Hurricane Warnings Are Hoisted Across Azores As Hurricane Gordon Impacts Within The Next 6-12 Hours

Hurricane Gordon is currently supporting sustained winds of 100 mph with gusts to 120 mph. Embedded within the westerlies, Gordon is speeding towards the southern Azores at 20 mph. As Gordon nears the Azores a hurricane warning has been issued with locals and tourists on alert. Gordon will commence a weakening trend as he speeds along with increasing shear and increasingly cooler SST’s. However landfall or certainly a grace with the islands is only hours away and so weakening doesn’t mean the Azores get off lightly. Hurricane-force winds are expected along with a widespread 3-6 inches of rain which will cause flooding. Power outages are likely throughout the islands and heavy swells with some beach erosion.

Take a look at the below GFS surface/precip charts for Monday through Wednesday. The first map shows a still strong Hurricane Gordon tracking just south of the islands, likely bringing hurricane conditions to the southern islands and a nasty 12 hour period can be expected starting in a few hours from now.

Notice in the chart below for Tuesday how much Gordon weakens.

By Wednesday there’s barely anything left as he’s torn up by shear and there is a considerable lack of warm water. This storm will not have any more impact to anyone.

MAPS COURTESY OF WEATHERONLINE.COM

Unusual aspects about Gordon

Gordon went from a depression to hurricane as heat content lowered

Hurricane Gordon is one of those systems which gets into an unusual place with unfavourable SST’s and or an upper level environment and strenghens well beyond potential limits it’s environment. Whether it be in the cooler waters off North America or in the subtropical Northeast Atlantic, every once in a while a storm will become a hurricane. Gordon has done that and if you read my last piece on Gordon I said that there was a good chance that this system would become a hurricane with even an outside chance at further strengthening into an unusual Cat 2. The now 100 mph, Cat 2 Hurricane Gordon started out as a typical African wave which uninterestingly pushed out into the central Atlantic and then was caught and pulled north by a trough. He then pushed northeast and now east but as the maximum potential heat content lowers with less favourable conditions and cooler waters, it was then that he intensified into a tropical storm and hurricane.

Notice is the below SST map how the Azores is outside the oranges with water temps only around 23C or 75F. This is considered unsustainable for tropical cyclones.

Gordon’s moisture connected with a subtropical moisture stream flowing all the way to the UK

Through a good part of last week I noticed models showing a moist, subtropical air flow extending from the subtropical east Atlantic all the way to the UK for late week and this would keep us unusually warm, and very humid as well as wet. However what caught my attention early Saturday morning was the connection with newly formed, eastbound tropical storm Gordon. The deep trough which was pushing down from the north, the same trough associated with the deep low that’s been spinning off Ireland much of last week, caught and pulled some of Gordon’s moisture. This moisture became entrained in the moisture flow riding around and up the east side of the trough into the UK. This warm, very moist flow produced heavy downpours and thunderstorms as well as keeping temperatures up, particularly at night. Some of Gordon’s moisture could be seen on the satellite images at the top and bottom of this post.

Once Gordon became better organised, this connection was cut and Gordon only fed off it’s own energy and warm waters below.

Tags: category 2 hurricane gordon 2012, gordon strikes azores, hurricane gordon 2012, hurricane gordon threatens azores