Until yesterday, the last day without a tropical cyclone was August 14th. In a row, we had Fay, Gustav, Hanna, Ike, and Josephine. Of course, we all know Fay was the rain maker that never wanted to go away, Gustav which hit, albeit much less than Katrina, in a very eerily similar location to Katrina. Hanna was the east coast storm, Ike the deadly and disastrous hurricane for Texas, and then Josephine which did absolutely nothing.
Since Ike’s devastating blow to Texas, we could definitely use a break from the Atlantic Ocean. And fortunately, that break is occurring right now. September is the peak month of the hurricane season, and while that has kept true so far, this week seems to be completely opposite. A lot of wind shear is occurring over the Gulf and Caribbean, and sinking air is in place across the far eastern Atlantic. So any waves coming off of Africa are suppressed and can’t get organized. Areas of low pressure, which eventually form into tropical depressions and so on and so forth, need rising air to create thunderstorm clouds which eventually need to rotate counterclockwise around the low pressure center, which eventually increases the organization of the low and intensifies it into a tropical storm and sometimes hurricanes, depending on the wind speed. So since the air in the Atlantic is currently sinking, the air is dry and doesn’t allow these thunderstorms develop around the low pressure center, which will keep tropical development at a standstill through the end of the week. That’s a sigh of relief, but once these winds change (which is always possible very quickly this time of year), development may heat up again. Therefore, as always, keep it here for the latest on Hurricane Season 2008!
