A lpsg clouds and winds watchers thread... :-)

[ActionBuddy]

The Weather Girls - It's Raining Men!

Oops, was that "too gay"?... lol

 

[ActionBuddy]

I like Alcors photos, they're generally 99.9% penis free. Very refreshing for LPSG

Well, speaking for myself, I am rather fond of penises.

 

[950483]

Well, speaking for myself, I am rather fond of penises.

Yes, but they're just way too obvious. (Even on a penis website).

 

[ActionBuddy]

Yes, but they're just way too obvious. (Even on a penis website).

Somehow, I can deal with that.

 

[ActionBuddy]

In the meantime, on 2/4/2017, it is raining hard, here in Seattle... Surprise!

 

[alcor972]

thank you for the weather girls, actionbuddy!...
super!...
and thanks for the seattle weather conditions too...

 

[ActionBuddy]

^ - Speaking of which, we had a snowstorm on Monday here. 6 to 8 inches of the white stuff, up on the hills. Something we only get every few years, being at sea level. Luckily it only lasted a day.

A/B

 

[alcor972]

thursday 3 august...
nimbostratus clouds must currently produce a large ceiling in my skies as heavy squalls are slowly dissipating over my island portion after very heavy rainfall I observed between 3 pm and 4 pm this afternoon...
since monday 31 july... a surge of deep tropics/equatorial moisture... following a brief african wave... coming from the southwesterly monsoonal flow in the eastern atlantic ocean near africa... has been racing through my archipelago with an increasing rage... as this moisture certainly mixed with already present humidity in the vicinity of the antilles arc islands...
...............
more and more squalls ripped from the east... and their intensity peaked yesterday wednesday afternoon... with two important outbreaks... the first by 2 pm... the second by 5 pm...
both were accompanied by very heavy rainfalls largely reducing the visibility at the surface to less than 1 kilometer... even less than 1 mile... as I couldn't discern any surface features located to 500 meters from me during the maximum of the precipitations...
with this... the surface winds began to fall toward the surface with a vengeance... lol... shaking the sugar canes... the banana plants and the branches of the trees and maintaining in an horizontal direction the coco trees palms...
during the more powerful squall by 5 pm... I think that these gusts have reached the storm force... and once the cumulus clouds have sufficiently penetrated the lands... they turned into cumulonimbus clouds... as shown by several thunder booms I've heard at the end of this squall...
after this squall... I could see ragging fractocumulus racing dramatically... lol... in the sky at a very low altitude it seemed to me.. well less than 1 kilometer... less than 3 500 feet...
earlier that day in the morning... I've already had observed cumulonimbus clouds offshore... and I felt that they would at last have crossed the coast line later for good...
...........................
the rainfalls today afternoon were still very intense and abundant... but the winds accompanying them were less strong... and possibly confined to the high terrains and also near the windward eastern coasts exposed to the sea breeze...
this equatorial surge of moisture is now mostly in the caribbean sea according to the satellite images... that also suggest that a cyclogenesis is occuring within this disturbed flow... as a middle tropospheric rotation motion has began to spread within the convective clouds masses, I think...
this area is now monitored by the meteorologists concerning this cyclogenesis...
given that the cloud cover... and the intensity of the squalls I observed at home... I would not be surprised if a tropical cyclone was emerging from this disturbance through the next few days...
ok...

 

[BillM]

 

[alcor972]

tuesday 8 august...
the moist monsoonal/equatorial airmass I lastly talked about has indeed completed a cyclogenesis two days ago... becoming tropical storm franklin...
this cyclogenesis was slow to occur through most of the caribbean sea... and it's just when the associated clouds and winds reached the area between jamaica and honduras that the convective masses at last began to clearly turn in the low troposphere...
last night... franklin entered yucatan... and has been crossing this peninsula for this day...
now... satellite images show that franklin is leaving yucatan... emerging into the far southern gulf of mexico... the bay of campeche...
the meteorologists think that franklin could become a hurricane before reaching mexico tomorrow night...
I don't know what happened in yucatan these last hours concerning franklin at this time...
..................................
meanwhile... at home...
high moisture lingers at the surface... making higher the heat sensation during both night and day...
the surface winds are very weak... and only some breezes finally raised this afternoon while the sunlight was a little stronger after a very cloudy ant sometimes rainy morning...
aside the lack of sunlight... and the certainly weak surface sea breeze... not strong enough to reach my home area... I think that another reason to these weak winds may be the important surface air layer expansion due to too much moisture trapped inside it... for instance because of more perspiration from the forests all around me...
by the sunset time... passing showers allowed some acceleration within the flow... so that right now... lol... there remains no more winds yet available...lol... and the evening is one more time moist and warm...
the cumulus clouds are numerous and come from due east...
I think that oceanic moisture pulses more or less... mixing into the diurnal sea breeze... and increasing therefore the humidity in the low troposphere... inducing these passing showers I've just talked about...
.........................
a new surge of monsoonal moisture... with a very interesting flow... as I indentified a pair of swirls interacting within it... oh yessss!... lol!... is approaching my archipelago...
so... the next two days are susceptible to deliver some more action in the place...
hot hot hot!!!!...

 

[alcor972]

...
the monsoonal swirls pair I talked about previously at the end of my post has rounded my archipelago by the the north east... inducing a shift/convergence area in the trade winds wednesday 9 august over my island, left on the ensemble southwestern marge...
this convergence area had been responsible for very elevated cumulus clouds giving heavy rainfalls that wednesday night...
and several diurnal thunderstorms occured the day after over the northern mountains...
I think that these thunderstorms were due to both the diurnal sea breeze and remaining moisture from the strong showers during the night before...
..................
an african wave passed last tuesday... I didn't notice particular stuffs in the sky... aside the usual trades cumulus field...
but the wave induced strong nocturnal surface winds between monday and tuesday... which is noticeable... as most of the time... winds always diminish during the night... primarily due to the pause within the convective diurnal flow, I suppose... so that persistent nocturnal winds must generally happen because of particularly strong external forcing... like oceanic surface winds able to largely invade the lands... and/or sinking air from higher layers over the surface...
...............
today... thursday 17 august...
a new monsoonal swirl is near the antilles arc... and a hurricane hunter aircraft has just found this afternoon cyclonic winds evidences inside it... while continuously regenerating convective clouds showed up all this day long on satellite images near and above these winds...
so... the meteorologists have been considering since that time the monsoonal swirl as a tropical storm... named harvey...
harvey is expected to reach several islands tomorrow morning... included mine... and warnings have been issued for deteriorated conditions associated with the storm...
right now...
the skies are very cloudy... with a lot of low level clouds... with medium size cumulus delivering precipitations not reaching the ground for now...
middle and high clouds ceilings must be higher in the air due to the approaching harvey's outflow... but I barely noticed these layers at the sunset time...
surface winds are almost weak... a warm moist surface air layer slowly cools during the first hours of this night...
ok...

 

[328982]

...
the monsoonal swirls pair I talked about previously at the end of my post has rounded my archipelago by the the north east... inducing a shift/convergence area in the trade winds wednesday 9 august over my island, left on the ensemble southwestern marge...
this convergence area had been responsible for very elevated cumulus clouds giving heavy rainfalls that wednesday night...
and several diurnal thunderstorms occured the day after over the northern mountains...
I think that these thunderstorms were due to both the diurnal sea breeze and remaining moisture from the strong showers during the night before...
..................
an african wave passed last tuesday... I didn't notice particular stuffs in the sky... aside the usual trades cumulus field...
but the wave induced strong nocturnal surface winds between monday and tuesday... which is noticeable... as most of the time... winds always diminish during the night... primarily due to the pause within the convective diurnal flow, I suppose... so that persistent nocturnal winds must generally happen because of particularly strong external forcing... like oceanic surface winds able to largely invade the lands... and/or sinking air from higher layers over the surface...
...............
today... thursday 17 august...
a new monsoonal swirl is near the antilles arc... and a hurricane hunter aircraft has just found this afternoon cyclonic winds evidences inside it... while continuously regenerating convective clouds showed up all this day long on satellite images near and above these winds...
so... the meteorologists have been considering since that time the monsoonal swirl as a tropical storm... named harvey...
harvey is expected to reach several islands tomorrow morning... included mine... and warnings have been issued for deteriorated conditions associated with the storm...
right now...
the skies are very cloudy... with a lot of low level clouds... with medium size cumulus delivering precipitations not reaching the ground for now...
middle and high clouds ceilings must be higher in the air due to the approaching harvey's outflow... but I barely noticed these layers at the sunset time...
surface winds are almost weak... a warm moist surface air layer slowly cools during the first hours of this night...
ok...

Hope you weathered storm Harvey?

 

[alcor972]

monday 4 september...
.............................
notes about harvey...
the tropical cyclone I talked about in my previous post... harvey... has indeed crossed the antilles arc the friday 18 august in the morning...
I didn't observed particularly severe weather that day... as harvey was still at this time too much disorganized... its most intense convective cloud mass not necessarily matching its low troposphere highest winds area up...
both these patterns generally spared my island... the convective clouds mass didn't succeed in significantly entering the lands... as apparently most of the thunderstorms remained offshore... and only moderate showers affecting my area... essentially friday 18 august morning before the sunrise...
thereafter... once the daylight had come... the showers remained on a passing/short living trend... while the winds increased somewhat roughly between 10 am and noon...
several gusts possibly approaching the storm force occured from time to time, I think... but according to the infos I gathered... it was rather in the usual windward areas that this storm threshold had really been exceeded... mountainous terrains and the central plain of the island where a convergence in the winds flow often occurs...
.............
harvey had made more damages south of my island... with for instance flash floodings in barbados... but I'm still lacking infos concerning harvey's effect in the antilles arc southern islands...
moreover... harvey... as it was anyway too disorganized as I felt it at home... dissipated over the caribbean sea shortly after having crossed my archipelago...
the remnants clouds and winds of harvey regenerated into a tropical cyclone when they rounded the yucatan peninsula by the wednesday 23 august it seems to me... and once harvey left this peninsula... it very rapidly intensified into a major hurricane... and fell down on the texas coast roughly between corpus christi to the south and galveston to the northeast...
.............................................
irma...
this evening I recognize I worry concerning the northern islands of my archipelago... as major hurricane irma is now on the edge to strike these islands tomorrow tuesday 5 september...
my island is not under tropical cyclone warning... as the southern edge of the irma's main cloud pattern should pass just to the north tomorrow night certainly...
only advisories concerning swells essentially on the eastern coast, I think, has been issued...
today... the surface winds remained weak... and became extincted before the sunset time... most of the time, they had rather usual directions... following the trade winds flow...
nevertheless... in the free low troposphere... a clear veering occured in the flow with the trade winds extinction after noon...
indeed... this morning,the winds were still from the northeast... but thereafter... when I looked up the [rare] clouds motion during this afternoon... I could see that the winds were coming from the north... which is unusual ...
this meant that my island entered at this time under the irma's circulation...
now I think that tomorrow... once the sunlight will have initiated the convective motions in the surface air... very unusual breezes from the northwest and the west will occur at home...
if the convective clouds are sufficiently powerful to generate showers... so these westerly winds will be temporarily higher... and generate possible waves on the western coast of the island...
ok...
ps... I've forgotten to mention that at the same time I found out the winds veering to the north... I could see as well several veils of cirrus clouds... generally coming from the southeast... thus in an opposite direction relatively to the lower troposphere [very rare] cumulus clouds... these cirrus must be the first signs of irma's outflow in the upper troposphere...
ok...

 

[alcor972]

Hope you weathered storm Harvey?

thank you, hunghorse!...
precisely... these images come from the southern tip of the island... thus directly exposed that morning to the easterly winds of harvey...
the video well shows that the conditions even in this area weren't severe... with just few storm force gusts here and there from time to time...
at the end... the vid displays the low clouds ceiling... nimbostratus clouds, I think... remnants of squall lines too weak to really make disorders in the island...
thank you again, horse!...

 

[328982]

thank you, hunghorse!...
precisely... these images come from the southern tip of the island... thus directly exposed that morning to the easterly winds of harvey...
the video well shows that the conditions even in this area weren't severe... with just few storm force gusts here and there from time to time...
at the end... the vid displays the low clouds ceiling... nimbostratus clouds, I think... remnants of squall lines too weak to really make disorders in the island...
thank you again, horse!...

How did Irma affect you in Martinique? St Maarten was hard hit, I hear

 

[Sailingbear]

Looks like something is getting ready to bite it to.

 

[328982]

Looks like something is getting ready to bite it to.

Yes, scary, and it's shameful how slow the British government have been to mobilise support and emergency funds for Anguilla, despite our constitutional obligations. Irma didn't come out of the blue, there was time, as the French did on St Martin, to put in support troops so that emergency relief and reconstruction work could begin immediately after the storm.

 

[alcor972]

cataclysmic hurricane irma entering the antilles arc tuesday 5 september by the sunset...
my island is just to the southern marge of the hurricane...
irma's eye could contain almost al my island Inside it...
ok...

tuesday 12 september...

notes about irma...

a cataclysm occured last week in the antilles archipelago... begining last tuesday 5 september by night... roughly through last sunday 10 september...

indeed... the hurricane I presented in my last post... irma... brutally strengthened the day after... reaching early tuesday 5 september in the morning a very strong and rare intensity...

................

this tuesday 5 september... the sky was overcast over my island because of convective debris originated from the north... with mainly middle and upper levels clouds ceilings... with limited low level clouds...

later during the morning... the sky cleared a little... and under the infuence of the sunlight heating... unusual breezes from the west began to rise in my environment... due to my island position in the southwestern quadrant of the hurricane... which is generally the less dangerous in the northern hemisphere...

by noon... the skies brutally darkened... the thunder roared apparently from inland... and showers along westerly wind gusts began and lasted on a moderate trend until the middle of the afternoon...

thereafter... middle level clouds ceilings persisted... and no more sun was visible that tuesday...

................
meanwhile... hurricane irma was continuing to approach the antilles arc... and the tropical storm force winds began to enter the northern islands relatively to mine between 8 pm and 9 pm... as suggested by a call from a guadeloupean friend who told me by that time that strong westerly winds had begun in his area...

..............

the air remained calm at home through almost midnight... when thunderstorms resumed... mainly to the west... according to where I was hearing the thunder coming from...

later during the night... after 3 am... winds gusts have also resumed... but I couldn't determine their origin unfortunately... and the flow reached its maximum by the sunset time... along with moderate to locally strong thundershowers... certainly from the south... according to what I perceived from the cumulus clouds motions by 6 or 7 am...

...............

during these 6 hours... between midnight and 6 am... the hurricane force winds entered most of the islands north of antigua and montserrat...

the hurricane force winds area was apparently very reduced... because... while antigua seemed have been spared... its northern neigbour island... barbuda, almost 100 kilometers... 50 miles... to the north... experimented the strongest irma's winds... with the hurricane eye passage by 1 am it seemed to me...

automated stations measured almost terrific winds speed... reaching values in the range of 250 kilometers per hours in this island... 130 knots... 130 miles per hours...

after barbuda... irma's eye made its way toward saint barthélémy and saint martin... leaving to its southwest saint kitts... nevis... saint eustachius... and saba...

in the last four islands I mentioned... westerly tropical storm to hurricane force winds have been observed... for instance 150 kilometers per hour... 80 knots... 80 miles per hour... in saint eustachius...

like barbuda... saint barthélémy and saint martin experimented the worst conditions in irma's eyewall... with the passage of the eye by the end of the night...

major... intense... and almost total destruction have been reported in the 3 islands crossed by irma's eye in the northern antilles arc...

the island to the north of saint martin... anguilla... has been left to the north by the eye... but it was sufficiently close to it to feel the catacysmic eyewall conditions...

................

wednesday 6 september... while southerly flow was continuing at home in the lower troposphere... the cloud cover largely reduced... and the surface winds rapidly turned back to their usual trade winds direction... and the remainder of this day was calm...

in the same time... irma was reaching the northern marges of my archipelago... and entered the virgin islands by the afternoon of this wednesday... its eye apparently passing very near or over some of these islands... which exprimented the same terrific conditions as felt in barbuda... saint barthélémy... saint martin and anguilla...
...........................................................

thereafter... irma passed to the north of puerto rico... with at least strong tropical storm force winds observed in san juan... westerly winds I think... then to the north of hispaniola... which may have been relatively spared by the strong westerly winds... not totally sure though...

friday 8 september... irma entered the bahamas archipelago... reaching first the turks and caicos islands left to the nort by its eye... and great inagua to its southwest...

saturday 9 september... irma approached and reached during the night of this day the northern cuban coast that it followed for the remainder of that night... before leaving it early sunday 10 september... turning northward toward the florida keys and thereafter the florida peninsula...

ok...

 

[alcor972]

How did Irma affect you in Martinique? St Maarten was hard hit, I hear

yes, hunghorse...
the irma's destructive effects were apparently felt in the islands located on its eyewall path across my archipelago...
outside this boundary... of which the radius was less than 100 kilometers... 50 miles... around the eye... the damages were fairly limited...
so the islands having experimented the worst conditions are barbuda... saint barthélémy... saint martin... anguilla... and the northern
virgin islands...
thereafter... I think it is possible that... the turks and caicos islands... and the middle northern coast of cuba... experimented almost similar terrific conditions... last friday and last saturday...
at last... I read that winds higher than 200 kilometers per hour... 110 miles per hour... certainly have been measured in the florida keys last sunday morning... but I recognize I have only little infos on irma's impact in the united states... ok...
......................
normally... the southwestern quadrant of a hurricane is less dangerous than the other quadrants... as this quadrant is the one where winds have to fight the most against the general westward motion of the cyclone, I think...
nevertheless... in irma's case... at the time it crossed the antilles arc... this dissymetry was particularly strong... as a litlle less powerful former hurricanes have already more impacted islands located in this particular southwestern quadrant... included mine...

 

[alcor972]

hurricane maria is about to enter the antilles arc sunday 17 september by the end of the afternoon...
a first outer rainband is passing over my island... with generally northerly winds pushing the clouds over me...

sunday 17 september...

most of the islands of my archipelago are under tropical cyclone watches or warnings tonight... as a new hurricane is approaching from the atlantic ocean...

this hurricane is named maria...

my island is at this time when I'm writing under a hurricane warning... like several other islands to its north... dominica... guadeloupe... montserrat... saint kitts and nevis...

the meteorologists expect maria to cross my archipelago tomorrow monday night... with the eye of the hurricane passing roughly between guadeloupe to its north and dominica to its south... about 100 kilometers... 50 to 60 miles... north of my island... generally left according to the forecasts within the western semi circle of the hurricane...

................................
today... the winds in the lower troposphere remained northeasterly to more and more northerly with time... pushing over my place numerous growing cumulus clouds in the morning within relatively clear skies around them...

the surface winds generally followed usual directions and forcings mainly due to the sunlight heating over the hills forming my close environment...

maybe some external forcing from the lower troposphere streams and/or their associated sea breezes could have contributed to these surface winds as well... as the accelerated northeasterly flow I perceived must have been due to the trade winds flow forced to round maria's airmass at the front of the hurricane...

but... by noon... most of these effects had diminished and the surface air layer became less turbulent... and therefore moist and warm...

meanwhile... the skies gradually darkened... with thickening middle and higher levels diffuse... hardly defined... clouds covering patches of more and more numerous cumulus clouds... in hazy conditions, as I suspected sand dusts presence aloft with the clouds... not sure though...

this darkening trend has finally resulted by the end of the afternoon in moderate showers delivered by the northerly flow aloft... along brief northerly to easterly surface wind gusts...

..................................

if maria continues its motion as expected by the meteorologists... then the winds aloft should remain northerly tomorrow and gradually come from the northwest... then from the west... reaching the storm force with possible gusts above the hurricane threshold...

westerly winds are very unusual to me because of the occurence of the easterly trade winds during most part of the year...

so... this observation could be interesting and teach me more about the winds...

.................................

even more impacts are forecast for the northern islands under the hurricane warnings... it would not be surprising if maria's eye were passing over dominica or guadeloupe tomorrow night... and both these islands could experience well stronger and damaging winds than those expected over my island... particularly with a very high amount of rains... as on this point as well less quantities should occur here...

.............................

swells from maria are expected to be huge on the eastern coast this night and tomorrow...

maybe I will try to observe them tomorrow morning before conditions deteriorate later in the day...

ok...