Wikipedia:WikiProject Tropical cyclones/Newsletter/Archive 5

Number 5, October 1, 2006

The Hurricane Herald

This is the monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to give a summary, both of the activities of the WikiProject and global tropical cyclone activity. If you wish to change how you receive this newsletter, or no longer wish to receive it, please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list. The WikiProject has its own IRC channel.

"TD's should be bolded, as they are the impetus of every storm, weak or strong."

Storm of the month

Hurricane Ioke at peak strength
Hurricane Ioke at peak strength

Hurricane Ioke is the most intense hurricane on record in the Central Pacific. After forming on August 19 to the south of Hawaii, Ioke moved to the northwest and hit Johnston Atoll as a Category 2 hurricane. It strengthened further as it moved to the west, reaching Category 5 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale three times, twice in the Central Pacific and once in the Western Pacific. After the storm entered the Western Pacific it directly hit Wake Island. The storm finally became extratropical on September 7 but its extratropical remnants affected Alaska. Overall damage from Hurricane Ioke was light.

Other tropical cyclone activity

  • 4 hurricanes formed in the Atlantic: Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Gordon, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Isaac. Florence affected Bermuda and Newfoundland, and Gordon had effects in the Azores and Europe. Isaac is currently forecast to affect Newfoundland as an extratropical storm.
  • The east Pacific saw three hurricanes and a tropical storm develop. Hurricane John and Hurricane Lane were both major hurricanes which hit Mexico, whilst Hurricane Kristy and Tropical Storm Miriam stayed clear of land. In addition, two tropical depressions formed in the Central Pacific.
  • There were 4 typhoons in west Pacific during September. Typhoon Shanshan, Typhoon Yagi and Typhoon Xangsane formed in the west Pacific and Typhoon Ioke entered the basin from the east. Shanshan killed at least 9 people in Japan and Typhoon Xangsane, which is still active, killed at least 72 in the Philippines.
  • Two tropical cyclones formed in the North Indian Ocean during September. Severe Cyclonic Storm Mukda formed in the Arabian Sea but did not affect land and Tropical Cyclone 05B formed in the Bay of Bengal before making landfall in India. However, the deadliest tropical system of September was a depression in the Bay of Bengal that killed more than 170 people in Bangladesh.

Main Page content

New articles and improvements wanted

Storm article statistics

Grade Jul Aug Sep Oct
FA 13 16 15 15
A 6 6 7 6
GA 18 24 28 33
B 79 77 79 84
Start 180 191 200 201
Stub 8 8 8 13
Total 303 322 337 352
percentage
Less than B
62.0 61.8 61.7 60.8

Member of the month

Cyclone barnstar
Cyclone barnstar

The September member of the month is Thegreatdr, David Roth. David Roth is a meteorologist at the wpc, who as part of his work there is producing Tropical Cyclone Rainfall Data. Dozens of the maps he has created are used in Wikipedia articles. He has produced a number of valuable articles to the project such as tropical cyclone rainfall climatology and Atlantic hurricane reanalysis, and significantly expanded several seasonal articles such as 1982 Pacific hurricane season.