Tropical Storm Maria and the last bits of Katia and Nate: September 12, Update A

Did you know that statistically this week is the peak of the hurricane season? Here is a figure of the number of hurricanes and tropical storms from NOAA and when they occur throughout the season:


Hurray! We have climbed the mountain… and speaking of climbing mountains (we’re back to The Sound of Music), the only real storm today is Tropical Storm Maria. (hope you liked that segue, I worked hard on that one J).

First, The Remains of Katia. She reached the British Isles today, and they had gusts up to (at least) 82mph – she mostly went over Scotland. I hear it was a ‘bit breezy’ really. This is my last entry on Katia.

Second, The Remains of Nate. He became a Tropical Depression yesterday, soon after making landfall. Not much left of him now. This is my last entry on Nate.

And that leaves Maria. What shall we do with Maria? J She has been hanging out just north of Puerto Rico/Dominican Republic for most of the day today. She’s currently at around 21N, 67.5W, drifting NW at a whopping 2mph (goodness me, I can walk up and down big hills faster than that!), so she’s essentially stationary. Actually, I think she’s moving a little faster than that, but not much. This is because she is surrounded by high pressure. I don’t see her making a run for it until tomorrow sometimes, and even then I’m not sure. I’ll have to look at the latest pressure fields tomorrow. Her winds have decreased to 50mph because of the wind shear and dry air we saw in the satellite image yesterday. This makes her a weak-to-mid level Tropical Storm (range: 39-73mph – I expect you all know this as well by now! J). Central pressure is 1006mb. She has a lot of convection and thundery weather, all to the east and south of her center (result of wind shear). It looks like she is generating showers over the VIs, PR, and the Dominican Republic. I hope she does manage to get moving soon, because I don’t know if they want any more rain down there, and Haiti could do without a drenching.

More tomorrow!
Toodle pip!
J.

Blogs archived at http://jyotikastorms.blogspot.com/
Twitter @JyovianStorm

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DISCLAIMER: These remarks are just what I think/see regarding tropical storms - not the opinion of any organization I represent. If you are making an evacuation decision, please heed your local emergency management and the National Hurricane Center's official forecast and the National Weather Service announcements. This is not an official forecast. If I "run away, run away" (Monty Python), I'll let you know.
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