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Geology News
Hurricanes and Cyclones Current Events

View a photo slideshow of some of the world’s most destructive storms since 1970. Included are: Cyclone Nargis, Cyclone Sidr, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Mitch, Tropical Storm Thelma, Super Typhoon Nina, and the Bhola Cyclone, among others.

The impact of this cyclone is being compared to Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 tsunami. The flow of aid is still very slow into the country and journalists live in fear.

Typhoon Rammasun, was a Category 4 super typhoon moving northeast over the Philippine Sea when this image was captured on May 11. It is predicted to lose strength and dissipate without striking land; however, the heavy rains can still cause flooding and landslides.

A collection of images, maps and summary information related to Cyclone Nargis that struck Myanmar (Burma) on May 2, 2008.

Earth Observatory has a track map for Cyclone Nargis that shows its location and intensity between April 28 and May 4. A color overlay shows rainfall totals from the storm. As of May 7, 2008, the number of people killed was estimated at more than 22,000, according to news reports citing the Myanmar government, with twice that many people still missing and feared dead.

Satellite Images of Cyclone Nargis Flooding

Millions of people in Myanmar are waiting for aid to arrive. The cyclone that hit last weekend washed a 15-foot high storm surge onto the coastline that drowned thousands and swept away the homes of a million.

Tropical Cyclone Nargis has killed 10,000 people in Myanmar and the count is expect to rise much higher. Many people are blaming the government for failing to issue warnings and to quickly accept offers of aid from other countries.

Hundreds of people are feared dead after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar (Burma) this weekend. A state of emergency has been declared for three cities (Yangon, Irrawaddy, Pegu) and two states (Karen and Mon).

Pictures of Cyclone Nargis aftermath at CNN

Tropical Storm Nargis formed into a cyclone on April 27th in the Bay of Bengal. It is now moving towards Myanmar (Burma) where it is expected to make landfall between May 2nd and May 3rd. Cyclone season in the North Indian Ocean runs from April through December. There are an average of five named storms per year with only two becoming full tropical cyclones.

Earth Observatory has a few images of Typhoon Neoguri which is currently moving over Vietnam. This image shows rainfall patterns of this first typhoon of the 2008 season in the western Pacific Ocean.

Philip Klotzbach and William Gray of Colorado State University: “We foresee a well above-average Atlantic basin tropical cyclone season in 2008….. We anticipate an above-average probability of United States major hurricane landfall.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration invites you to take a virtual tour of the National Hurricane Center. If you are interested in hurricanes and tropical cyclones you might learn some interesting things about forecasting them.

The National Hurricane Center is working with Google to put storm surge maps of the Gulf Coast online for public viewing. Storm surge is often the most damaging element of a hurricane and these maps can be used to guide planning, evacuation and other storm-related efforts.

A strong wind storm swept across Europe with gusts up to 166 kilometers per hour. It downed trees, damaged buildings, cut power lines, overturned vehicles and triggered landslides. (Many news reports are using the term “hurricane”. In the United States that term is used for “tropical cyclones”. In other areas the word is often used for any strong wind storm.)

Cyclone Ivan hit Madagascar this week, leaving 29 dead and about 70,000 homeless.

NOAA Image

A new study yields the contrarian conclusion that global warming could decrease, instead of increase, the number of hurricanes that hit the United States.

LANL.gov Image

PressConnections.com has an article that points out that global warming is much broader than a temperature change. Sea level rise, hurricane intensity changes, El Niño changes, extreme weather changes and modified wind and ocean current changes are all part of this problem.

People suffering losses from Hurricane Katrina have filed nearly one half million damage claims against the US government. Many of these are based upon failure of levees or flood walls. Over 200 claims are in excess of $1 billion.

The 2007 hurricane season officially ended on November 30, however, Tropical Storm Olga has formed and just finished hitting the Caribbean with heavy rains and strong winds. Now it is moving between Cuba and Yucatan as it enters the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Katrina killed or severely damaged 320 million large trees in Gulf Coast forests, which weakened the role the forests play in storing carbon from the atmosphere. The damage has led to these forests releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr is in the north Indian Ocean and is moving towards India and Bangladesh. It is a Category 4 storm thought to be capable of producing a 22 foot high storm surge. Bangladesh and parts of the Indian coast are very flat and a 22 foot surge would cause flooding inland for many miles. Compounding this is the heavy rain expected inland of the surge and that flood runoff could combine with the surge to produce a very serious problem.

LiveScience has a short presentation titled “The Ten Worst U.S. Natural Disasters”. It gives a brief background on ten events which include: Tri-State Tornado, Peshtigo Fire, Johnstown Flood, Heat Wave of 1988, Heat Wave of 1980, Okeechobee Hurricane, San Francisco Earthquake, Dust Bowl, Hurricane Katrina, and Hurricane Galveston.

Tropical Storm Noel dropped heavy rain, triggered landslides, caused floods and killed 81 people on the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. Now it moves out over the Atlantic and towards the Bahamas, possibly skirting Florida.

Matt Rosenberg has a short but interesting article on his About.com Geography site. He presents some facts and figures on the impact of Hurricane Katrina compared to the recent fires in California. Lots of people are comparing the two - here is where you can see some numbers.

Tropical Storm Noel has dumped up to twenty inches of rain on Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This has resulted in widespread flooding. The storm lost strength while passing over Hispaniola but forecasters say that it could build into a hurricane when it tracks back over the warm Atlantic Ocean waters today.

NASA Image

Hurricane Lorenzo is expected to hit the Gulf Coast of Mexico on Friday morning. It is presently a Category 1 storm and is expected to strengthen before it makes landfall.

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Hurricane Humberto set a record for hurricane formation, growing from a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico to a hurricane in only 18 hours. Humberto then hit the Texas-Louisiana coastline as a Category 1 storm.

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When Hurricane Felix hit the coast of Central America many of the people there had no idea that a powerful hurricane was coming. They were out in the sea fishing, at work in coastline areas, or taking shelter in stilt homes a few feet above high tide. Many of these people were killed because they took no precautionary actions, but some are now telling their survival stories.

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Tropical Storm Gabrielle is moving towards the coast of North Carolina. It’s outer bands are over the Outer Banks and its center could arrive there on Sunday afternoon. Tropical Storm warnings are in effect for the entire North Carolina coastline and the southeastern coast of Virginia.

The National Hurricane Center monitors the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico for tropical storms and hurricanes. They then make maps, forecasts, satellite images, and other information available to the public online. Their website also has a variety of hurricane awareness and history information.

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Hurricane Felix has upgraded in strength to a Category 5 storm with windspeeds approaching 165 MPS. It is currently moving west through the Caribbean Sea and heading towards Honduras and Belize where it could arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, as a Category 5 Storm.

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Hurricane Felix is just north of South America and is headed towards Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. According to the current predicted path it will pass by the northern coast of Honduras on Tuesday, hit Yucatan on Wednesday morning and back over the warm waters of the Gulf on Thursday.

NASA Image

John Wilkerson lived in Bay St Louis, Mississippi before Katrina arrived. He travelled his community taking photos before the impact of the storm. Then he photographed the same areas immediately after, and now two years later. A lot of surprising photos of loss and some of recovery.

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From the article: Sea surface temperatures were warming up in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and eastern Atlantic Ocean by the middle of August. As a result, they helped spawn Hurricane Dean in the central Atlantic, and Tropical Storm Erin in the Gulf of Mexico, both during the week of August 13.

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Hurricane Dean lost some of its steam passing over the Yucatan Peninsula, dropping in strength to a Category 1. However it now will move over the Bay of Campeche where it will draw strength from the very warm waters there. Vulnerable there are over 100 oil platforms and three major oil exporting ports.

NOAA Image

The predicted path of Hurricane Dean as shown by the National Hurricane Center is crossing Yucatan on Tuesday and making landfall on the Gulf Coast of Mexico on Wednesday afternoon.

Hurricane Dean is now a Category 4 storm pounding islands in the Caribbean. It is expected to cross the Yucatan Peninsula and be into the Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday. The most likely point of United States landfall is the Texas coast.

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The Mississippi River and its delta have been heavily modified by human activity. This has long been understood but made more obvious by the impact of Hurricane Katrina. Now, people are starting to think about the river, how they have modified it, and what should be done to bring a balance between human activity and the river’s natural system.

Virginia Map

They are calling them “hurricane gates”. They are emergency entrance gates to major highways that will allow mass evacuations in the event of a major hurricane or other emergency. You might recall the huge traffic jams shown on the news during the Katrina / Rita hurricane events. Virginia is spending millions of dollars to improve evacuation routes. Let’s hope that they are never used.

Hurricanes can strike the New York or New England coast - they just don’t do it that often. The last significant hurricane to do major damage to New York City was when the “Long Island Express” hurricane made landfall in 1938, killing 50 people on Manhattan and 700 on the eastern seaboard. The New York Office of Emergency Management is active in its planning and education efforts. A hurricane pushing a 30 foot storm surge would cause flooding in all five boroughs, cause $100 billion in damage and force the evacuation of millions of people. The WCBSTV website has a story and short video that describes the NYC preparations.