Category 4 Joaquin Brings Devastating Hit To Bahamas, Flooding A Major Issue For East Coast

Written by on October 2, 2015 in Autumn 2015, Tropical, United States of America with 0 Comments

Within 150-200 miles of the Bahamas, Joaquin went from a strong 70 mph Tropical Storm to a Category 4 monster generating sustained winds of up to 130 mph as it spins directly over this beautiful island chain.

The devastating aspect is twofold, 1) it’s a large and extremely powerful system but 2) the slow movement means that the Bahamas will and is experiencing the worst conditions possible for a very long period of time.

Credit: weather.com

Credit: weather.com

https://youtu.be/D7yQTGFYF0I

Here’s the current view from space.

vis0-lalo

Infrared

rb0-lalo

TOP IMAGE CREDIT: NASA

[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]

With central pressure dropping to an impressive 931mb, Joaquin becomes the 4th strongest Bahamas hurricane in history.

Credit: Capital Weather Gang

Credit: Capital Weather Gang

Credit: Brian McNoldy

Credit: Brian McNoldy

Thanks to a well organised and healthy system along with ample ocean heat content beneath and light shear within it’s surrounding environment, Joaquin had no option but to intensify and rapidly. Going from Cat 1 to 4 with 36 hours and from Cat 1 to 3 within 24 hours.

Shear charts show the area of relative calm around the hurricane with trough both NW and E.

Upper winds

Credit: CIMSS

Credit: CIMSS

Mid level winds

Credit: CIMSS

Credit: CIMSS

84-88F water temperatures extend some 50 metres below the surface in this part of the Atlantic.

Credit: Tropical Tidbits

Credit: Tropical Tidbits

Due to the southwestward movement of Joaquin caused by an upper system to the east, this means there’s unlikely to be any pull-in from the trough digging over the Southeast US and therefore it’s a kick and not pull which keeps Joaquin out at sea and passing between Hattaras and Bermuda early Monday.

Latest NHC track.

NHC

NHC

MAJOR EAST COAST FLOOD EVENT NOT CAUSED BY JOAQUIN

Well worth noting that although Joaquin is unlikely to impact the US directly, the Eastern Seaboard almost has it’s own ‘hurricane’ as a deluge continues from an entirely separate system, NOT Joaquin. An area of enhanced convection which formed along the tail of the stalled frontal boundary is drawing moisture rich air from a warm Atlantic and driving it continuously into the Carolinas.

Through in Joaquin’s influence and this is the result.

Credit: Brad Panovich

Credit: Brad Panovich

To make matters worse, Joaquin’s moisture is likely to get plugged by this stalled boundary as the hurricane lifts north, exasperating an already bad and life-threatening situation.

Visible satellite from yesterday shows the East Coast system and Joaquin to the south.

Credit: NASA

Credit: NASA

Combination of stalled front and Joaquin underneath, this setup is like a ‘fire hose’ up the EC.

Water vapour.

wv-l

Just look at these totals. Remember this is South Carolina and not Taiwan!

Brooks Garner

Brooks Garner

As for the broader picture, there’s two large and pretty strong looking waves coming off the African coast. Worth a watching.

Credit: CIMSS

Credit: CIMSS

See video for the discussion. More tomorrow.

[/s2If][s2If current_user_cannot(access_s2member_level1)][magicactionbox id=”18716″][/s2If]

Tags: , , ,

Follow us

Connect with Mark Vogan on social media to get notified about new posts and for the latest weather updates.

Subscribe via RSS Feed Connect on YouTube

Leave a Reply

Top