Tropical Depression Florence, Typhoon Mangkhut, and Helene, Isaac, and Joyce: September 16, Update A

Hello post peak-week of Hurricane Season! And lo and behold, they all went poof and vanished... 

Tropical Depression Florence:  Well she behaved pretty much as expected as she approached land (and after that) - a cat 1 at landfall near Wrightsville Beach, about 10 miles south of Wilmington NC. She brought some wind (90mph at landfall - cat 1 range: 74-95mph) and a lot of buckets of water with her. I'm sure you've all seen the news - around 800,000 without power (as expected - there are a lot of trees in that area) and a lot of flooding and post-storm evacuations because of the water. She is still bringing a lot of rain and flooding - along rivers - so be careful if you are in a flood-zone! Here's the latest satellite imagery, still showing a lot of rain in the system - a bit over S. Carolina, and a lot over N. Carolina:

Unfortunately 17 people have died from Florence and so, I strongly suspect that this name will be retired from the list of storm names in the future. By the way, storm names are on a six-year cycle, and any that cause great destruction and bring a large number of deaths are retired... for example, we'll never see another Hurricane Harvey (been replaced by Harold), Irma (replaced by Idalia), or Maria (replaced by Margot). Florence is now a Tropical Depression and this will be my last post on this one. 

Typhoon Mangkhut: Meanwhile, over in the western Pacific, Super Typhoon Mangkhut made landfall on Luzon island in the Philippines as a cat 5 storm with winds in excess of 160mph (cat 5 range: >156mph). The death toll from this (so far) in the Philippines is 64, possibly higher. But many consider this lucky - the expectation was for more, especially as this system was a cat 5 and had, at one point (before landfall), winds as high as 180mph. After the Philippines, this system went on as a mid-sized cat 2 Typhoon to visit southern China - Hong Kong with winds of 100mph (cat 2 range: 96-110mph), where a 3 meter (10 ft) storm surge was reported. It is now overland and is currently a cat 1 storm with winds of 81mph (cat 1 range: 74-95mph). That's it from me on Mangkhut. 

The other storms: If you recall way back to 2 days ago, we still had Helene, Isaac, and Joyce.

Helene has exited stage right, and is heading towards the UK for a cup of tea and some jaffa cakes. She'll bring some wet and windy weather... but you may not notice as it's autumn and that'll get those leaves off the trees. This is my last update on Helene (unless something odd happens over there like there's no more tea or something...). 

Isaac is that small blip (yellow cross on the map) in the Caribbean. He has some circulation in the lower half of the troposphere, and is going to be bringing a bunch of rain to Jamaica:

For now, this is my last update on Isaac unless he gets a bit wild - I'll keep an eye on him. 

Joyce is still lurking as a Tropical Depression. She has some circulation and a little bit of convection, but she's just doing circles in the Atlantic and isn't bothering anyone (unless you are on a boat out there), so this will be my last update on Joyce. 

The next name in the Atlantic will be (Captain) Kirk. I'll be back if he beams down. :-) 

Ciao for now!

J.

Twitter: jyovianstorm

--------------------------------------

DISCLAIMER:
These remarks are just what I think/see regarding tropical storms. If you are making an evacuation decision, please heed your local emergency management and the National Hurricane Center's official forecast. This is not an official forecast.
--------------------------------------