Matt's Weather Rapport is written by Vermont-based journalist and weather reporter Matt Sutkoski. This blog has a nationwide and worldwide focus, with particular interest in Vermont and the Northeast. Look to Matt's Weather Rapport for expert analysis of weather events, news, the latest on climate change science, fun stuff, and wild photos and videos of big weather events. Also check for my frequent quick weather updates on Twitter, @mattalltradesb
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Hanna, Now A Hurricane, Steals The Show. Also: Vermont Heat AGAIN!
As more proof that the tropics can be unpredictable, the "nothingburger" is now Hurricane Hanna, and it's about to strike southern Texas. And cause lots of problems.
Satellite views of Hanna overnight showed it organizing quite well, forming an eye with curved bands of intense thunderstorms surrounding that center.
The National Hurricane Center confirmed that as of around 7 a.m. this morning, top sustained winds in Hanna had reached 75 mph, enough to be the first Atlantic hurricane of the season.
It looks like Hanna will keep strengthening until it hits the southern Texas coast this afternoon. The only thing keeping Hanna from become an even bigger monster is it doesn't have much time to get more powerful before it makes landfall.
However, powerful thunderstorms managed to completely surround the eye of Hanna as its central air pressure lowered. That's certainly a great recipe for further strengthening. Some observers this morning were wondering if top winds could reach 90-100 mph.
Don't think for a minute so called "weaker" Category 1 hurricanes don't cause a lot of problems. This one will create a lot of difficulties, as most Cat 1's do. It will cause wind damage. Even worse, storm surges of three to five feet above normal sea levels are expected around and south of Corpus Christi. It's a low coast line, so that will cause lots of flooding.
Worse still, Hanna will dump between six and 12 inches of rain on far southern Texas, which will cause a lot of flash flooding.
There's more bad news with this: A hurricane that is growing stronger as it nears the coast is especially bad because it catches people off-guard. Some people in southern Texas might have been saying yesterday, "Oh, a tropical storm. I guess we won't have a beach day on Saturday."
Now, they have little time to get out of the way of wind, storm surgest and inland flooding. I was, however, heartened to see news video of LOTS of cars driving away from the southern Texas coastline Friday evening.
Additionally, as we've all heard on the news, Texas is enduring a terrible spike in illnesses, deaths and hospitalizations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. So on top of the extreme health crisis, southern Texas has to deal with a hurricane.
How do you socially distance in evacutation centers? What if people are hurt or need to be rescued during Hurricane Hanna when medical and emergency teams are already stretched so thin?
They told us way back in the spring this would be a difficult hurricane season. This is the opening salvo, and it's certainly not a good one.
Going back to the other tropical storm, Gonzalo, it's falling apart. It will bring tropical storm conditions to some of the Windward Islands, and it's still expected to dissipate in the Caribbean Sea. You never know what will happen to Gonzalo's remnants in a few days, so its currently disorganized mass of clouds could come back from the dead in a week or so.
VERMONT HEAT OVERPERFORMS AGAIN
Speaking of things that keep rising from the dead, another hot spell is coming to Vermont, especially Sunday and Monday.
There had been hope earlier in the week, that temperatures would stay pretty close to normal, continuing a trend that started Tuesday and continued through Friday. All four of those days were only slightly warmer than average, instead of torrid.
It's back to hot again for a few days. Today won't be too bad, because humidity levels are pretty comfortable. Still, afternoon highs will get into the 80s pretty much statewide. The broader, wider valleys will probably get into the upper 80s
The humidity will increase by Sunday, along with the temperatures. Burlington could easily see its 16th 90 degree reading of the year tomorrow, and we might make it to #17 on Monday.
It doesn't look like there will be any cooling thunderstorms Sunday. However, on a very muggy Sunday night, and early Monday, some weather disturbances riding over the northern edge of the Northeast U.S. heat ridge could bring showers and thunderstorms to Vermont. If they happen, it's most likely north of Route 2.
Scattered hit and miss showers and storms could punctuate the heat and humidity Monday. A cold front slowly sagging south through northern New England will gradually bring relief to us later Tuesday and especially Wednesday, when temperatures will fall - and I use that term loosely - to readings that are similar to what we've had the past three or four days.
Labels:
danger,
flooding,
Gonzalo,
heat wave,
Hurricane Hanna,
news,
storm surge,
Texas,
Vermont,
warnings
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