Number 13, February 2, 2008
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. This newsletter covers all of January 2008.
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Storm of the month
Cyclone Gene formed on January 26 over the open south Pacific Ocean. It drifted southward, and strengthened into Tropical Storm Gene on January 28 as it moved across the Fijian archipelago. There, it brought heavy rainfall, which caused the worst flooding in several years. Half of the country was left without power, and the cyclone killed seven people in Fiji. The storm turned southwestward, developing a cloud-filled eye and quickly strengthening by the end of the month.
Other tropical cyclone activity
- One tropical cyclone formed in the Western North Pacific Ocean west of The Philippines, which was analyzed by Japan Meteorological Agency as a depression; it tracked southwestward and did not significantly affect any land areas.
- In addition to Cyclone Gene, Tropical Storm Elisa and Cyclone Fuma occurred in the South Pacific ocean during the month, along with three tropical depressions.
- The only tropical cyclone in Australian region during the month was Tropical Cyclone Helen, which struck Australia.
- Four tropical cyclones, three of which named, existed in the Southwest Indian Ocean during the month. The most notable was Cyclone Fame, which caused twelve deaths after striking Madagascar.
Member of the month
The January member of the month is Ajm81. A tropical cyclone editor since he first joined in October 2005, Ajm81 plays a vital role in the project. Unlike other editors, who mainly edit articles, Ajm81 maintains and updates the track maps across the project. We thank Ajm81 for his timely contributions, and may he have some well-deserved downtime after the last tropical cyclone report is released.
New and improved articles
- There were six new pieces of Featured content : 2003 Atlantic hurricane season, List of storms in the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season, List of North Carolina hurricanes (pre-1900), 1983 Atlantic hurricane season, 1988 Atlantic hurricane season, and Hurricane Lane (2006)
- New Good articles include: Hurricane Cleo, Hurricane Gracie, 1821 Norfolk and Long Island hurricane
- New storm articles include: Tropical Storm Danielle (1980), Hurricane Elida (2002), Cyclone Elita, Cyclone Indlala
- New non-storm articles include: 2006 central Pacific cyclone, List of United States hurricanes
Main Page content
- Entries from 8 articles: Hurricane Ava (1973), Cyclone Inigo, Hurricane Greg (1999), Hurricane Henri (1979), Hurricane Kenneth (2005), Hurricane Elida (2002), Cyclone Elita, and Hurricane Naomi (1968) appeared on the Main Page in the Did you know column during January.
Storm article statistics
| Grade | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 FA
|
30 | 31 | 33 | 33 |
 A
|
9 | 8 | 9 | 9 |
 GA
|
106 | 109 | 112 | 114 |
| B | 78 | 82 | 86 | 99 |
| Start | 212 | 211 | 208 | 214 |
| Stub | 5 | 6 | 6 | 3 |
| Total | 440 | 447 | 454 | 472 |
| ω | 3.02 | 3.01 | 2.98 | 2.98 |
| percentage Less than B |
49.3 | 48.5 | 47.1 | 46.0 |
Wikiwork and 1000 articles In January 2008, the WikiProject began using a system called Wikiwork, or ω. It weighs the overall quality of the project's articles, and a lower number means a greater total quality. The weighed ω, as used above, is a relative number that can be used to compare groups of this article. As of this publication, the relative ω of the project is 3.404, corresponding to between Start and B class. However, when limiting it solely to storm articles, the number drops to 2.98, which is slightly better than B class. During the month, a new statistics page was created.
Additionally, during the month, Mitchazenia pointed out that we received our 1,000th article with the creation of Cyclone Elita.