Hurricane Bill To Be Huge Wave Maker For US And Bermuda

August 21, 2009 – Major Hurricane Bill remains a dangerous hurricane that continues to make his gradually turn to the northwest in the western Atlantic Ocean. His forward speed remains to be at a steady track around 18mph to the northwest. A more gradually turn to the north-northwest is expected later today, as Hurricane Bill rounds the western side of the Atlantic ridge. As of this post, Bill’s winds were 125mph with much higher gusts, and this makes him a Category 3 hurricane. Bill could regain category 4 strengthen over the next 24 hours before reaching cooler water temperatures further north in the Atlantic.

At this time Hurricane Bill looks to be a major large wave / swell producer for the entire United States east coast. Bermuda could see a brush with Bill, and experience Tropical Storm conditions as Bill tracks to the west of the island. Bermuda is under a Tropical Storm Warning and a Hurricane Watch.

There are no Hurricane Chase Intercept plans for Bill as he is expected to remain well east of the United State. New England could feel some affects from Bill, and we are continuing to monitor this, but do not expect any chase plans.

Interesting Satellite Loop of Low-level Vortices In East Pacific

July 24, 2009 – A very interesting view on Visible satellite imagery over the Eastern Pacific Ocean yesterday. There was a series of low-level vortices embedded in the low-level cloud deck off the coast of Baja. It made for some entertaining satellite viewing for a few hours as seen in this satellite animation loop.

I’m a huge fan of staring at high-resolution visible satellite imagery for hours trying to pick out little feature of interest. I love to watch developing sea breeze boundaries and other low-level mesoscale features. These vortices stood out well on the visible satellite channel, along with some westward propagating waves within the clouds as well. I thought this animation was worth a post, and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.