Above is the swirling clouds and rather large eye of Hurricane Larry. Larry made landfall in Newfoundland, Canada as a minimal hurricane (pretty far north to get a hurricane(. It’ll continue to move northeast to the south of Greenland.
Also, Tropical Storm “Mindy” formed in the NE Gulf of Mexico and came onshore with heavy rain and fairly strong wind in the Florida Panhandle. Peak gusts in NW FL: 61 mph C Tower (anemometer is up on a tower, not at ground level), 58 mph at Alligator Point, 55 mph Bald Point, 54 mph St. George Is. 52 mph Eastpoint, 50 mph St. Teresa Is. Keep in mind that the storms that blasted through Lower Michigan Tuesday had higher winds (69 mph Kalamazoo, 66 mph Battle Creek) and isolated very large hail.
As of early Sat. PM (9/11), there are still 160,116 customers without power in Louisiana and 2,671 in Michigan, which is 5th highest of all the states at this time.
 View 5-Day Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook |
* A Tropical Depression off the West Coast of Mexico, far away from land. The Central Pacific should stay quiet – no tropical storm activity.
As I type this, there are two tropical systems in the Western Pacific. Tropical Storm “Conson”, which will end up in Vietnam and Typhoon “Chanthu”, which is heading toward mainland China. There is no tropical storm activity in the Indian Ocean or in the Southern Hemisphere (where it is winter).
This is the latest ACE Index – a measure of the number and strength of tropical storms. So far, this has been an active season in the Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico. We’re at 67.8, compared to an average Ace-to-date of 42.9. However, globally, this has been (like last year) a quieter than average hurricane season. Globally, we’re at 235.5 compared to an average ACE-to-date of 276.6. For the 2nd year in a row, it’s been very quiet in the NW Pacific, where there was virtually no tropical activity in August. The ACE of 75.4 in the North Pacific is only 53% of average ACE-to-date. A big reason for this 2-year lull has been the La Nina that we have had. That usually brings below average tropical activity to the NW Pacific and above average tropical activity to the U.S.
