A massive storm complex is crossing the northern and central tier of states in the US and the southern part of Canada. The storms are bringing rain, snow, wind and colder temperatures to the region, and may generate tornadoes along their southern edge, which will be in the southeastern US.read more
Super Typhoon Yutu, packing sustained winds of 180 miles an hour and likely producing gusts at or above 200 MPH is hammering the Northern Mariana Islands. It is the strongest storm to form on Earth so far in 2018 and is hitting Tinian, Saipan and Rota. It is the most powerful storm ever to stirike the Northern Marianas and is among the strongest tropical cyclones recorded in modern times. It is similar in strength to Super Typhoon Haiyan which killed thousands of people in the city of Tacloban in the Philippines in 2013. Because the storm is moving through and area with light upper level winds it is traveling slowly. Because it is over an area of extremely warm water, it could continue to intensify.
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Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle earlier today, but it did so as a category-4 hurricane with wind speeds of up to 150 mph (240 kph), rather than the category-3 that it was originally forecast to be. This is the strongest storm to hit the Panhandle on record, fueled by unusually warm 84ºF (29ºC) water temperatures. The storm is projected to track northeast over Georgia and the Carolinas, a circumstance that might exacerbate an already disastrous situation if Michael adds rain to the areas already affected by flooding from Hurricane Florence. More than 370,000 people along the Gulf coast have been ordered to evacuate, but authorities are concerned that many did not heed the warning.
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Three Cape Verde hurricanes have formed at the same time in the south central Atlantic while a fourth storm in the Pacific in threatening Hawaii with it’s second hurricane of the season. At the same time, a new tropical depression is forming south of Florida. As the oceans warm, generalized outbreaks such as this will become the new normal, and coastal areas from Florida to Newfoundland will experience high-category named storms on a regular basis. In additon, warming Pacific waters will enable storms that form off the Baja Peninsula to move up into southern California waters within a few years.
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