Hurricanes Igor and Tomas get their names retired
The names Tomas and Igor will no longer be used to name hurricanes in the Atlantic, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced this March. Hurricane Igor made landfall near Cape Race, Newfoundland on September 21, 2010, and was that island's most damaging hurricane in 75 years, with $200 million in damage. Hurricane Tomas smashed through the Lesser Antilles Islands on October 30 - 31, 2010, dealing a particularly harsh blow to St. Lucia, where eight died and damage was estimated at $500 million. Tomas also killed 35 people on Haiti, and contributed to a cholera epidemic that killed thousands.
Figure 1. Little Barsway bridge 10 km north of Grand Bank, Newfoundland, after flood waters from Hurricane Igor swept it away. Image credit: George J.B. Rose.
Figure 2. MODIS satellite image of Tropical Storm Tomas taken at 10:30am EDT Saturday October 30, 2010, as the storm began lashing the Lesser Antilles. At the time, Tomas was a Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph winds. Image credit: NASA.
The retirement of hurricane names
The WMO maintains a list of hurricane names for the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific that repeats itself every six years. The names Igor and Tomas in the Atlantic would have appeared again in 2016, but will be replaced by Ian and Tobias. Each spring, the WMO meets to decide if any names should be retired from the list, due to notable death or destruction caused by one of the past season's storms. Any country that is a member of the WMO can request that a name be retired. If a country seriously affected by a hurricane does not request retirement of the name, then the name will not be retired. In the recent past, Mexico, in particular, has been reluctant to request retirement significant storms that have affected them. In 2010, two significant hurricanes affected the country, but Mexico chose not to request retirement of either: Hurricane Alex, which killed twelve people and did $1.5 billion in damage, and Hurricane Karl, which killed 22 and did $206 million in damage. Back in 2005, Mexico also did not request retirement of Hurricane Emily, which made two landfalls in Mexico as a major hurricane, destroying thousands of buildings, but not claiming any lives. A new storm named Emily will appear this year, as we are recycling the names from 2005 that were not retired (2005 holds the record for most retired names, with five.) Probably the best example of a hurricane that did not get its name retired, but deserved to, was Hurricane Gordon of 1994, which killed 1145 people on Haiti. Haiti did not send a representative to the 1995 WMO meeting when retirements for 1994 were decided. Gordon did not affect any other countries strongly enough to motivate them to request retirement, and the name Gordon will be used again in 2012.
Since Atlantic hurricanes began getting women's names in 1953, 76 names have been retired, an average of 1.3 retired names per year. The list includes one tropical storm, Allison of 2001, that caused billions in damage from its heavy rains. The storm with the most appearances so far is Arlene, which has appeared nine times: 1959, 1963, 1967, 1971, 1981, 1987, 1993, 1999, 2005. Arlene will make its tenth appearance this year. One exception to the retirement rule: before 1979, some storm names were simply dropped. For example, in 1966, Fern was substituted for Frieda, and no reason was given. Only three Eastern Pacific hurricanes have had their names retired--Hurricane Ismael of 1995, Hurricane Pauline of 1997, and Hurricane Kenna of 2002. All of these storms hit Mexico.
Cool Katrina animation
A new visualization created by Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois shows Hurricane Katrina spinning over the Gulf of Mexico during a 36-hour period in August, 2005. The animation is part of a full-length planetarium film called Dynamic Earth screened at the Fulldome UK festival on March 12 - 13. You can see the video at the newscientist.com or DynamicEarth web sites. The video description: Trajectories follow moist air rising into intense "hot tower" thunderstorms, and trace strong winds around the eye wall; rapidly rising air is yellow, sinking air blue. The sun, moon, and stars show the passing of time. The visualization highlights Katrina's awesome power and fierce beauty.
I'll be back with a new post Tuesday or Wednesday.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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OIL RIGS
2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season Forecast
15-8-3
Unfortunately, I believe you are correct. We can hold a little longer. My yard hasn't tried to mimic the grand canyon yet. Soon, if no rain comes fairly soon.
That ought to be the disclaimer at the bottom right in a small box
The image says it all.
http://www.hurricanecity.com/city/tampa.htm
I don't think we will see as much storms as last season, but odds are that the ones that do form have a better chance impacting the US.
I will go with 15-16 named storms, 7-8 hurricanes, & 3-4 Majors.
2011: 1st Place and is 42% Capable of TC; Up from 37%
2005: 2nd Place and is 30% Capable of TC; Down from 31%
2007: 3rd Place and is 24% Capable of TC; Down from 35%
2008: 4th Place and is 10% Capable of TC; Down from 16%
2010: 5th Place and is 7% Capable of TC; Up from 4%
Why do I hear background music of "Waltzing Matilda"?
Yes, the sooner it is beneath a mountain of concrete, the better. Need to protect pregnant women and children, Greenpeace radiation experts have confirmed radiation levels of up to ten micro Sieverts per hour (1) in Iitate village, 40km northwest of the crisis-stricken Fukushima/Daiichi nuclear plant, and 20km (2) beyond the official evacuation zone. These levels are high enough to require evacuation.
This is one of my favorites. Let's see, if we sue them into bankruptcy then that would put about half of the country in the dark - no power. That should turn Japan into Zimbabwe in about 3 weeks.
Nice plan.
It doesn't matter; even if all six reactors were to suddenly and simultaneously go into full mega-meltdown and begin glowing bright orange/green and spewing a billion sieverts an hour of lethality as they quickly melted their way down into the bedrock while huge clouds and plumes of blisteringly radioactive steam billowed out across the Japanese landscape killing everything they touched, TEPCO officials and nuke industry apologists would still be telling us everything's fine, that the situation is under control, no humans are in any more danger than if they were to eat a handful of bananas or spend an hour at the beach. And, worst of all, there'd still be people--even here--buying that nonsense.
Actually, you are very correct with that comment. It is a cultural thing with them.
Years ago, when a well known American company was pouring foundations for some buildings they were constructing, they discovered that the foundation of one building had been placed approximately 10 inches out of the planned position.
Instead of immediately chopping up the uncured cement and putting the foundation where it belonged, it took four days of intensive conferring with each other for the Japanese management to arrange things where everyone could save face and the foundation could be jack-hammered and repositioned.
If you do business in Japan, that is the sort of thing you have to account for. It is not that they have evil intentions, that is just the way they do things there. Not much you can do about it.
Plenty of other companies out there can take the rein
Plenty of other companies that don't have the capital to take over all of TEPCO's plants, because those companies are being hit by high energy costs and the recession, you mean.
Also, I don't know about Japanese bankruptcy law, but here in the US, when a business files for bankruptcy, unless they liquidate all of their assets, the company gets to keep most of its assets (since they are critical to continued business, and emergence from bankruptcy), while dumping all of their debts for pennies on the dollar. That means while you have those lawsuits going, getting paid (and making lawyers rich), the company will have near-zero responsibility for the cleanup and/or replacement of the reactors.
GREAT solution there!
Not really. What corporation would knowingly expose themselves to that kind of risk?
Corporation with balls, that has standards, and does it their way the right way
You are a dreamer - right?
Toons for Neo
Link
Orlando International (MCO) has only recorded 0.53 inches so far.
Where is the tremendous severe potential?
[edit: I do see some pockets of 1 inches, but many of the heavily populated areas got skipped over, apparently]
Wasn't quite into the NW Carribbean
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