`Hurricane` Heading Toward Southern Brazil!

[Junkdrawer]

A South Atlantic Tropical Cyclone!?! Most literature dealing with tropical weather would agree: hurricanes are unknown over the southern Atlantic Ocean. Yet, as of early Friday, a storm with a well-formed eye about 300 miles east of southern Brazil has all the look of a hurricane. If indeed this is a tropical cyclone, it did not begin in the usual way; rather, it began as an ordinary "cool" trough that sat over warm seas for a few days. The atmospheric setting must have been "just right" to allow this trough to strengthen markedly while altering from cool-core to warm-core, and thus tropical, in nature.

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/adcbin/public/headlines.asp?iws=0

[slackmaster]

1. My favorite hurricane Web site doesn't even cover that region

You won't find this storm at http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/tropic.html , but if you're interested in tropical weather in general I recommend the site!

[jmcgowanjm]

2. Shouldn't this Hurricane be moving toward Africa then?

[slackmaster]

4. Zonal flow is east to west in all quadrants

Tropical weather systems generally go west wherever they occur, and accelerate as they bend toward the nearest pole.

[Junkdrawer]

5. The South American version of "The Perfect Storm" ????

Looks to me like its retrograding right in there...

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/adcbin/public/int_sat.asp?getarea=nsam&sattype=ir&type=loop

[Junkdrawer]

3. Accuweather is giving us a free Bastardi on this one...

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/adcbin/public/video_index.asp

And the National Hurricane Center has it on Storm Floater 1:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/satellite.shtml

[slackmaster]

6. Wow - It's spinning clockwise just like a Southern Hemisphere strom should

Thanks fot the links.

I've never had a free Bastardi before. Now I'll be wondering what Frank's shirt looks like for the rest of the day.

[Lisa]

21. I have to confess that ...

... even though I know how damaging a major tropical storm can be, especially if it hits an area that may not be used to them ... I checked to see which way it was spinning, too!

Sheer habit, I guess. (I did this too when I was in Brisbane and saw the weather forecast in the local paper.)


p.s. For the uninitiated -- this how I teach my climatology students how to remember the wind directions around pressure cells. A rare case of left-handers being favoured (in the Northern Hemisphere anyway*) -- using your LEFT hand, point your thumb up for a high-pressure area, and down if it's a "low". Your fingers naturally curl in the "correct" direction. And a hurricane is the mother of all lows! Because so many people have digital clocks these days, I've actually seen students having to stop and think about which way is "clockwise" -- this trick seems to work better!

(*You'd use your right hand in the Southern Hemisphere.)

[hatrack]

7. Uh, a South Atlantic hurricane heading for Brazil?!?!?

WTF?

[Ripley]

8. But there is no climate change, so stop saying that.

I remember reading about horrific tornadoes in England in the last decade. They didn't even know what they were. Violent weather patterns are escalating globally.

Cat 1 hurricane probably won't do much damage, but the South Americans affected are probably not prepared to deal with it at all.

[cprise]

13. There was a hurricane in the UK in recent years too

[Junkdrawer]

9. Just in time for the global warming movie, "The Day After Tomorrow"...

Here's the Faux News Review:

Coming to a multiplex near you on May 28 is the global warming disaster movie, “The Day After Tomorrow.” (search) I’ve only seen the trailer, but my money is on the movie, not global warming, being the disaster.

Featuring sensational but implausible weather phenomena ¯ such as tornadoes ripping through Los Angeles, a blizzard in New Delhi, grapefruit-sized hail pounding Tokyo and a single day sweltering-to-freezing temperature change in New York City ¯ the movie’s unmistakable purpose is to scare us into submitting to the Greens’ agenda: domination of society through control of energy resources.

More...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,115203,00.html

Folks, if I were a Theist, I'd say someone is laughing his/her ass off.

[amazona]

15. I saw this trailer

It was chilling, in fact, it was so disturbing that I wished I had not seen it because it interfered with the enjoyment of the movie I came to see.

I seriously doubt that a feature-length movie by this director could possibly be as powerful as this trailer with just the "good stuff" packed into a few minutes. I'll go see it though. As far as Faux's conspiracy theory, that is just silly. Did he make Independence Day to make us cough up money for Star Wars to protect ourselves against the space aliens. Horror films are supposed to frighten you, if they don't, they're not doing their job, and they've already gone as far as they can with the gore and the gross-outs, so it's time to play with the SF horror. Any Green agenda is unlikely to my mind.

When the trailer for Independence Day showed the alien responding to the question, "What do you want us to do?" -- "Die" -- was that to put forward a racist or anti-alien agenda. Hell no, it was to put a scare into you and give you a shiver. The movie was weaker because it had to throw in some feel-good stuff to get a wider audience. But as far as politics, if the director had any, he didn't himself know what they were.

Just my humble opinion. I am obviously not a film critic. But if the Faux critic can't see that all the wild weather is being thrown into the hat to create drama and intensity, then boo-hiss on them for losing their sense of wonder.

[Lisa]

22. standard disaster movie format?

I haven't seen the trailer yet, Amazona -- but I agree with your prediction. It's such a temptation to focus on the sensational (but improbable) aspects of climate change that some of the truly far-reaching stuff gets overlooked. Personally I think that a quieter, low-key approach (as was used in the movie "Testament", about the personal aftermath of nuclear war for a particular family) might be more effective ... and definitely more accurate.


p.s. anyone remember the global warming mini-series "The Fire Next Time"? I managed to get a tape of it a while back.

[KittyWampus]

26. Domination of Society Through Control of Energy Resources?

the Greens’ agenda: domination of society through control of energy resources?


Gee, I thought that's what Big Petroleum/Enron/Bush Family was doing.

[Junkdrawer]

27. I'm not kidding. You can very often tell what this group will do next...

by looking at what they accuse the Democrats of:

Clinton is advancing his agenda trough intimidation and murder...

Clinton is attacking terrorists just to "wag the dog"...

etc., etc, etc....

[AspenRose]

10. That is a beautifully formed eye

I think hurricanes are beautiful to look at in satellite photos.

Growing up in South Texas, it was common come June 1st to get your hurricane tracking map at HEB.

That said, I feel for those in its path...you know they aren't as prepared as they could be.

[mike1963]

11. Must be a result of that pesky global cooling...

:eyes:

[Junkdrawer]

12. New Accuweather Update - It may be a Cat 3 storm...

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/adcbin/public/video_index.asp

[amazona]

14. Brazil says it is not a hurricane

Story here:

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/international/index.ssf?/base/international-2/1080435240277410.xml

Accuweather says it is, Brazil says it ain't -- the winds are nowhere near even Cat 1. Don't know what to think -- Accuweather's satellite pix look very convincing to this long-time greater New Orleans area resident but the Brazilians are actually there and it surely does not take high technology to figure out how fast the wind is blowing.

I hope the Brazilians are correct, and this is just a rather annoying storm and a false image on a radar map...will be interesting to hear how it all plays out. Tropical storms/hurricanes are nothing to play with.

It just doesn't fully make sense for it to be a hurricane. Time will tell, of course.

[Junkdrawer]

16. "We think the Brazilians are, quite frankly, out to lunch on this one,"

said Michael Sager, an Accuweather meteorologist. "I think they're trying to play it down and not cause a panic. I don't know what they're doing, but they're obviously wrong."


And my humble opinion is that it's not IF it's a Hurricane, but rather whether it's Cat 2 or Cat 3

[amazona]

17. yeah, I saw that, not too tactful, but yeah

I sort of feel the same when I look at the radar picture. How can anyone look at that and not call it a hurricane? But I suppose that images/data can be faked -- it is coming from a satellite -- not from direct observation. Of course, this begs the question of who on earth would want to play such a cruel joke. We should know soon. I surely hope it will not be a cat 3 coming down on these people if there has been no evacuation or preparations. Even a tropical storm is no joke -- it was a "mere" tropical storm that did five figures worth of damage to my house.

The chance of it being a hoax or some bizarre error seems pretty weak at this point.

[Ediacara]

19. See post 18

Cyclonic storms are not necisarily hurricanes. Hurricanes are defined on wind speeds, and a low wind speed cyclonic storm is not a hurricane, even though the satelite photo looks similar.

[Ediacara]

18. Well there are a lot of cyclonic storms

A hurricane is defined on wind speed, and if it doesn't have the wind speed, it's not a hurricane, even though it's cyclonic.

Although according to accuweather, it definately has the wind speed.....

[Nay]

20. I just emailed my friends in Brazil (we just visited them in Oct.)

and they are about 75 miles north of the site where the hurricane will hit. It is expected to hit Florianopolis in the early morning, and they have completely evacuated Florianopolis tonight, according to my friends. Nobody can believe it. Never happened before. I told them to gas up the car, pack it with food and flashlights, and be ready to go. Jeez. I won't feel good until I can hear from them tomorrow.

[Junkdrawer]

23. Good news/Bad news...

Good news is that, although it's a powerful storm, it's a small storm so that 75 miles may well keep them out of the worst of the damage.

Bad News? Look out for flooding as the storm comes ashore and drops all that tropical moisture on the higher ground just in from the coast.

[minkyboodle]

24. man....

I wish I hadn't read The Coming GlobalSuperstorm not too long ago. Hope this isn't the beginning of some new weather patterns that could be big trouble...
Scott

[Junkdrawer]

25. It's making landfall right now (11:00PM Eastern, Sat. Night)...

[Auntie Bush]

28. My in-laws have relatives living in Vitoria

I think they are south of the storm. Maybe I can get some information and post it tomorrow.

[Junkdrawer]

29. So far, seven dead from the "extra tropical cyclone"...

Rio de Janeiro - A rare cyclone bringing strong winds and rain may have killed seven fishermen and had damaged houses and caused blackouts on the southern coast of Brazil, civil defence officials said on Sunday.

Brazil's official weather service has denied the weather phenomenon is a hurricane as United States meteorologists said earlier, but warned of gusty winds in the southern state of Santa Catarina on Sunday.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=122&art_id=qw1080462605263B236&set_id=1

[Media_Lies_Daily]

31. LOL...what's the point in denying that it's a hurricane?

[Mr.Green93]

30. tell me the U.S. has not screwed up the world's climate