Hurricane Ike in 3D

September 12, 2008

This just in: A brand new animation from NASA showing the Gulf-of-Mexico-encompassing Hurricane Ike in three dimensions. A must-see for hurricane followers and other weather fanatics.

We also have a stories up on Discovery News about how Ike got so gigantic and its incredible storm surge.

To all you folks in SW Louisiana and Texas: You're in our thoughts and prayers. Hang in there!

[A fews hours later] Just another another note about Ike, this one pointed out by Discovery News director Lori Cuthbert. NOAA has been putting out some unusually strong warnings about this storm. Far more foreboding than anything I've seen before. Take a look:

• "Hurricane Ike's winds remain at Category 2 strength, but Ike is a freak storm with extreme destructive storm surge potential."

• "COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF UP TO 20 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS"

• "tropical storm force winds out to 275 miles."

• "ENTIRE COASTAL CITIES AND TOWNS WILL BE INUNDATED. PERMANENT BREACHES MAY BE CUT OFF. FULL RECOVERY WILL TAKE MONTHS IF NOT YEARS. WATER LEVELS MAY EXCEED 13 FEET FOR MORE THAN A MILE INLAND. CONDITIONS WILL BE WORSENED BY BATTERING WAVES. SUCH WAVES WILL NOT ONLY EXACERBATE PROPERTY DAMAGE BUT WASH OUT SOLID ROAD AND BRIDGE STRUCTURES. DAMAGE FROM BEACH EROSION WILL TAKE YEARS TO REPAIR. "

As you can see, this ain't no drill. Ike is a true monster.

How Hurricanes Die -- The Movie

September 04, 2008

Just a quick note about a beautiful little movie made by NASA showing the death of Hurricane Gustav. You may need QuickTime to view it. Note the other storms twirling along the sidelines. Hard imagine that 100 years ago folks didn't even know what a hurricane was shaped like, much less how they fatally fly apart over land. Back then any swirling white shape with a hole at the center would likely remind people of nothing more than soapy water going down a drain.

Gustav: The Political Hurricane

August 31, 2008

Riddle: How do you play football with a hurricane? Answer: Watch the Republicans and find out. I learned this morning that President G.W. Bush may not make it to the Republican National Convention to stand beside and endorse the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain. Bush's reason? He reportedly believes the threat of Hurricane Gustav requires that he personally be ready to bail out the streets of New Orleans, whack shrubs along the levees or do something or other within his skill set to make it appear like he learned something from the Hurricane Katrina debacle. But we know that's not the real reason.

Let's consider the matter from McCain's point of view. Hurricane Gustav's timing is awful because it's right now causing a national case of Katrina deja vu. Katrina, as you recall, was the most mismanaged disaster in American history. It was one of Bush's all-time greatest fumbles (and boy-oh-boy, have there been a lot of fumbles). And since Democratic nominee Barack Obama has been loudly and lately pounding on McCain's record of supporting Bush's policies 90-percent of the time, any sort of Katrina sequel is the last thing McCain wants in the headlines alongside a picture of he and Bush onstage trading warm bear hugs before Republican delegates. So please George, stay away!

It might even be that Gustav is a blessing for McCain. It gives Republicans a badly needed excuse for keeping Bush far, far away from the Minneapolis convention venue, where his absence is greatly desired, but hard to otherwise explain. So politically speaking, the GOP needs Gustav to threaten the U.S. just long enough for Bush to miss the convention. That would make everyone happy, especially all those people on the Gulf Coast who can now rest so much easier knowing George Bush is on the job.

Suspicious Katrina Pictures

April 30, 2008

I'm a natural born skeptic. That's why when a friend forwarded me these images, I did not instantly believe the accompanying breathless text, also forwarded:

"Whoever took these pictures did an awesome job. Whoever said, 'awesome and terrifying' is telling the truth. Wow, take a look at this ... Worth passing on!!! The dance with Katrina, part of her beauty as she left destruction on her exit. They are remarkably dramatic.
These pictures were made by a man in Magee, MS where the eye of the storm passed thru - what an experience.  Magee is 150 miles North of Waveland, Mississippi where the Hurricane made landfall."

These are, indeed, awesome images, but whenever I get poorly sourced materials, I get suspicious. Anyone have any more info on these? Are they even from Mississippi? They look like they could be from anywhere in Tornado Alley. (The answer is now available in comments section -- LarryO', 5/6)

Hurricane in a Bubble

April 07, 2008

Ever enjoy the view of the world reflected by a soap bubble? Like many adults, I only became re-acquainted with the wonders of bubbles with the help of a child. But even the most jaded adult can learn a thing or two about bubbles from some French researchers who have found a reflection of another sort in bubbles. By heating half bubbles at their "equators" they spotted isolated vortices spinning and convecting to upwards. Their abstract in Physical Review Letters reads:

"These vortices resemble hurricanes or cyclones and similarities between our observed structures and these natural objects are found."

I'm pretty sure some meteorologists will be skeptical about the similarities, but who knows. There may be something to learn about hurricanes in those bubbles. Like a bubble, the atmosphere is a thin fluid spread out into a sphere. Also like these specially heated bubbles, the atmosphere is unevenly heated and "vortices," a.k.a. tropical cyclones, are needed to dissipate some of that heat and move it to cooler parts. Me, I'll be looking more closely at a the next train of bubbles my son blows on the back porch. Special thanks to Discovery News' tech writer Eric Bland for bringing this bit of research to my attention.