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2020 hurricane season in full force
9/22/2020 (Permalink)
We are in unprecedented hurricane season with some of the strongest storms ever to hit land & possibly the largest number of named storms
2020 is shaping up to quite the year. Not only from the infamous Covid-19 virus but the weather has us all a bit on edge. The challenge of facing this virus outside of the safety of your own home can be daunting.
There have been more named storms during this season than any, other than the 2005 season where they ran out of letters and actually got to Zeta in the Greek alphabet. This season has produced some of the strongest storms ever to make landfall.
USA today had an article back in June in which Rachel Cleetus, also of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that even without the pandemic, this "would be a challenging hurricane season," due to the predicted number of storms. It really positioned the nation’s ability to keep people safe to be severely tested, she added, and in large part depends on how well FEMA and state and local authorities work together under these unprecedented circumstances.
FEMA said it's ready for hurricane season: "While FEMA continues to lead federal operations during the whole-of-America's COVID-19 response, we continue to take deliberate and proactive steps to respond to and recover from future disasters, such as hurricanes, while responding to COVID-19."
Nursing homes are at particular risk during a hurricane, according to Weather.us meteorologist Ryan Maue.
"(What's) very important during hurricane season is to prepare those in elderly housing including nursing homes for potential storm impacts," he said. "This is just one of many areas where the coronavirus pandemic and hurricane season intersect."
Cleetus pointed out that hurricane season lasts until Nov. 30, and public health experts are warning of a surge in infections later this year.
"We're not out of the woods in terms of the public health challenge," she said.
At the American Red Cross, Trevor Riggen, senior vice president of disaster services, said, "disasters won’t stop during the coronavirus outbreak – so as we head into hurricane season, our goal is to provide anyone in need after a disaster with comfort and support."
He added that amid the coronavirus crisis, Red Cross will provide some relief services virtually, including mental health support and financial assistance, thanks to investments in items like laptops, wireless hotspots and mobile devices.
"Instead of opening shelters, we’re prioritizing individual hotel rooms or dormitory style rooms to make sure people have a safe place to stay if they can’t return home after a disaster," Riggen said.
Know where your loved ones are, understand the plan if and when disasters strike. Being prepared is your best defense.
As the enclosed article by popular science states we are in a very active pattern and it is not done with us yet.
The frighteningly active hurricane season is continuing to live up to meteorologists' predictions. Just a few weeks after Hurricane Laura—the strongest storm on record to make landfall in Louisiana—brought devastating storm surges and rainfall to the Gulf Coast, there are now five more named storms in the Atlantic. The last time this many storms occupied this area was 1971, when there were six storm systems that were tropical depressions or greater.
Hurricane Sally is now a Category 1 storm, but is expected to bring a “historic flood event” to coastal Alabama and the western Florida panhandle. Though the storm isn’t as ferocious in terms of wind speed, it’s moving slowly. Hurricanes that inch along can actually bring more destruction as they hover over an area, dumping immense amounts of water in one spot. The governors of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana have all declared states of emergency.
Hurricane Paulette made landfall in Bermuda On Monday, and will likely peter out over the open ocean in the coming days. Tropical storms Teddy and Vicky are still out in the middle of the Atlantic. Teddy is likely to strengthen as it heads towards Bermuda, while Vicky is expected to dissipate by the end of the week. There’s also a tropical depression and an area to watch off the western coast of Africa.
The 2020 hurricane season has been staggeringly active. We are already at V on this year’s list of storm names. We previously reached this point with Hurricane Vince in 2005, but that’s the only other time since record-keeping began in 1851—and we’re 25 days ahead of that record. Hurricane season stretches into November, which means we have at least another month of storms.
At this rate, we’re likely to run out of names. The only other season in which that happened was, again, 2005. Our current naming system is run by the World Meteorological Organization, which keeps a list of names to cycle through in each storm basin. Here in the Atlantic we have one list, but storm systems in the Indian Ocean have their own names to work through, as do those near Australia and in different parts of the Pacific.
There’s currently just one left to use in the Atlantic basin—Wilfred—since the list of names doesn’t actually encompass all 26 letters. Should we run out of names, we’ll move on to the Greek alphabet. In 2005, we got through to Zeta (the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet), since there were a record-breaking 27 named storms. (Yes, this is a confusing system.)
The original prediction for this year was some 19 to 25 named storms, but so far we seem to be outpacing the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record.
To top it off, smoke from the fires on the west coast are drifting out east and are likely to get wrapped up in Paulette.
Hurricane seasons like this—and intense, slow-moving storms in particular—are only more likely to occur as our planet warms. We now have studies that confirm the fact that hurricanes are becoming more destructive as the ocean heats up, providing more fuel for storm systems. In addition to having more people living on the coasts than ever before, the hurricanes themselves are getting stronger. If we do nothing to slow or halt the climate crisis, our future is going to have a lot more hurricane seasons like this one.
USA Today Article
Popular science Article
https://www.popsci.com/story/environment/five-hurricanes-atlantic-2020-season/
Image from Weather.com article