient size to keep it going. The lowest internal pressure recorded in the Atlantic basin was Hurricane Wilma in 2005, with an internal pressure of 882 millibars. If it were to happen... that's one of the dinosaur extinction hypotheses. That's well and truly an extinction-level event.
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