From CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY and the “Hurricane Sandy was not a Cat5 storm but let’s not worry about such details for headlines” department.
More category 5 hurricanes forecasted by scientists
New research investigates the impact that dust storms played in the formation of Hurricane Sandy
In the midst of hurricane season, climatologists around the world are monitoring tropical storm formations that have the potential to escalate into deadly hurricanes. The Atlantic hurricane season included 17 named storms last year, many of which proved to be costly and destructive for communities in their path. Hurricanes are becoming stronger and wetter due to rising sea and air temperatures. Saharan dust storms can also play a role in hurricane formation. Researchers at Chapman University have learned from studying 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, that we are more likely to see larger, more powerful hurricanes in the future.
“Although Sandy was a Category 3 storm when it made landfall in Cuba, it became the largest Atlantic hurricane on record when measured by diameter, with winds spanning 900 miles,” said Chapman University Climatologist Hesham El-Askary, Ph.D.
A Saharan dust event occurring in West Africa weeks before Sandy had formed carried large amounts of mineral dust into the troposphere, filling the tropical wave that became Sandy with aerosols along a majority of its path. By monitoring dust storms, Dr. El-Askary was able to tie this occurrence to the role it played in the hurricane’s development from a Category 1 to a Category 3 storm. With this work, he hopes to provide more accurate forecasting for these types of extreme weather occurrences.
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The research, titled “Characterizing the Impact of Aerosols on Pre-Hurricane Sandy” was published in the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing. Dr. El-Askary investigates the impact that African dust storms over the Atlantic played in the formation of the tropical storm system that eventually became Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8345587/
Abstract:
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Could have been made of Cumbrian ‘Dust’ – then it would have been called ‘Muddy’
Course it was full of Sahara Dust you dipsticks – that’s why it was called ‘Sandy’
Give me strength
“Although Sandy was a Category 3 storm when it made landfall in Cuba, it became the largest Atlantic hurricane on record when measured by diameter, with winds spanning 900 miles,”
So now we are measuring hurricanes by diameter, ? funny how the “goal posts” keep moving !
Well, what else can you expect from people who can’t even give us an accurate forecast of rain for the next 24 hours?
They’re incompetent. At their current rate of failure, in any other job, they’d be canned, regardless of Reed Timmer’s hysterics while chasing violent windstorms known as tornadoes.
I’m more and more convinced that the current crop of so-called meteorologists don’t have the common sense God gave a goat, or the instincts for predicting REAL weather events AT ALL.
Not only was Sandy not a cat 5; it had gone extratropical before making landfall and NHC had stopped reporting on it. Sandy was not the problem. The problem was it made landfall on a coast where the residents had not prepared for significant storm surge.
Anthony – I am puzzled by the headline that says “More category 5 hurricanes forecasted by scientists” but I did not see anything like that in the abstract. It’s all about the possible role of dust in possibly amplifying a cyclone.
The body of the paper is paywalled. Is that where he predicts more cat-5s?
No, it’s not mentioned at all, the whole paper is about the development of the pre Cat 1 wave.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/07/19/worse-and-worser-claim-more-category-5-hurricanes-forecasted-by-scientists/#comment-2408375
I remember this article citing Kevin Trenberth back in 2005.
https://abcnews.go.com/2020/HurricaneRita/story?id=1154125&page=1
“There’s good evidence to show that Category 4 and 5 storms indeed are becoming more common…”
hmmm, it became awfully quiet after that year.
“A Saharan dust event occurring in West Africa weeks before Sandy had formed carried large amounts of mineral dust into the troposphere, filling the tropical wave that became Sandy …”
So the storm was fortuitously aptly named.