Hurricane Omar has been an interesting storm and shows how quickly these storms can change. It looked pretty good on satellite yesterday with deep convection. Early this morning its intensity peaked at almost category four. I really would’ve never expected that. They plane this morning reported hail and couldn’t get into the entire storm due to extreme turbulence. The National Hurricane Center estimated the storm peaked at category 4 status.

Hurricane Ike which was only a category 2 storm made landfall in Texas and moved north through the Ohio valley yesterday proves that the rating doesn’t tell the whole story. They’re saying it caused 30 billion dollars n damage and has caused at least 30 fatalities. From what I’ve read it brought in a pretty high storm surge over a large area. What really made this storm was the size of it I think.

Hurricane Ike has maximum sustained winds near 100 miles per hour right now but the real story is it’s size. It’s a big storm with hurricane force winds extending up to 115 miles from the center. Tropical storm force winds extend up to 255 miles from the center. The minimum pressure (945 millibars) is borderline low enough to support a category 4 storm but I imagine the size of the whole storm is keeping the gradient from being tight enough to cause the winds.

Tropical storm Hanna is approaching the East coast of the United states now with maximum sustained winds near 70 mph. It seems like there is a lot more convection today than there was yesterday but still not around the center. The minimum pressure is 980 millibars which seems a bit low to not be a hurricane but that depends on other factors too. It will make landfall in the Carolinas and move up the east coast and turn northeast.

The tropics in the Atlantic basin are still active but it is near the peak of the season. At this point there are two tropical storms and a major hurricane. Tropical storm Hanna is the closest to affecting land and should move on shore in the Carolinas and move up the coast. It really doesn’t look that well organized right now as it’s being influenced by sheer. Hopefully it stays further east and doesn’t give us much rain.

Hurricane made landfall today in Louisiana. as a category 3 hurricane. It doesn’t seem to have been too bad so far. Nothing like Katrina was but it isn’t over yet and with Katrina the flooding happened after the storm and they thought the levees were good. It could’ve been a lot worse and looked like it would be for a while. It’s been fun to watch and track the storm though.

Hurricane Gustav has rapidly strengthened over nigh and now has maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour. It also appears to have grown in size and is now a large storm. It looks pretty good this morning. It should cross Cuba which will hopefully weaken the storm quite a bit. Gustav should then make landfall in Louisiana but being such a large storm the effects will be pretty widespread. Will definitely be a fun weekend to watch it.

The tropics sure got active now.. In the Caribbean Sea there is tropical storm Gustav. It made another landfall today on Jamaica. It doesn’t really look that impressive but is forecast to go between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula and strengthen over the warm water. We’ll see how it holds together. It seems to like land so far. We also have Tropical storm Hanna north east of the Leeward Islands. Again it doesn’t look all that impressive but does seem to have a burst of colder cloud tops now meaning that it has better convection.

The tropical depression I mentioned yesterday has become hurricane Gustav. That was fast. Right now it is forecast to stay along the southern edge of Cuba which will keep the rain away from the southeast US. It is forecast to become a strong hurricane and move into the gulf of Mexico. I guess that will bring oil prices up. We’ll see what happens.

Dangerous Hurricane Felix is about to make landfall in northeastern Nicaragua. After weakening some on Monday it’s strengthened over night and still is now. It is back up to category 5 levels again with 160 mile per hour winds. It doesn’t seem like the area is very populated so that’s a good thing. This is the second hurricane in the Atlantic basin to make landfall as a category five storm this year.

It’s a little late but still I thought it was interesting. We have our second Atlantic Hurricane of the season this year. Felix became a hurricane and at the 2 AM advisory on Sunday had 80 mph winds. The 10 PM advisory yesterday said 165 mph winds and the. Even more interesting was the fact that the recon plane aborted it’s mission due to extreme turbulence in the storm and graupel and lightning in all quadrants of the eye wall.

Hurricane Dean is approaching the Yucatan peninsula right now and should make landfall overnight. It’s finally reached category five status with winds at 160 miles per hour. It has been fun watching it develop and strengthen. Hopefully it doesn’t hit a very populated area of Mexico because 160 mile an hour winds can cause a lot of destruction. It’s almost enough to make me feel guilty for loving extreme weather. I don’t think I’ll be sleeping much tonight.

Hurricane Dean is a category three storm now with sustained winds of 125 miles per hour. It’s over the Yucatan now being over away from it’s fuel source it should continue to weaken until it gets back over water. Dean made landfall as a category 5 storm with sustained winds of 165 miles per hour and gusts to 200 mph. It isn’t too often you get the chance to watch a strengthening category five hurricane make landfall.

Hurricane Dean is still a category 4 hurricane with sustained winds near 145 miles per hour. It should be close to Jamaica later today. Hopefully for them it wobbles a bit to the south. The storm looks very symmetric on satellite this morning. I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes category 5 or was a category five storm at some point yesterday.

Hurricane Dean is up to a category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale now with winds at 125 miles per hour. It’s expected to strengthen some more too. Dean looks pretty healthy on satellite right now.

After a quiet tropical season in the Atlantic basin so far we finally have a hurricane. Tropical storm Dean became a hurricane at the 5am advisory. It should be fun to finally track a storm.

It was around this time in 1972 that the remnants of Hurricane Agnes impacted the area. I’ve always been interested in that storm. The storm made landfall over Florida on June 19th and then moved northeast and weakened to a tropical depression. It became a tropical storm again over North Carolina and moved made another landfall near New York City on June 22. It produced 6 to 12 inches of rain in Pennsylvania.