http://www.blog.twistervideos.com Read the latest on extreme weather including tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and blizzards Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:45:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Hurricane Paloma is rapidly strenthening today as it approaches Cuba.  Recently satellite images show that Hurricane Paloma has developed a "dreaded" pinhole eye.  This indicates the the central core of the storm is well developed and that further strengthening is likely.  The current SST is the northwest Caribbean are still ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/11/hurricane-paloma-projected-path-rapidly-strengthening/ Tropical Storm Marco has rapidly formed in the Bay of Campeche.  Maximum sustained winds are near 65 mph.  This morning Marco was nothing more than a low pressure area.  Now, it has the potential to become a hurricane before making landfall in southern Mexico.  Marco is currently a very small ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/10/tropical-storm-marco-forms-in-the-bay-of-campeche/ There is a decent chance that severe thunderstorms this afternoon and evening will produce a couple of tornadoes.  The air mass over TX/OK region is extremely humid.  Furthermore, the winds are strong and turn clockwise with height, so there is plenty of wind shear.  The one inhibiting factor is that ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/10/tornadoes-possible-across-oklahoma-texas-today/ After nearly a week of quiet weather across the Atlantic Basin, it looks like things may be heating up again. There is a fairly well organized tropical wave over the eastern Caribbean Sea.  Current weather conditions in the region are marginally favorable for development.  The sea surface temperatures over the ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/09/tropics-heating-up-again-hurricane-kyle-is-next/ Hurricane Ike came ashore as a maximum category 2 hurricane on Galveston Island.  If the winds had increased by just 1 mph it would have been a category 3 hurricane.  Luckily for Galveston, it was spared the worst of the storm... the 15+ foot storm surge.  Because Hurricane Ike made ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/09/hurricane-ike-pictures-landfall-devastates-bolivar-peninsula/ Hurricane Ike made landfall along Galveston Island just southeast of Houston, Texas early Saturday morning.  Ike came ashore as a maximum Cat 2 / minimum Cat 3 hurricane with winds of 110-115 mph.  Due to the large size of Hurricane Ike, the storm surge was greater than what would be ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/09/hurricane-ike-makes-landfall-in-galveston-island-texas/ The projected path of Hurricane Ike takes it over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  Sea Surface temperatures in the Gulf are greater than 29 C.  In fact, some localized portions of the Gulf have temperatures that are even warmer.  The image below shows several loop currents directly ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/09/projected-path-of-hurricane-ike-targets-texas-coast/ Hurricane Ike is currently over the southern coast of Cuba.  Half of the hurricane is over land and the other half is over the northwestern Caribbean Sea.  It appears that the central core, or eyewall, will continue to graze the southern coast of cuba for the next 36 hours.  In ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/09/hurricane-ike-over-cuba-headed-for-gulf-of-mexico/ For the past several days, hurricane forecast models have trended further to the west with the track of Hurricane Ike.  They now push Hurricane Ike into the Gulf of Mexico by Tues-Wed this week.  Additionally several models make Hurricane Ike a major hurricane in the Gulf with winds of at ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/09/new-orleans-hurricane-ike-could-it-happen/ Hurricane (tropical storm) Hanna is currently grazing the coast of South Carolina just east of Georgetown.  It is expected to make landfall between Georgetown and Myrtle Beach during the early morning hours Saturday.  As per the 11 pm advisory from the NHC, Hanna is a strong tropical storm with winds ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/09/hurricane-hanna-landfall/ Hurricane Ike rapidly strengthened from a strong tropical storm to a Category 4 Hurricane with winds of 115 knots within a 12 hour period on Wednesday.  This is an even faster intensification than what we saw with Hurricane Gustav.  Other notable rapid strengthening storms are Hurricane Wilma and Hurricane Ethel. To ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/09/its-official-category-4-hurricane-ike-projected-path/ While Ike is still a strong tropical storm, several computer models rapidly intensify the storm as it approaches the Bahamas.  The satellite presentation of Ike looks impressive with good outflow in all quadrants and an outflow channel developing in the southeast quadrant.  The one thing missing for Ike right now ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/09/ike-category-5-hurricane/ The Atlantic Ocean Sea Surface Temps are very warm.  The warmest regions are the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the southwest Atlantic. [caption id="attachment_71" align="aligncenter" width="449" caption="Atlantic Ocean Sea Surface Temps 9-3-2008"][/caption] http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/09/atlantic-ocean-sea-surface-temps/ The Atlantic hurricane season is heating up big time.  There are currently 4 tropical systems in the Atlantic Basin.  Tropical depression Gustav is dumping heavy rainfall over Louisiana.  Tropical Storm Hanna is hovering between Cuba and Hispaniola, not looking very impressive either.  Tropical Storm Ike is churning up the central ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/09/tropical-storm-josephine-forms-ike-getting-stronger/ At this time yesterday (Saturday) Hurricane Gustav was a high-end category 4 hurricane. An increase in the winds of 6 mph would have made it a Cat 5, it may even be reclassified later on as a cat 5.  Oh how things have changed over the past 24 hours.  ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/08/hurricane-gustav-tracking-now-only-cat-3/ Within a 24 hour period Hurricane Gustav went from a strong tropical storm with winds of 65 mph to a dangerous category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 mph. The warm water over the NW Caribbean Sea and the light wind shear and good outflow aloft aiding in the ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/08/hurricane-gustav-becomes-category-4-storm/ During the early morning hours on Saturday August 30, Hurricane Gustav rapidly strengthened from a category 1 hurricane to an extremely dangerous category 3 hurricane.  This a has hug implications for residents of western Cuba as winds up to 125 mph will soon begin pounding the region.  Residents along the ... http://www.blog.twistervideos.com/2008/08/hurricane-gustav-rapidly-strengthens/