Must talk about typhoons, did you know that typhoons are just hurricanes west of the international date line?
Cyclones spin clockwise south of the Equator, counter clockwise north due to the Coriolis effect from the spinning earth.
In spite of the big story on the monster typhoon Haiyan, historical records show a current nadir of typhoons, lowest rate in 5000 years.
Weather Channel people were in mourning about the lack of hurricanes this year. Even the great Bill Gray at Colorado State Hurricane Center has been predicting more than we have seen this year and last.
Typhoons are more frequent than hurricanes on average, and more violent because of the warm western Pacific that is a bigger ocean and gives more time and space for the for build up. Over water cyclones are fed by warm water and decline over land, as you know from watching hurricanes decline to tropical storms and then waves over land.
This big typhoon brought out the crepe hangers, and the climate panic mongers, but here’s the facts,Jack. . .
http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2013/11/new-paper-finds-pacific-cyclone.html
The Pacific also impacts hurricanes, and El Nino (warming of the Pacific) is an mitigater of Atlantic Basin Hurricanes because it produces high level wind sheer effects. La Nina aggravates the development of Atlantic Basin Hurricanes because it results from cooling of the Pacific and less high level wind sheer.
Yep, they suck at predictions. but they have a new-found fervour in the reporting of any thing even related to weather…and they are very authoritative with deep voices and strained faces.
If it’s not sunny constantly we are in deep trouble, apparently.
Every nuance in the sky is now studied and reported on ad nauseum. Weather reporting is sooo serious.
I may be projecting here, but it seems that the hurricane forecasters have over-forecast almost every year for the last ten or fifteen years. It also seems that they forecast overall dryer and hotter summers and warmer and wetter winters than occur.
I suspect that the NWS and NOAA keep putting in global warming factors that aren’t actually factors. I think they used to be a little more accurate before they swallowed the blue global warming pill. The Farmer’s Almanac has recently had a better track record on predictions than the so-called experts.
But maybe they always sucked at predictions, and I just pay more attention now.