You have already or should soon receive information from your course LIT leader on filling out a course survey and evaluation. This is a requirement for receiving credit for the course. If you have not received this information by the end of the week, please contact your LIT leader.
The just-concluded 2008 Hurricane Season in the Atlantic Basin was more active than usual, but far below the record-setting and devastating 2005 season that included Hurricane Katrina. (The Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season officially runs from June 1st to November 30th. The eastern North Pacific Basin season extends from May 15th to November 30th.) The descriptive summary of the 2008 season is given in the Monday, 1 December, Supplemental file from the course website. As noted in the Supplement, 2008 was again above normal in activity, being the tenth season in the last fourteen to have more tropical storms and hurricanes than the long-term average. Six consecutive storms made landfall on the U.S. mainland while three major hurricanes (category 3 or higher) slammed Cuba. Also each of the months, July to November, had a major hurricane. At this time we seem to be in a multi-decadal trend of above average numbers of tropical storms. Future seasons may have considerable activity, but where the storms will track and how strong they become is not as yet predictable.
Typically, the majority of Atlantic tropical systems travel westward at lower latitudes and then recurve to the north and northeast upon reaching the belt of Westerly winds. This directional pattern brought many of the storms into the Gulf of Mexico. Those Gulf storms resulted in [(none) (all)] of the U.S. landfalls of hurricane-strength (red portions of the track).
One result of hurricanes and tropical cyclones in the global weather system is the transport of heat and moisture from the tropical oceans to land in the higher latitudes. From the 2008 tropical cyclone paths which originated over the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, several of their final inland positions imply that these disturbances [(did) (did not)] transport some of their rainfall to land.
The energy source for tropical storms is primarily the latent heat absorbed when water vapor evaporated from the warm ocean surfaces. This energy must be transferred to the atmospheric circulation through subsequent condensation in thunderstorms and the organized wind circulation of the storm. From the relatively short ending paths of those tropical cyclones that made landfall, it can be implied that the weakening of the storm's energy is likely due to [(loss of evaporation when over land) (increased surface roughness slowing the winds) (both of these factors)].
Five of 2008's hurricanes developed to "major" status. They can be easily seen on the map by their (purple) hurricane strength paths. At Category 3, their wind speeds would have been at least ________ mph (96 kts). [See the table of item # 16 on p. 12A-5 of the Weather Studies Investigations Manual.]
When looking in the direction towards which the storm is moving, the winds would have brought extensive wind damage, accompanying heavy rainfalls and a dangerous storm surge mainly to the [(left) (right)] of the point where the hurricane's center came ashore. Several portions of Cuba were so affected.
Image 2 is the map of the tracks of tropical weather systems worldwide for 2008 (so far) adapted from the University of Hawaii (http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/GifArchive/wld2008.gif). Note that the Image 1 map from the NHC is the same as the North Atlantic section of the world distribution. Draw a horizontal line across the Image 2 world map approximating the position of the equator (through the black dot near the mouth of the Amazon River in South America and through the large island of Borneo off Southeast Asia). Tropical storms of 2008 [(did) (did not)] cross the equator from one hemisphere to the other.
This lack of tropical activity at the equator (0° latitude) [(was) (was not)] due to the absence of the Coriolis Effect at the equator providing rotation needed for storm formation.
From Image 2 one can note that the greatest tropical cyclone activity in 2008 was concentrated in the [(North Atlantic) (west and east parts of the North Pacific) (South Atlantic) (South Pacific)] ocean basin. This frequency of storms is typical and caused by the large expenses of warm ocean waters year around. (You may recall the sea surface temperatures plotted in Investigation 9B.)
While the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific Hurricane Seasons are now officially over for 2008, hurricanes have rarely occurred in these locations practically every month of the year. Tropical cyclones may continue to occur this year in the western North Pacific, and the season is heading into summertime in the South Pacific and southern Indian Ocean basins.
For information on tropical storms anywhere in the world, any time of the year, check the University of Hawaii web site: http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/tropical.html. For information on Atlantic storms, go to the National Hurricane Center's webpage, http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/. On the menu under Hurricane History, Seasons Archive, track maps and individual storm reports for current and past years can be found. Another valuable item under Hurricane Awareness is a list of Frequent Questions.
DataStreme Atmosphere participants: Your successful completion
of the DataStreme Atmosphere course with the Wednesday Investigation, your
final course meeting and submitting the course evaluation, includes 3 graduate
semester hours of credit from the State University of New York College at
Brockport. The course is officially designated:
ESC 675 Real-Time Weather Studies
A distance-learning course developing principles of meteorology from analysis
of electronically delivered current environmental data and learning activities.
Relies on computer receipt, analysis and display of geoscience data with
classroom applications. Administered by the American Meteorological
Society.
"ESC" indicates this is a course from the Department of the Earth
Sciences and "675" indicates it is a course at the
graduate level.
You will not receive notification from Brockport of your credit. However, you may verify your course grade subsequent to 23 December 2008 by accessing the SUNY Brockport computer system directly:
To request a certified transcript copy (current cost $5), call Registration and Records at SUNY Brockport at 585-395-2531 and follow the provided directions, or go to: http://www.brockport.edu/registrar/officialtranscript.html.
Place the answers to Current Weather Studies investigations 12A and 12B on the CWS Answer Form (provided from the DataStreme Atmosphere website on Wednesdays).
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©Copyright, 2008, American Meteorological Society
