WORLD WEATHER THREAD

Hurricane Gonzalo hits Hit Bermuda:




On October 16th, 2014 (1342 UTC) the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Core Observatory flew over Hurricane Gonzalo as it headed towards Bermuda. Hurricane Gonzalo remains a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, with maximum sustained winds at 130 mph. As of 12:00 UTC (8:00a.m. EDT) on Friday, October 17th, the National Hurricane Center forecast located the storm about 195 miles south southwest of Bermuda, where a hurricane warning is in effect.

The GPM Core Observatory carries two instruments that show the location and intensity of rain and snow, which defines a crucial part of the storm structure – and how it will behave. The GPM Microwave Imager sees through the tops of clouds to observe how much and where precipitation occurs. The Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar provides the three-dimensional view, showing the structure of the storm spiraling inward toward the center, with heavier rain on the north side of the storm. Shades of blue represent ice in the upper part of clouds. Viewed from the side, the stark color change from blue to green marks the transition from ice to rain.
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Totally bonkers over here today. Every single state has reported temperatures below freezing. Yes, even Hawaii - it dropped to 31 degs in one spot :)

Even more bonkers, because this arctic blast is so early in the season, the Great Lakes are still relatively warm. This is generating massive lake effect snow. Buffalo is predicted to have 6ft :eek::eek:
 
Yeah saw a friend in Texas posting "its snowing wtf!?" on facebook yesterday though they only got sprinkles.

Not a good sign for us though - historically when the US has got early heavy snow like this its typically been followed by mild and exceptional rainy weather here :S
 
On its 10th anniversary a very good new simulation (GEOS-5) of terrible Hurricane Katrina:


In this video, the depression that becomes Katrina drifts north of Hispaniola becoming a tropical storm over the Bahamas on the 24th of August. The right panel shows water vapor, and the left shows wind speeds near the surface. After crossing the southern tip of Florida as a minimal

hurricane, Katrina rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico from the 26th to the 28th.

During this period of intensification, a strong core of intense winds surrounds the compact eye of Katrina while bands of moisture feeding into the circulation can be seen in the water vapor images. Katrina makes landfall along the coast of Louisiana on August 29th as a Category 3 hurricane with wind speeds in excess of 120 mph.

The moist low-lying geography of the lower Mississippi valley into New Orleans do little to weaken the strength of Katrina's winds as it moves north making a final landfall near the Louisiana/Mississippi border. Advances in science and computing allow modern global models to represent all aspects of Katrina's life cycle. These advances have lead to substantial improvements in forecasts of hurricane landfall and intensity.
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Great animation of visible and infrared imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite showing Hurricane Sandra from Nov 25 to Nov 27 off the coast of western Mexico:


Then weaken to a tropical storm becoming decoupled by strong wind shear as it was approaching landfall in western Mexico on the morning of Nov 28:

 
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