I have come to the conclusion that I post way too much about the tropics. I am no expert in tropical meteorology, I wouldn’t even call myself an amateur. Tropical Meteorology is a much different animal than mid-latitude meteorology, and as such, it is difficult for me to apply my knowledge of mid-latitude meteorology to tropical meteorology. However, in light of that, I will be establishing a weekly post about the Tropics. Whether is be the eastern Pacific or the Atlantic or the western Pacific, the Tropics are fairly active around this time of the year. So, without further ado, I give you the first installment of: The Week in Tropical Weather.
The past week of tropical weather has been really interesting. The storm of special note is Typhoon Meranti in the western Pacific ocean. Holy moly, this storm was crazy. The storm rapidly intensified over a couple days, and headed for Taiwan and China.
Morning visible view of Typhoon Meranti — still intensifying 115-knots (Cat 4) on way to Cat 5 Super. Apex cyclone pic.twitter.com/ctqQ5a1UtJ
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) September 12, 2016
The storm peaked in intensity with 190 mph sustained winds. 190 mph sustained winds! That is insane. The storm itself was beautiful, and had fantastic symmetry.
This one is too cool not to share – it’s CIRA’s Geocolor product from #Himawari showing #Meranti on 13-14 Sep. pic.twitter.com/OxNjU53wTB
— Dan Lindsey (@DanLindsey77) September 15, 2016
Diff satellites, but same temp curve & map size for #Meranti/#FerdiePH & #Haiyan/#YolandaPH at peak sat intensity pic.twitter.com/hiJaGBmIyQ
— Stu Ostro (@StuOstro) September 15, 2016
ICYMI: Suomi NPP IR & DNB views of Super Typhoon #Meranti when the eye tracked over Itbayat, via @CIMSS_Satellite. pic.twitter.com/DUm6vNyS4F
— UW-Madison CIMSS (@UWCIMSS) September 17, 2016
The storm made its first official landfall on a small Taiwan island, an created one of the single coolest images from any tropical cyclone that I have ever seen.
No one knows what happened on #Itbayat yet, except the people that were there. #Meranti https://t.co/JmLYoo3utI pic.twitter.com/TLOgVMpa4a
— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) September 14, 2016
Luckily, that small island was relatively spared, as there wasn’t a single death related to the storm. What is interesting about this storm is that there is a bit of controversy surrounding its strength. I don’t know much about Tropical meteorology, but I do know that when the storm began to show signs of weakening, the Japanese Typhoon Warning Center indicated that it was as strong, or stronger than the previous advisory.
Seems overdone … 160 knots for Super Typhoon Meranti Cat 5+ https://t.co/UjZYDC3lfb
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) September 13, 2016
That makes little sense, and the fact that they placed this Typhoon in the same category as the infamous Super Typhoon Haiyan is fairly ridiculous.
@RyanMaue @philklotzbach Peak intensity of Meranti & Haiyan, no way Meranti has lower MSLP & only 5kt lower winds pic.twitter.com/iciTNx0BP6
— ENI (@WeatherIzzi) September 14, 2016
However, I know little about tropical meteorology, so I don’t know a ton about this topic. I just think Tropical Cyclones are really cool things. The most interesting story of last week was the surprise and sudden formation of Tropical Storm Julia.
Julia formed on the coast of Florida. Literally inland. It was so cool, especially because she didn’t really do anything. The NHC waited quite a long time that day before declaring her alive, and then she lived on for days…and days…and she is still sort of alive. Her remnants have been impacted the Mid-Atlantic states today.
Tropical Storm #Julia: pic.twitter.com/YY37Zhvecr
— Stormchasernick (@stormchasernick) September 14, 2016
A rare event…Tropical Storm Julia has formed inland! Center 5 miles west of Jacksonville with 40 mph winds pic.twitter.com/dUsArbKNyq
— Marcus Smith (@MRSmithSEWX) September 14, 2016
Key messages from NHC regarding Tropical Storm #Julia 11pm EDT Tuesday https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb @NHCDirector pic.twitter.com/9l1MgIdBmG
— NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) September 14, 2016
Tropical Storm #Julia is currently over downtown Jacksonville Florida pic.twitter.com/xCpqGWSSWD
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) September 14, 2016
You now have verified gale force gusts out of the Southeast and this cloud shot How is that not better than Karl? pic.twitter.com/kGtiQaXT4t
— Joe Bastardi (@BigJoeBastardi) September 20, 2016
Outside of Julia, the Atlantic has been fairly quiet and subdued. Tropical storm Karl formed, along with Lisa today. Both are weak, and aren’t really expected to do all of that much. Additionally, Ian formed last week, but also dissipated.