Tropical Storm Agatha, Pacaya volcano kill 15 in Guatemala; oil spill update
Tropical Storm Agatha, the first Eastern Pacific named storm of 2010, was short lived but deadly. Agatha was a tropical storm for just 12 hours, making landfall Saturday on the Pacific coast of Guatemala as a 45 mph tropical storm. However, the storm brought huge amounts of moisture inland that continue to be wrung out as heavy rains by the high mountains of Guatemala and the surrounding nations of Central America. So far, flooding and landslides have killed twelve people in Guatemala, and one person in neighboring El Salvador. According to the excellent Guatemala weather site, climaya.com, rainfall amounts of up to 152 mm (six inches) in 24 hours have occurred in some regions of Guatemala. The National Hurricane Center is warning that rainfall amounts of up to 30 inches may fall the next few days in some mountainous regions near where the storm has dissipated. Adding to the mayhem is fallout from the Pacaya volcano in Guatemala, which began erupting three days ago. At least three people have been killed by the volcano, located about 25 miles south of the capital, Guatemala City. The volcano has destroyed 800 homes with lava and brought moderate ash falls to the capital.
Figure 1. Visible satellite image of Tropical Storm Agatha at landfall. The storm was intensifying right up until landfall, and had an impressive "hot tower" of building cumulonimbus clouds near its center that brought heavy rains to Guatemala.
Figure 2. Flooding in Quetzaltenango, Zone 2, in Guatemala on May 29, 2010, after heavy rains from Tropical Storm Agatha. Image credit: Carlos Diaz, climaya.com
Oil spill update
Light onshore winds out of the south are expected to blow over the northern Gulf of Mexico today through Tuesday, resulting increased threats of oil to the Alabama and Mississippi barrier islands, according to the latest trajectory forecasts from NOAA. Winds are expected to shift to southwesterly on Wednesday and continue through Friday, increasing in force to 10 - 20 knots late in the week as a cold front approaches the Gulf. These persistent and strengthening southwesterly winds will likely bring oil very close to shore from Mississippi to the Florida Panhandle by next weekend.
Oil spill resources
My post, What a hurricane would do the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
My post Wednesday with answers to some of the common questions I get about the spill
My post on the Southwest Florida "Forbidden Zone" where surface oil will rarely go
My post on what oil might do to a hurricane
NOAA trajectory forecasts
Deepwater Horizon Unified Command web site
Oil Spill Academic Task Force
University of South Florida Ocean Circulation Group oil spill forecasts
ROFFS Deepwater Horizon page
Surface current forecasts from NOAA's HYCOM model
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery from the University of Miami
Join the "Hurricane Haven" with Dr. Jeff Masters: a new Internet radio show
Beginning next week, I'll be experimenting with a live 1-hour Internet radio show called "Hurricane Haven." The show will be aired at 4pm EDT on Tuesdays, with the first show June 1. Listeners will be able to call in and ask questions. Some topics I'll cover on the first show:
1) What's going on in the tropics right now
2) Preview of the coming hurricane season
3) How a hurricane might affect the oil spill
4) How the oil spill might affect a hurricane
5) New advancements in hurricane science presented at this month's AMS Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology
6) Haiti's vulnerability to a hurricane this season
I hope you can tune in to the broadcast, which will be at http://www.wunderground.com/wxradio/wubroadcast.h tml. If not, the show will be recorded and stored as a podcast.
I'll probably be back Monday with a quick update. Have a great holiday weekend!
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 — Blog Index
Agree. I wish I could advance forward 6 months...to Dec. 1st, 2010 and know...the totals in the Atlantic and the status of the oil catastrophe.
Any prospects for eventually getting some much needed rain here in SW FL from this? Or will it be shot off to the NE if/when it gets to a higher latitude?
It' is expected to impact South/Central florida directly.. atleast that's what the models said until agatha was killed off.
at the very least (it's in the forecast) expect alot of stormy weather come mid / late week
When I find mine, I'll take another look! LOL
One would assume that the center is somewhere in between those hot towers, rather impressive this AM. 12hr clock started at first blow-up.
Good. Rain without damage is a good thing!
I would love to take you up on this. I am in Bradenton. What is your life schedule like? Weekend mornings? Afternoons? Weekday Nights? PM me and thanks for your openness to sharing information.
The Atlantic continues to remain on fire. The tripole remains very well defined. Meanwhile the Pacific temps are definitely La Nina-bound.
I noticed, I agree, this is developing at the very least..
Very Nice Grothar.. I had seen the photos and words before, but without the music...
Brings back a bumper sticker I saw some time ago, If you can read this thank a teacher, thank a soldier it is in English... (Not meant to offend the many international contributors to this site - just a little American patriotism and reflection of how our country was founded)
Also - The thing about Ixtoc I was really interesting. What made them think that if it didn't work before in 200 ft of water, it would all of a sudden work in 5,000 ft of water. DELAY tactics and things to make US think that they are trying...
We can never repay those that gave the last full measure of devotion so that we might enjoy the lives we've lived but we do honor their memory and we are grateful, truly, for the sacrifices they made...
The window of less Shear is coming!
That ain't happenen' Going through this one invest at a time.
WVLoop
The anticyclone as moved to somewhere near the coast of Venezuela I think.
Conditions appear to be changing fairly quickly. BBL
Good Morning FLOODMAN!
Thank you for the graphic. Do you have the link to the site from where the graphic is as I lost it?
Thanks, Dak.
On the article about the 1979 spill, it stated that they finally stopped the leak with lead balls. Maybe that is what they need for this one.
I am surprised know one remembers that one. Those who were alive at the time, course. It was actually worse than this one.
Flag etiquette for this day.
"On Memorial Day the flag is displayed at half staff until noon and at full staff from noon to sunset."
History of Memorial Day
It currently has a decent low level convergence and upper level divergence.
Location was also better. The currents took most of the oil onto the pretty much barren sandy barrier islands of South South Texas and Northern Mexico. That was bad for the islands but much better than having oil in environmentally sensitive marshlands.
After 30 years the beaches were finally looking really clean again.
This is looking like a much worse environmental catastrophe due to the depth, the heavy use of dispersants at depth, and the proximity to very important wetlands.
morning Senior, I am going to take you up on that as well.
Thank you to all the Vets out there!!!!!!
And thanks Dan and Flood. Let's go to the new blog and see what is new?
This was moving. Thank You
THANK YOU to all of you and God Bless!
Viewing: 1651 - 1690
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 — Blog Index