Tag Archives: cyclone

Pacific Northwest prepares for severe weather from ‘bomb cyclone’ and atmospheric river

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Thousands of homes lost power, as downed power lines and trees blocked highways in Washington state on Tuesday due to a powerful atmospheric river event, officials announced.

Forecasters stated that a storm could bring up to 15 inches of rain and heavy snowfall in the mountains. By 7 p.m. local time, about 100,000 homes and businesses in Washington and over 14,000 homes in Oregon were without power, as reported by news agencies on the Rack Website poweroutage.us.

The Bellevue, Washington, fire department warned, “Trees are falling across the city, hitting homes.” They advised residents to stay away from windows and not to go outside if possible. X was contacted on Tuesday around 8pm.

Weather forecasters warned of a whiteout snowstorm in the Cascade Range and possible 2 feet of snow in Mount Shasta, Northern California, along Interstate 5. High wind gusts of up to 90 mph were recorded on Mount Rainier and 52 mph in Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Known as bomb cyclones, these intense winds are caused by rapidly intensifying storm systems with decreasing atmospheric pressure. Scientists attribute this phenomenon to climate change generating more atmospheric rivers, which are significant contributors to precipitation on the West Coast.

An atmospheric river storm could bring significant rainfall over a three-day period in Northern California, with a flood watch issued in several areas. These storms help replenish water supplies after dry summers, but can also lead to severe flooding and damage.

Satellite images show a weather system moving towards the Pacific Northwest, prompting concerns of damaging winds, rain, and snow. Climate scientists are closely monitoring the storm and its potential impacts on various regions.

Satellite images show the weather system moving closer to the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday morning.
NOAA

As the storm progresses, residents in affected areas are advised to stay updated on weather alerts and follow safety guidelines to minimize risks and potential damage.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Research reveals new connection between Saharan dust and tropical cyclone precipitation

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Huge Saharan dust plumes carried across the Atlantic by trade winds could influence weather in North America by suppressing the development of hurricanes at sea, but the thick dust plumes could also bring heavy rainfall from storms coming onshore, according to a new study.

Vermilion othersThey found a nonlinear, boomerang-shaped relationship between Saharan dust and tropical cyclone rainfall. Image courtesy of Enrique.

“Surprisingly, the main driver of hurricane precipitation is not sea surface temperature or atmospheric moisture, as previously thought, but rather Saharan dust,” said Dr Yuan Wang of Stanford University.

Previous studies have found that human-induced climate change could dramatically reduce Saharan dust transport and increase hurricane rainfall in the coming decades.

But uncertainties remain about questions such as how climate change will affect dust runoff from the Sahara and how much more rainfall from future hurricanes is expected to occur.

“Hurricanes are among the most destructive weather phenomena on Earth,” Dr Wang said.

“Even relatively weak hurricanes can cause heavy rainfall and flooding hundreds of miles inland.”

“I think dust hasn't received enough attention right now in traditional weather forecasting, especially hurricane forecasting.”

Dust can have opposing effects on tropical cyclones, which are classified as hurricanes in the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific when their maximum sustained winds reach 74 miles per hour or greater.

“The dust particles can make ice clouds more efficient in the centre of the hurricane, potentially resulting in more precipitation,” Dr Wang said.

“Dust can also block solar radiation, lowering sea surface temperatures near the center of a storm and weakening tropical cyclones.”

Dr. Wang and his colleagues set out to first develop a machine learning model that could predict hurricane rainfall, and then to identify the underlying mathematical and physical relationships.

They used 19 years of weather data and hourly satellite precipitation measurements to predict the amount of rainfall from individual hurricanes.

Their findings suggest that a key predictor of rainfall is measuring dust optical thickness, or the amount of light that penetrates the dust plume.

They found a boomerang-shaped relationship in which precipitation increases between dust optical thicknesses of 0.03 and 0.06, then decreases rapidly.

In other words, at higher concentrations, dust goes from enhancing to suppressing rainfall.

“Usually, when the dust loading is low, the microphysical enhancement effect is more pronounced,” Dr Wang said.

“If the dust loading is high, it can shade the ocean surface from sunlight more efficiently, and the so-called 'radiative suppression effect' will dominate.”

a paper A paper describing the findings was published in the journal. Scientific advances.

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Lyin Chew others2024. The primary role of Saharan dust on tropical cyclone rainfall in the Atlantic Basin. Scientific advances 10(30); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adn6106

This article is a version of a press release provided by Stanford University.

Source: www.sci.news

Giant cyclone found in the atmosphere of WASP-121b by Hubble

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Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have detected a giant cyclone and other dynamic weather activity swirling around WASP-121b, an ultra-hot Jovian exoplanet about 881 light-years away in the constellation Papis. Detected.

This artist's illustration shows WASP-121b, an alien world where magnesium and iron gases are being lost from the atmosphere. Image credit: NASA/ESA/J. Olmsted, STScI.

WASP-121b is a gas giant exoplanet that is 1.87 times larger and 1.18 times heavier than Jupiter.

First discovered in 2016, the alien star takes just 1.3 days to orbit its parent star, F6 star WASP-121.

WASP-121b is so close to the star that if it got any closer, the star's gravity would begin to tear it apart.

Astronomers estimate that the planet's temperature is around 2,500 degrees Celsius (4,600 degrees Fahrenheit), hot enough to boil some metals.

In the new study, Caltech astronomer Jack Skinner and colleagues analyzed observations of WASP-12 b taken by Hubble in 2016, 2018, and 2019.

Researchers discovered that the planet has a dynamic atmosphere that changes over time.

Using advanced modeling techniques, they demonstrated that these dramatic temporal variations can be explained by weather patterns in the exoplanet's atmosphere.

They found that WASP-121b's atmosphere showed marked differences between observations.

Most dramatically, large temperature differences between the star-facing and dark sides of exoplanets can repeatedly generate and destroy large weather fronts, storms, and massive cyclones. .

The authors also note that there is an apparent misalignment between the hottest region of an exoplanet and the point on the planet closest to its star, as well as variability in the chemical composition of the exoplanet's atmosphere (spectroscopically measurement) was also detected.

They reached these conclusions by using computational models that help explain observed changes in the exoplanet's atmosphere.

“The incredible detail of exoplanet atmosphere simulations allows us to accurately model the climate of superhot planets like WASP-121b,” Dr. Skinner said.

“Now we have made significant progress by combining observational constraints and atmospheric simulations to understand the time-varying weather of these planets.”

“This is a very interesting result as we continue to observe the weather patterns of exoplanets,” said Dr. Quentin Cheniato, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

“Studying exoplanet climates is critical to understanding the complexity of exoplanet atmospheres on other worlds, especially in the search for exoplanets with habitable conditions.”

“The assembled dataset represents a significant amount of observation time for a single planet and is currently the only consistent set of such repeated observations.”

“The information we extracted from those observations was used to infer WASP-121b's atmospheric chemistry, temperature, and clouds at different times.”

“This yielded exquisite images of the planet as it changes over time.”

of the team paper will be published in Astrophysical Journal Appendix Series.

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Quentin Changeato other. 2024. Will the atmosphere of superhot Jupiter WASP-121b change? APJS, in press. arXiv: 2401.01465

Source: www.sci.news