Hauptsturmfury Felix [Cat 5]-3
Unfortunately Felix had the time and warm water to spin back up after the eyewall replacement.
Position: 14.3 N/83.2 W. [7PM EDT]
Movement: West [270°] near 16 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 160 mph [Cat 5].
Gusts: 190mph
Minimum central pressure: 935 mb.
Hurricane Force Wind Radius: 30 miles.
Tropical Storm Force Wind Radius: 115 miles.
Came ashore near Punta Gorda, Nicaragua.
Two hurricanes and two Cat 5 storms, both hitting land as Cat 5s. The 2005 season had four Cat 5s, but this season joins 1960 & 1961 in second place with two.
Update from Dr. Jeff Masters:
A strengthening Hurricane Felix powered ashore as a Category 5 hurricane near the Nicaragua/Honduras border at 8am EDT this morning, bringing 160 mph winds and an 18-foot storm surge to this sparsely populated region. Felix weakened for a period yesterday as it became too tightly would to maintain its eyewall, but a new eyewall formed last night in time for Felix to regain Category 5 strength before landfall. This year marks the first time in recorded history that two Category 5 storms (Felix and Dean) have made landfall in the Atlantic basin in the same year. Since reliable record keeping began in 1944, there have been 27 Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic. Eight of these have occurred in the past five years.
4 comments
I asked the other day about the frequency of Cat 5 storms and I should have specified making landfall as Cat 5. I couldn’t remember ever having two make landfall in one season and it seems my memory didn’t fail me this time.
I had dinner guests the other night, one is a PhD in archeology, that insisted that this whole Global Warming thing was just another example of the cycles that naturally occur in our weather. I just laughed at them which I am afraid was not very mannerly for a host. Then again, that was after they had already maligned Al Gore several times.
There very definitely have been warming and cooling cycles before, but not this quickly, which is the problem. Adaptations take time, and there isn’t much time left. By burning fossil fuels we are releasing all of the carbon that was stored in them for millions of years.
Many clues external to the atmosphere indicate indicate we should ready for a cooling cycle, but that isn’t happening,
Oh, of course, warming/cooling cycles, water levels, atmosphere composition, etc. will find new centers or points of rest someday… those points, and the transition to them, just may not be compatible with human existence, let alone civilization.
No one denies there have been climate variations, even fairly extreme ones, in the course of human history… there was a winter in 18th-century France in which the Paris Conservatory burned some of its harpsichords as firewood, understanding full well the implications of such an act… but never prior to the past century or so has humankind had the capacity not merely to tap on the delicately spinning top, but to give it a good hard shove.
Politics aside, Fallenmonk, and with due respect to your guests, on this particular subject, they are speaking very, very foolishly. (But I hardly need to tell you that.)
Bryan, your point about the consequences of burning fossil fuels is right on target. People consider me something of a solar power fanatic, but I am that because it is one of very few sources that divert energy already in the system rather than adding essentially “new” energy (stored long ago) to the system. Burning adds energy. Nuclear power adds energy. You can improve their efficiency, and that’s not to be sneezed at, but in the long run, if there’s to be a long run, we must turn to a source that doesn’t turn up the burner.
The problem with nuclear plants is that they require cool water. They had to be shut down in France and Georgia because the water used for cooling was too warm. Well, that water isn’t going to get cooler in coming years, and again – we are producing electricity by generating heat. Heat is the problem, not the solution. We need to move to systems that don’t burn or heat anything. In addition to the greenhouse gases most power plants generate waste heat, which makes the problem worse.
The same for the power source for cars. The internal combustion engine also produces waste heat, no matter what the fuel. Electric cars not only reduce waste gases, they reduce waste heat.