Hurricanes

Two hurricanes are hitting Mexico and Nicaragua today. Felix, still clocking category 5 winds roared in from the Carribean and hit Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua at 8 in the morning Imagine 160 mph winds and your only protection wooden shacks and shallow rooted trees….

Felix holds the zero to category 5 speed record for Atlantic storms — 51 hours. Typically it takes 3-5 days to reach category 1.

In an update to their Hurricane Activity Forecasts, William Gray, et al at Tropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State have this to say.

Our September-only forecast calls for 5 named storms, 4 hurricanes, 2 major hurricanes and NTC [Net Tropical Cyclone] activity of 80 which is well above the September-only average value of 48. Our October-November forecast calls for 5 named storms, 2 hurricanes, 1 major hurricane and NTC activity of 42 which greatly exceeds the October-November average value of 22.

We continue to anticipate that the 2007 Atlantic basin tropical cyclone (TC) season will be more active than the average 1950-2000 season. Atlantic basin sea surface temperatures have remained at near-normal values, while ENSO conditions trended slightly cooler during August. Atlantic sea level pressure values were at near-record low levels during August.

Hurricane Henriette, out of the Pacific, is expected to hit Los Cabos this afternoon, after leaving 6 dead in Acapulco from a rain caused rock slide.

San Diego, California, meanwhile has been suffering through record heat. Rolling blackouts are predicted unless the weather breaks or people tolerate higher temperatures in doors.