Tag: hurricanes

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So Long, Ike; Next Up: Hurricane Nutjob

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We continue with more exclusive coverage of the coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. The image above is the storm as it looked last Wednesday from the International Space Station, which was at an altitude of 220 miles. (For comparison’s sake, the GOES satellites that provide most of the views we see of Earth weather are parked in geosynchronous orbits with an altitude of 22,300 miles. The Terra and Aqua earth observatory satellites that regularly provide stunning images of wildfires and other events work at an altitude of about 430 miles.) NASA has posted a gallery of ISS shots of Ike. And if you like these ethereal views of killer storms, see a wonderful collection published last week on the Boston Globe’s The Big Picture blog.

Enough fawning over pictures. Now to the serious business at hand: If you think those photographs merely depict awesome natural forces at work, you’re sadly mistaken. No. Just like Katrina before it, those who see world weather as a giant conspiracy have declared that Hurricane Ike was a storm on behalf of (someone’s) scheme for global domination.

First, there’s this: An alert from Kevin Martin, a self-described meteorologist in Southern California, that “chemtrails” (a type of evil aircraft condensation trail) were detected last week in areas of the United States along Ike’s forecast path. Whoa. If you’re not sold on the forecaster’s credentials after reading that, check out his public plea for letters of recommendation so that he could be admitted Mississippi State’s online course for would-be TV weathercasters. (There’s more to Kevin’s story, too: one of his inspirations, it turns out, is that he was once struck by lightning.)

Then there’s this: Scott Stevens, formerly of Pocatello, Idaho, TV weatherman fame, announced before Ike’s landfall that “this entire storm is manufactured.” Scott, like Kevin, also saw dark doings overhead in the Midwest before the remnants of Ike got there. Faceless Global Dominators were manipulating weather to fill all the region’s rivers and streams before the moisture-laden ex-hurricane arrived. The motive behind the storm and associated “tweaking,” apparently, is economic chaos. As if we need any more help.

My one and only question to the World Weather Conspiracy folks would be: In olden times, before the advent of high technology–or maybe I should say human high technology, because the Faceless Dominators could be extraterrestrials or Greek or Norse gods unhappy in their retirement–who was responsible for all the floods, droughts, hail storms, heat waves, cold snaps and other weather catastrophes that beset us?

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Sox, Hurricanes: No Link Proven

I’m happy to report that, contrary to no reports of which I’m aware, there’s no established historical link between White Sox World Series victories and severe hurricane seasons. This non-finding is the product of minutes of meticulous research.

The White Sox won the World Series this year — last night, in fact, if reports are to be believed. At nearly the very same time as the Chisox went into their victory dance in Houston, the National Hurricane Center was reporting the emergence of the 23rd named tropical cyclone, Tropical Storm Beta, of the 2005 Atlantic tropical cyclone season. Could there be a correlation between the ecstasy on Chicago’s South Side and the agony throughout the Caribbean and Gulf basins?

To answer that question scientifically, I typed “1917 hurricane season” into my conveniently located Google search box, located in the upper right of my Web browser. The choice of 1917 was not random. Rather, it is the widely reported year that the White Sox won their last World Series. A severe storm season that year might suggest a Hose-hurricane convergence. While these cyclones can never be said to be “a picnic,” in the meteorological sense, evidence indicates that the season that year was as carefree as they come, with just three storms reported and just one that hit the United States.

I next searched for information on the 1906 hurricane season — which unfolded the year of the only other Sox triumph in the Series. The 1906 season was considered “average,” with 11 storms, six of which became hurricanes (and three of the hurricanes evolving into major, destructive storms).

To complete my investigation, I checked to see who won the World Series in 1933, which, with 21 storms, had held the record for the Atlantic’s most cyclonic year. The answer: The New York Giants. (Three of the other four years the Giants won — ’05, ’21 and ’22 — were mild hurricane years; the last Giants victory, in 1954, was average in terms of number of storms but produced Hurricane Hazel, which killed 1,000 or more people.)

Conclusion — are you still with me? — The White Sox played no part in this year’s overactive hurricane season. Future inquiries might look at the coincidence of Sox championships and major earthquakes.

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A Storm Called Alpha

In most years, a storm of the relative inconsequence of Tropical Storm Alpha — it’s of little consequence unless you happen to live beyond blog reach in the mountains of Hispaniola, anyway — would barely have attracted public notice here in the States. But 2005 isn’t most years, and Alpha, which blew westward across the Atlantic for days while Hurricane Wilma got all the ink last week, finally became organized enough that it was officially recognized as a tropical cyclone.

The history has been well discussed: It’s the first time since hurricane records have been kept in the mid-Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf region that so many tropical cyclones have formed in one season: 22. But that’s a record that goes back just 150 years, a sliver of a sliver of time. Leaving aside the impact we’ve had on long-term climate as enthusiastic burners of anything that will burn, is it really likely that the weather observed this year is of absolutely unprecedented severity? Just asking the question tells you what I think. Maybe someday climate scientists, like those working in the new field of paleotempestology, will produce a definitive answer to open-ended questions like that.

Alpha’s nearly done with. But Wilma’s still a story. Having read the discussions pretty religiously the last week or so, it has defied the model predictions (and thus our expectations) and restrengthened after crossing Florida. This is a boon for researchers looking for clues to storm behavior, no doubt. It’s also a treat for those who see this season’s monster hurricanes as evidence that Giant Weather Machines (GWM) are controlling the behavior of the atmosphere now.

Scott Stevens, former Pocatello, Idaho, TV weatherman and current leading apostle for the GWM worldview, took one look at Wilma last week and saw all the signs of a manufactured event:

“Hurricanes now develop in locations that best suit the weather makers. No longer do they need to spend a week traversing the Tropical Atlantic gathering a name as they first become a depression while slowly strengthening to a tropical storm and then on to become a hurricane. Yes, explosive hurricane development has occurred in the past, but these past few years are different. There has been a discernable shift in how quickly and where these tropical storms develop and mature. Storms now form much closer to where the Powers That Be want the maximum terror effect. These storms are clearly government sponsored terrorist events. The effects are economic, are emotionally draining to the point of exhaustion, certainly financially taxing, and used to cause a victimhood mentality that makes us all feel powerless in some sense. The net effect is fatigue and in the case of Katrina and Rita we have been delivered an infection of poverty that this deeply indebted nation will struggle to overcome for a generation or more.

“All weather is now manufactured. Period.”

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Where Hurricanes Come From

Sitting in Chicago yesterday, observing low clouds rushing south on a gusty northerly breeze — part of the larger circulation of what was left of Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of miles away — my brother John asked something like, “How do hurricanes get started?” I fumbled for a few minutes talking about some of the ingredients that go into a hurricane — warm, warm ocean water, the little atmospheric disturbances that sometimes kick off the big storms, and weak wind shear (vertical winds) that allow the storm’s circulation to get moving. But I realized, gee, beyond those haphazard scraps, I don’t really know.

The question itself is kind of profound, because a quick look through some online references show that while more and more is understood about the process, even supercomputer-wielding climate scientists can’t give a final answer to how the storms start. Obviously, hurricanes get lots of attention from serious science; the lack of complete understanding says a lot about how complex weather processes are.

A few “how hurricanes form” links:

–If you love the Socratic method and aren’t afraid of brushing up against a little high-level science talk, the National Hurricane Center has an insanely long list of frequently asked questions about the storms. To zero in on hurricane origins, go to the basic definitions page and check out “how do tropical cyclones form?”

–Lots of more basic explanations are available, including at How Stuff Works. NASA’s kids site has good pages on how hurricanes are created and how they move.