As one storm dies, another is born by Nina Ridge
Once again, the world’s weather news is dominated by powerful storms that have been working across the northwest Pacific and northeast Atlantic oceans. The destruction that they bring is often devastating and affects the lives of so many, yet their making landfall is ironically reassuring that the end of the storm is nigh.
These huge storms rely on the warm tropical waters as their energy source, and will continue to live on for as long as that energy supply is present. However, when the storm makes landfall, this energy supply is cut off, and the storm will weaken and die.
Ex-typhoon Haitang is now in this category. Having made landfall in the Fujian province of China, the storm is weakening and is fast approaching the end of its life. Although the winds have eased considerably from when it battered Taiwan, there is still a lot of moisture in the system and heavy rain has been a problem. Zhejiang’s coastal Cangnan county has been badly hit by severe flooding and landslides, with 200mm of rain falling in some places. Power supplies have been lost and transport disrupted by blocked roads.
Hurricane Emily is still going strong. Having slimmed down to a category 1 storm after passing across the Yucatan peninsula, drawing energy from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico has allowed it to reinvigorate back up to a category 3 storm. It is now poised to pounce upon the coast of Mexico, before working inland and becoming a tropical depression as it starts to die.
With storm surges of up to 3 metres expected, Mexico has already evacuated 17,000 people from the coastline. However, there are fears that the storm may pass close to Monterrey – Mexico’s third largest city – as it moves further inland.
Whilst these two storms die, others are being born. Tropical storms Eugene and 06W have formed in the Pacific, but at present pose no threat to land as they meander harmlessly across the oceans.
|
|
