Great New England Halloween Storm of 2012?

Travelers to the NE early next week should pay very close attention, not to mention those with maritime interests, and coastal houses, etc.

Total disagreement on Typhoon "Praprioon"

And not the fact that The Phillipines has a name, and the Chinese have another, but the only thing Japan and US (JTWC) agree on in their forecasts is the name "Praprioon".  Japan all week has had this thing coming straight for Okinawa, and the US insists on the big turn out to sea.  Right now the typhoon is stalled, and will go one of these two directions, but sitting on pins and needles on this turn in Okinawa. - HLG

A little wind in Okinawa this weekend.

Triple Lows Korea Japan 29 Sept 2012

Major typhoon "Jelawat", a minor TS east of Japan, and a strong upper-level, Autumnal low over Korea.  Amazing proximity of these three very different lows, forming an almost equilateral triangle.  Jelawat's eye-wall was pounding Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, at the time of this image.  - HLG

Super Typhoon "Sanba"

Major Typhoon Sanba just before forecast to officially be at the Super-Typhoon level, well  over 160 mph sustained.  Sept 13, 09Z 2012. - HLG

Isaac Rainfall Totals Already Passing Katrina in NOLA

Katrina moved so fast it never dumped a lot of rain in NOLA proper, but Isaac is very different, and the eyewall is just creeping past the city, and dumping very heavy rain.  Totals are already passing Katrina, and hard for the pumps to keep up with it. -HLG

Typhoon Tembin's Second Pass over Taiwan

This amazing radar composite is the SECOND time this same typhoon, Tembin passed over the southern tip of Taiwan.  It crossed last week moving NE to SW, and now crossed this week SW to NE! - HLG

Twin Typhoons Tembin and Bolaven, both heading to Korea

As seen by MODIS on the 27th of Aug, 2012. -HLG

Bolaven Strongest Typhoon to Hit Okinawa in over 50 years.

Massive Typhoon Bolaven slams Okinawa, heads for Koreas

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 26, 2012 -- Updated 2105 GMT (0505 HKT)

Typhoon Bolaven is expected to make landfall near Okinawa on Sunday.

Tokyo (CNN) -- A massive typhoon crossed over Okinawa on Sunday, bringing winds more ferocious than even the typhoon-weary Japanese island has seen in decades.

Typhoon Bolaven, with wind gusts that reached as high as 259 kilometers per hour (161 mph), is the strongest to strike the region in nearly 50 years. And with a cloud field of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), it is 20 times larger than Okinawa's length.

"It's been very, very severe," said storm chaser James Reynolds, who was on the northwestern coast of the island during the worst of the storm. Tree branches were flying through the air amid torrential rain, he said.

Speaking to CNN early Monday morning on Okinawa, Reynolds said, "It's been a long and rough night."

"The eye of the typhoon actually crashed ashore just after dark. ... Like the rest of the population we all just kind of holed up in the strong and sturdy buildings which make up Okinawa," he said.

The infrastructure on Okinawa is designed to withstand violent storms. "Everything's made of solid concrete," said Reynolds.

The last storm of this scale was Typhoon Naha in 1956.

At 3 a.m. Monday local time (2 p.m. ET Sunday), Bolaven had winds of 194 kilometers per hour, with gusts at 240 kilometers per hour, CNN International meteorologist Jennifer Delgado reported.

Bolaven could make landfall at the Korean peninsula on Tuesday morning, or potentially in South Korea on Monday night, Delgado said.

In the meantime, rainfall totals in Okinawa could top 500 mm (20 inches) in 24 hours, said CNN International meteorologist Tom Sater.

Bolaven is "roughly the size of France to Poland in land mass," said Sater.

Storm surges were expected to be a major problem for Okinawa. More than 400,000 people in the area live at elevations less than 50 meters (164 feet).

"The large battering waves on both sides of Okinawa are going to be a threat to people living near the water," Reynolds predicted. "But I think the worst has passed now. The storm is moving away and unfortunately it's the people in the Korean peninsula who look like they've got to prepare for the incoming storm."

Taiwan, meanwhile, could be in for a pounding due to something called the Fujiwhara effect.

Typhoon Tembin made landfall in southern Taiwan a few days ago, and was expected to work its way toward Hong Kong. But Bolaven, which is much stronger, has stopped Tembin's movement toward Hong Kong and has been spinning it around. Tembin is likely to make a second landfall in southern Taiwan, also on Tuesday morning.

"As Typhoon Bolaven moves northward towards the Yellow Sea, it will drag Tembin toward the China coast very near Shanghai," said Sater. "That's an amazing change in direction."

Typhoons Tembin and Bolaven August 26, 2012

Tembin passed over the southern tip of Taiwan, and is forecast to raze the east coast of the island on a return pass, before heading into the Yellow Sea.  Meanwhile Bolaven is aiming directly for Okinawa as a major typhoon today, then curving up towards the North/South border of the Koreas. - HLG

Double Eyewall of Typhoon Bolaven

The Okinawa radar shows a distinct double, if not triple eyewall of Major Typhoon Bolaven, as it heads directly for the island province. - HLG

ECMWF Forecast for the 29th, the anniversary of Katrina!

Official JTWC Forecast for Typhoon Tembin!

Major Typhoons Tembin and Bolaven in same MODIS Image

Amazing how these two typhoons have stayed just far enough apart the Tembin was able to clock up to 120 kts, and Bolaven is so large, but assymetric still, it's development continues to major typhoon status.  Okinawa will get a direct hit from Bolaven, then somewhere in western Korea.  Meanwhile Tembin will stall just south of Taiwan for days!.  - HLG

Beware the "EYE" Storm! Major Hurricane for Northern Gulf Coast Next Week?

All the models are picking up on this storm strengthening rapidly over the Gulf this weekend, and although GFS (shown) has the storm heading to FL Panhandle, the ECMWF has a major hurricane, heading from the SE to NW, going right over NOLA.  Stay tuned on this one!  -HLG

Forget the Republican Plan for the Distant Future

What is the plan for "Isaac" crashing the convention in Tampa next week?  Which will produce more hot air, Chris Christie, or Hurricane Isaac???

Last week's model was a bust. Not drought buster for Central US from Ernesto 2012

Look out GOMEXians!

Ernesto looks like it will be a major hurricane in the Gulf next week.  Batten down the hatches, or at least stock up on bottled water! - HLG

"Virtual Fujiwara" Heading towards Shanghai Region

These two typhoons have been up and down in the models, with which one will become dominant.  They are definitely feeling each other, now forecast to be very similar intensities when one goes in north side of Shanghai, and the other on the south-side, just a day apart.  The southern storm is larger area, but just an amazing site in the Pacific. - HLG

Looks like Macau took direct hit from Cat 4 Storm

Intense typhoon Vicente slamming Hong Kong

By Jason Samenow

Radar image of typhoon Vicente passing just southwest of Hong Kong at 2:24 a.m. local time (July 24) or 2:24 p.m. EDT (July 23). (Hong Kong Observatory)After rapidly intensifying earlier today, typhoon Vicente is battering Hong Kong and locations in Southern China.

Maximum sustained winds have reached almost 140 mph (120 knots), the equivalent of a category 4 hurricane.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center predicts the storm, moving over very warm waters (30-32 degrees C or 86-90 F) and beneath favorable upper level winds, will maintain intensity until coming ashore in Southern China at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning (Hong Kong time), the equivalent of 8 p.m. tonight in the eastern United States.

Live radar plainly shows Vicente’s intense outer bands lashing Hong Kong with a well-defined eye just to its southwest. The storm’s strongest winds and most severe tidal surge are likely to occur southwest of the city in southern mainland China, but squally, hurricane-type conditions are possible in the city itself.

Satellite view and track forecast for typhoon Vicente (University of Wisconsin-Madison,Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies)The government of Hong Kong has issued its highest level typhoon warning for the city - known as the number 10 signal. Such a designation is reserved for storms expected to produce hurricane-force winds.

Reuters provided the following information about actions that go into effect when a typhoon of this severity moves into the city:

Financial markets, schools, businesses and non-essential government services close when any No. 8 or above signal is hoisted, posing a disruption to business in the capitalist hub and former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

The Hong Kong Observatory said it expected the No. 10 signal to remain in force overnight, meaning markets could be shut down in the morning.

Activation of the No. 10 signal is a rare occurrence according to the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO).

TS Khanun Causes Mostly Minor Damage in Korea

Khanun Causes Korea Flooding, Damage

By Jim Andrews, Senior Meteorologist

Jul 19, 2012; 9:26 PM ET

More Sharing ServicesShare|Share on facebookShare on myspaceShare on googleShare on twitter

This was Tropical Storm Khanun bearing down on the southwest coast of South Korea on Wednesday, July 18, 2012. By Thursday, Khanun was downgraded to a tropical depression over land. (Image credit: Navy Research Lab Monterey)

Some flooding and damage has been reported on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of Tropical Storm Khanun.

One person was killed in South Korea when parts of a house collapsed amid heavy rain and high wind, the Korea Times website said on Thursday.

By late Thursday, local time, Khanun was a weakening tropical depression aimed for the east coast of North Korea.

Hundreds of flights were grounded as Khanun made its way northward, passing over the city of Seoul. City streets saw some flooding, the Times said.

Rainfall in the area was at least 3 to 5 inches, according to weather data available to AccuWeather.com.

Even higher rainfall was observed in North Korea, where Sariwon registered more than 8 inches.

Water releases from the Hwangang Dam along the North-South border prompted campers in the south to evacuate, the Times said.

Khanun will dissipate over the western Sea of Japan

- Accuweather

T.C. Khunan

Looks like most of Korea will get a good soaking, at least!

"NATURE" reports globe has been COOLING for past 2 thousand years!

Two Millennia of Global Cooling?

Andrew Bostom

Notwithstanding the latest hysterical claims from the sadly politicized climate scientologists of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), insisting 2011 was somehow "a year of extreme weather," serious investigators at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz have just published a sobering analysis in Nature Climate Change  which reconstructs 2000 years of climate within northern Europe.

Utilizing tree-ring density measurements from sub-fossil pine trees in northern Scandinavia, the investigators created a sequence dating back to 138 BC. The density measurements are closely correlated with the summer temperatures in a targeted region on the edge of the Nordic taiga, enabling them to create a temperature reconstruction of unprecedented quality. Their high-resolution representation confirmed temperature patterns in the Roman and Medieval Warm periods, but also demonstrated the cold phases that occurred during the Migration Period and the later Little Ice Age. (See image, below)

In addition to depicting these cold and warm phases which were not influenced at all by anthropogenic warming, but rather "by solar output and (grouped) volcanic activity changes" - the new climate reconstruction curve also reveals a striking if unexpected phenomenon. Professor Dr. Jan Esper of the investigative team provided this apt summary assessment of the main findings:

We found that previous estimates of historical temperatures during the Roman era and the Middle Ages were too low. Such findings are also significant with regard to climate policy, as they will influence the way today's climate changes are seen in context of historical warm periods.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/07/two_millennia_of_global_cooling.html#ixzz20MwMe3gP

Strongest East Coast Derecho in Recent Memory

Derecho

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A shelf cloud along the leading edge of a derecho photographed in Minnesota

A derecho ( /dəˈreɪtʃoʊ/; Spanish pronunciation: [deˈɾetʃo]) is a widespread and long-lived, straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms. Generally, derechos are convection-induced and take on a bow echo form of squall line, forming in an area of divergence in the upper levels of the troposphere, within a region of low-level warm air advection and rich low-level moisture. They travel quickly in the direction of movement of their associated storms, similar to an outflow boundary (gust front), except that the windis sustained and increases in strength behind the front, generally exceeding hurricane-force. A warm-weather phenomenon, derechos occur mostly in summer, especially during June and July in the Northern Hemisphere, within areas of moderately strong instability and moderately strong vertical wind shear. They may occur at any time of the year and occur as frequently at night as during the daylight hours.

Very Wide and Large Scale Power Outages from Weekend Wind Storm

The amazingly powerful, and long-lasting straight-line windstorm over the past weekend has left millions without power, most will be for days, if not weeks. - HLG

Heavy Smoke over SW Greenland

I can't remember seeing this much smoke in this area. - HLG

Typhoon Guchol and TS Talim

Typhoon Guchol a bit weaker than yesterday, passes just east of Okinawa, with a heading for Japan's main islands.  Tropical Storm Talim forming near Hainan island, appears to be heading on a very similar track. --HLG

Rare Tornado Strikes Venice, Italy

June 12, 2012

Incredible Smoke-Choked Dry-Line in West Texas

The Dry-Line rolling off the Texas High plains is completely made of smoke from the SW New Mexico wild-fires in this June 9, 2012 GOES-E Visible image.

Bring Back Lt Mitchell: Shame on The Weather Channel!

Suit alleges Weather Channel Star was fired for military service

by Geoff Folsom
gfolsom@mdjonline.com

June 05, 2012 01:41 AM | 6768 views | 0  | 15  |  | 

MARIETTA — A former Weather Channel star is suing the Cobb-based channel and its new owners, claiming she was fired because of her military service.

Meteorologist Nicole Mitchell said Monday that her contract was not renewed in 2010 because the Weather Channel’s management didn’t want to deal with the time she took off to serve in the Air Force Reserves, where she is a captain and “Hurricane Hunter.” While the channel’s former management, Norfolk, Va.-based Landmark Communications, embraced her role in the military, featuring her weather-related duties on the air, she said that started to change when the Weather Channel was sold in 2008 to NBC Universal and two private equity firms, Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group.

Video below is courtesy of our news partner Fox 5 Atlanta

“I don’t think it was so much they were anti-military,” Mitchell said after a news conference Monday at her attorney’s office, a couple of miles from the Weather Channel’s headquarters. “But we were taken over by outside companies that weren’t internally managing, if that makes sense. And so they never got to know some of us. Our managers weren’t meteorologists anymore, so I think it was just easier for them to feel inconvenienced than to look at the benefits.”

The lawsuit states that in March 2009, NBC News Vice President Elena Nachmanoff called Mitchell in for a Sunday meeting with a “hair consultant,” even though Mitchell had a military service weekend scheduled for months. It claims that Nachmanoff was “perceptibly angry” that Mitchell didn’t come in. After Mitchell missed a second weekend assignment for “makeup consultation” in June 2009, she was removed from “Your Weather Today,” which she had been on for four years.

Mitchell’s contract with the Weather Channel was not renewed in 2010, which she says was a direct result of her military service, which is a violation of the 1994 Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination or retaliation against service members because of their military obligations.

“In our business, those contracts are just renewed time after time, as long as their happy with you as an employee,” she said. “Georgia is a right-to-work state, there’s no requirement to renew anyone’s contract. But, just like new management couldn’t come in and say, ‘We don’t really like black people, we’re not going to renew their contracts’ — you can’t do that, you can’t do it for discriminatory reason. So, for the same reason, you can’t say, ‘We’re not going to renew her because she’s in the military.’ ”

Along with her attorney — Lance LoRusso, known for his work as legal counsel for the Georgia Fraternal Order of Police — Mitchell’s defenders Monday included representatives from the Reserve Officer’s Association.

Lynn Hogue, a retired Army lawyer who is now a law professor at Georgia State University, said no specific reasons were ever given for Mitchell’s dismissal.

“She had stellar evaluations,” he said. “What other inference could you possible draw than that the renewal was based on the inconvenience caused by her military service?”

Mitchell, who started with the Reserves 20 years ago just out of high school, said she filed the lawsuit not just for herself, but for those in the military who don’t have the same resources she does.

“It’s popular right now to say ‘We support the troops’ and ‘We’ve got your back,’ but if you’re going to say it, you should mean it. We need to make sure employers are doing the right thing, if not because it’s right, which is why you should do it, at the very least because it’s the law.”

While he didn’t say how much money they were seeking, LoRusso said that Mitchell is entitled to money she would have gotten had her contract been renewed, as well as attorney’s fees and expenses.

A Weather Channel statement said the company can’t comment on pending litigation, but that the channel and its owners are committed to creating an atmosphere in compliance with the Uniformed Service Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

“As with many situations, there is more than one version of what occurred,” the statement said. “We disagree with many of the assertions in the plaintiff’s press statements and intend to vigorously defend the matter in the arbitration process.”

The Weather Channel was started in Cobb County in 1982 and currently has 800 employees at its headquarters on Interstate North Parkway in the Cumberland area.

Bain has been under attack by President Barack Obama’s campaign recently because of its co-founder, presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, while Obama himself attended a fundraiser last month in New York that was hosted by Blackstone’s chief operating officer.

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Weather Channel star  I was fired for my military service 

"O-zone" Hole over South Indian Ocean?

At least this one you can see!  

Beautiful South Georgia Island

On a mid-Autumn day, from MODIS April 2012.

Major East Coast Storm Next Week?

If the forecast holds, a large NE'er type storm will develop on Monday and crawl up the Eastern Seaboard. Batten down the hatches!  - HLG

Bad Radar from Wichita

The visible at sunset shows the super-cells in the Central Plains.  Some of the tornadoes have been tracked for hours, and one was bearing down on Wichita, as seen in this relative velocity radar.  -  HLG

Japan has strongest non-tropical wind storm in half century

Japan’s Strongest Storm Since 1959 Slams Into Tokyo Region

By Chris Cooper, Kiyotaka Matsuda and Stuart Biggs - Apr 3, 2012 7:54 PM GMT+0900

Japanese airlines canceled hundreds of flights, some train services were halted and thousands of workers went home early as some of the strongest winds in more than 50 years hit Tokyo today.
The weather agency issued a tornado warning for the Tokyo area after the storm dumped as much as 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) of rain an hour in central Japan as it crossed from the southwest, with winds gusting up to 140 kilometers (87 miles) an hour. An 82-year-old woman died after being knocked over by the wind and hitting her head, national broadcaster NHK reported.

Japan’s Strongest Storm Since 1959 Slams Into Tokyo Region

Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

Strong winds in Tokyo on April 3, 2012
.

Strong winds in Tokyo on April 3, 2012. Photographer: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

Enlarge image

Typhoon-Strength Winds Head for Tokyo

Japan Meteorological Agency via Bloomberg

A storm passing over Japan is seen in this satellite image acquired at 13:00 JST, on Tuesday, April 3, 2012.

A storm passing over Japan is seen in this satellite image acquired at 13:00 JST, on Tuesday, April 3, 2012. Source: Japan Meteorological Agency via Bloomberg

“Our company closed early but I stayed longer to finish work,” said Akio Fukuzaki, an engineer waiting in line at a Tokyo train station for operations to resume. “I should have left earlier.”
As many as 11,500 households have lost power because of the storm in Toyama and Ishikawa prefectures, Hokuriku Electric Power Co. (9505) said in a statement. At least 60 people have been injured in 17 prefectures, NHK reported, showing a golf driving range destroyed in Hiroshima in western Japan.
Sustained winds in Tokyo may reach 90 kph during its evening peak, Takeo Tanaka, head of the weather advisory office at the Japan Meteorological Agency, said in a telephone interview. That would make it the strongest storm to hit the capital since 1959, when Tokyo was buffeted by winds of 97 kph, data from the weather agency show.
“People should try to avoid going out,” Tanaka said. “It’s very unusual for Tokyo to have such strong winds when there’s not a typhoon,” he said, referring to the tropical storms that regularly strike Japan between May and October.

Grounded Planes

All Nippon Airways Co. (9202) and Japan Airlines Co. (9201), the nation’s two largest airlines, canceled 566 flights, stranding more than 68,000 passengers. All Nippon scrapped 336 flights, affecting about 38,000 people, the airline said in a faxed statement, while Japan Air (9201) canceled 230 domestic flights that had 39,500 passengers. Both airlines warned that international services may also be disrupted.
East Japan Railway Co. (9020), the largest railway operator in the Tokyo region, canceled some trains due to strong winds, according to its website. Express services on the Chuo line, linking western suburbs with the city center, were scrapped, while regular services were running at 70 percent frequency, the operator said. Some expressways were also closed in the capital.

Leaving Early

Bullet train services linking Tokyo and Osaka were also disrupted, Central Japan Railway Co. (9022) said on its website.
The weather agency issued warnings for waves as high as 10 meters (33 feet) on the northwest coast of Honshu and up to 8 meters along the Pacific coast hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami last year. After passing Tokyo, the storm is forecast to dump heavy rain on the disaster-hit Tohoku region.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (MOTZ) issued an advisory for companies to send employees home where possible to avoid transport disruption, the first time such a warning has been issued for a storm that isn’t a typhoon, a spokesman said.
Sony Corp. (6758) advised 16,000 employees in Tokyo to leave work early to avoid the storm, spokesman George Boyd said in an e- mail. Nissan Motor Co. (7201) ordered employees at its headquarters in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, and other facilities in Kanagawa prefecture (KANZ) to leave work at 2 p.m. today, spokesman Toshitake Inoshita said by phone.
JVC Kenwood Corp. (6632), also based in Kanagawa, sent workers home, the company said in a statement on its website. Fujitsu Ltd. (6702) said it gave 25,000 employees the option to leave work early, the company said in an e-mailed statement.

No Baseball

Professional baseball games were canceled in Yokohama, Tokyo and Saitama, north of the capital, Kyodo News reported. Some schools in Tokyo closed at lunchtime.
Today’s storm, caused by a low pressure front that formed over the Sea of Japan, differs from the typhoons or tropical storms which form over warm water in the Pacific and develop into a cyclone with surface wind circulation, according to the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Typhoon Talas killed 67 people in September, the nation’s deadliest storm in seven years.
“Usually the low pressure systems develops east of Japan but this is unusual because the low pressure system has developed in the Sea of Japan,” Masashi Kunitsugu, at the weather agency’s typhoon center, said in an interview. “It usually develops after passing the islands of Japan.”

Oil Refineries

The storm dumped heavy rain overnight on Japan’s southwest island of Kyushu before moving northeast toward Osaka and Tokyo.
Cosmo Oil Co. (5007) halted oil barge berthing at its refineries at Chiba and Yokkaichi, west of Tokyo, Katsuhisa Maeda, a company spokesman, said by phone earlier today. The refiner may also stop loading and unloading barges at processing plants at Sakai, south of Osaka, and Sakaide on the island of Shikoku.
JX Nippon Oil and Energy Corp., Japan’s largest refiner, stopped barge berthing at its Marifu refinery in western Japan, as well as its Negishi refinery in Yokohama, according to a company official who declined to be identified citing the company’s internal policy.
Idemitsu Kosan Co. (5019) stopped berthings at its Chiba, Aichi and Tokuyama refineries, spokesman Kei Uchikawa said.
West Japan Railway Co. (9021) canceled bullet train services on the Sanyo Shinkansen line between Osaka and Hakata station in Kyushu, the company said on its website.
To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Cooper in Tokyo at ccooper1@bloomberg.net; Kiyotaka Matsuda in Tokyo at kmatsuda@bloomberg.net; Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net

Twin Tornadoes in DFW?

Two distinct tornadic cells bare down directly on Dallas and Ft Worth on April 3rd, the 38th anniversary of the great Super Outbreak of 1974.

TD 2W 2012

Cute little guy off of Vietnam. - HLG

Major Wind Storm for Midwest on April 3?

Looks like major wind, at least.  Severe weather set-up for the Mid-Atlantic?? - HLG

River Sediments in the East China Sea

Katabatic Dust Storm in SW Asia

Strong cold air plunging down from the Central Asian plateau fueled a massive dust storm over SW Asia last week. -HLG