'Olaf' update by Matt Taylor
Tropical Cyclone ‘Olaf’, in the south Pacific, is continuing to meander its way south-eastwards. After bringing stormy conditions to American Samoa, it is now edging ever closer to the southern Cook Islands.
Thankfully, most of the damage caused by ‘Olaf’ so far has been minor, this despite it reaching category five status at one point in which mean wind speeds exceeded 150 mph (240 km/h). Winds close to the centre of the storm at 0600Z today were still blowing at a sustained speed of 130mph, but there is some good news for the beleaguered Cook Islands.
Two storms have already tracked across the Islands in the past couple of weeks alone and yet another one is the last thing that is required. However, the storms current track takes it around 130 miles (200km) to the west of the larger island of Raratonga. This means that the island should miss the worst of the winds, but there is still concern that high sea swells could still provide a great deal of coastal flooding.
Further a field, we’ve seen some rather stormy conditions develop in the southwest of the United States, although not to the same degree as those in the Pacific. An area of low pressure pushed in off the coast of southern California. This not only brought some heavy snowfall to the Sierra Nevada, but thundery downpours spread as far east as New Mexico and Texas. By the start of Friday morning, parts of Texas had flash flood warnings in force and that area of cloud and rain will extend eastwards across the rest of the south in the next few days.
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