TEXAS TROPICS

Hurricane Sam has been one of the most impressive storms to come along in a while. Sam formed on the 23rd of September, became a hurricane the next day, and became a major hurricane the day after that, September 25th. Sam has maintained the status of a major hurricane, cat 3 or better, ever since. A full week now of winds of 115 mph or higher. And it's mostly been higher. Sam becomes the 8th hurricane in the sattelite era ( since 1966 ), to maintain cat 3 status or higher for 7 days or more. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 holds the record at 10 days. And Sam is expected to remain at cat 3 until at least early on Sunday ( Oct. 3 ). Sam hit cat 4 status on the 26th, and on that same day, hit what is estimated to be it's peak intensity with winds of 155 mph. Technically, winds of 156 mph and greater put you in cat 5 territory. Sam could very well have been a cat 5 at that time, but it was a little too far out in the open ocean for recon to be there at that time. With category 5 hurricanes...

When it comes to storm names in the Atlantic, there may not be any more feared than those that start with the letter "I". And that's because of the 93 storm names that have been retired, nearly 12% have started with the letter "I". And if you count the Greek letter Iota, which was retired last year that isn't officially an "I" storm, that's 13% of the retired names starting with an "I". But Iota isn't really a name, it's a Greek letter, so we won't count it. For a storm name to be retired, it has to cause a lot of deaths and/or significant and lasting damage somewhere. Examples of some of the more memorable retired names, Carla in 1961, Camille in '69, Andrew in '92, Katrina in 2005, and Harvey in 2017. Those were all some powerful hurricanes that caused a lot of damage and death. Storms that we still talk about all of these years later. And a storm doesn't have to be powerful to get retired. Tropical storm All...

We’re about at that time of the year where the tropics start to heat up, particularly in the deep Atlantic in what is called the Main Development Region (MDR), where the majority of storms develop during a typical season. Also known as Cape Verde season, for a group of islands, called the Cape Verde Islands, just off the African coast, where tropical waves coming off the coast into the Atlantic, start seeing better conditions to develop and make the long journey across the Atlantic, a lot of times into our part of the world. These storms don’t necessarily develop near the Cape Verde islands, it’s just that the waves coming off the African coast stay together long enough to develop further instead of breaking apart and dissipating like so many early in the season do. About 60, give or take, of these tropical waves come off the African coast in a given season. Most never amount to anything, either dissipating, or some even make the long journey across the Atlantic as light to moderate th...

We're 2 months into the 2021 hurricane season and we've only had 5 named storms. By this time last year we had already had NINE named storms. In fact, the month of July by itself last year had 5 named storms, and here we've had 5 total this year. As we move into August, the tropics should start to pick up some, as this is typically when tropical activity begins to rise. There's also this thing called the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) that is expected move into the Atlantic tropical zones. The MJO is an atmospheric thing that moves across the planet along tropical regions and enhances tropical rainfall when it's present. The more rainfall, the more chance of something spinning up. In the record breaking season last year, August only gave us 4 named storms. I'd expect that total to be easily matched this season. It wasn't until September last year that things really got crazy when a record 10 storms formed. By the end of September, the season's list of n...

With the recent tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico, there were 3 different identifiers used to report on this system. We first knew it as Invest 92L . Later it was known as Potential Tropical Cyclone #3 . Then just as it was making landfall it became Tropical Storm Claudette . What do these titles mean, and how many more are there? Tropical depression, tropical storm, hurricane....those are the terms we are most familiar with concerning weather in the tropics. But what are all of these other terms you hear being mentioned from time to time? Most tropical systems form from what are called Tropical Waves . There are systems that form from old frontal boundaries that get out over the water and start to spin up, but for the most part, a tropical wave is where it all starts. About 60% of named storms come from tropical waves, and 85% of major hurricanes form from a tropical wave. These waves are basically troughs of low pressure that, of course, form in the tropics, mostly coming off the...

The official start date for what is considered "Hurricane Season" is June 1. The season's last day is November 30. It's in this time frame that conditions become the most conducive for tropical activity to occur. In fact, since 1851, 97% of the systems that have reached at least tropical storm strength, have occured between June 1 and November 30. But Mother Nature doesn't adhere to dates on a calendar, and as a result, there have been numerous tropical systems that have popped up outside of this official "season". The month of May, the month immediately preceding the official start, is when we see the majority of these "off-season" systems as conditions begin to improve for tropical development as we near the official "season". 64% of the off-season activity occurs in May. In fact, with the formation of Ana a couple of days ago, there has been a storm form in May for 7 straight years. This has prompted discussion of moving the start ...

Our little early season disturbance in the western Gulf is raising some eyebrows. Identified as Invest 91, which is what the NHC gives systems with the potential to develop, this thing has a chance to make history. All models indicate this system will come ashore along the Texas coast, most have it somewhere near Matagorda Bay. In recorded history, there has NEVER been an off-season system at tropical storm strength or better, strike the Texas coast. NEVER. There was a tropical depression that affected Texas in 1936, but that's it. If this system develops into a tropical, or even a subtropical storm, in which it will still get a name, it will be the 1st ever to make Texas landfall before June 1. The system clearly has a low level circulation that is easily seen from satellite. The thing is, if you can clearly see the low level spin, it means storms are not forming around it's center. And the reason storms are not forming around the center is that it is sucking in a ton of dry a...