Hurricane Bill: August 22 Update A

"windy but hardly bigger than a sneeze in winter" is the verdict on
Hurricane Bill as he zoomed past Bermuda. Thanks SB - happy to hear it
wasn't too bad. :)

They did get a bit more than 'windy' as the satellite images showed. To
continue from yesterday, you can see this for yourself.

<Science Alert> Go to the page I directed you to yesterday:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/satellite.shtml and scroll down to Atlantic
Floater 2, currently labeled Bill. Click on the second line - IR AVN on
the link marked Image (Loop will give you a movie, which is useful but
takes longer to load the page). IR stands for infra-red, and this
basically shows the temperature of the cloud tops. The blue is for warmer
cloud tops, and red is for the coldest cloud tops. The higher the cloud
tops are, the colder they get. Anyone who has lived in areas prone to
thunderstorms may have noticed that the 'big' (high) clouds produce the
most active weather. On the satellite image, the White clouds are fairly
light clouds, the blue areas indicate nice solid cloud cover, but no rain.
The yellow ones bring rain. Orange and we have thunderstorms (with
possible tornadoes and other goodies that you can get with thunderstorms),
and Red. Well, red is just not very good at all! <End of Science Alert>

I have to throw these 'science' things in from time to time. And I might
not get another chance this year, because I only asked for three named
storms in 2009. ;)

So, delightful Bill is currently at about 36N 68.8W, and speeding
northwards at 23 mph, towards the eastern seaboard in the Cape Cod/Canada
area. I agree with the NHC today (yes, I also do that from time to time ;)
) on the current location, the direction, and even their path! The only
thing I'm umming and aahing about a bit is their wind speed. They have had
him as a cat 2 with winds of 100mph all day. He might be a bit weaker,
possibly a strong cat 1, but it's only a difference of a few mph so
keeping him at cat 2 is ok. (cat 1: 74-95 mph; cat 2: 96-110 mph). Central
pressure has risen to 964 mb.

He's moving over cooler waters - still 29
deg C, so certainly warm enough to keep him going. But it'll get cooler
quite quickly. He is also approaching a region of stronger wind shear
again. And there is still dry air to
his south. All these should continue to weaken Bill. It may just turn out
to be a blustery/dreary day in the Cape Cod/Newfoundland area. So
hopefully no different than a normal autumn day up there. ;) Cape Cod and
parts of Canada are under assorted warnings and watches.

Until tomorrow my peeps!
J.

Blogs archived at: http://jyotikastorms.blogspot.co
--------------------------------
DISCLAIMER:
yeah, still have a few internet glitches here. So have a look at previous
entries. But to sum up... Ignore everything I say (unless it's funny or
it's science :) and listen to your emergency managers, the NHC, and the
National Weather Service.