25 October 2010

Richard becomes season's 10th hurricane, hits Belize...

Over the weekend, Richard intensified to an 80kt Cat 1 hurricane prior to making landfall on Belize and tracking across the Yucatan peninsula.  This was the 4th storm to hit that small section of coast (Alex, Karl, Matthew, Richard) this season.  The radar loop of the storm's approach and landfall is at http://einstein.atmos.colostate.edu/~mcnoldy/tropics/richard10/Richard_24-25Oct10_belize.gif

At 15Z today, Richard was downgraded to a 30kt Depression and is still over the southern Yucatan peninsula.  There will most likely be very little left of the vortex once it enters the Bay of Capeche, and all model guidance suggests a minimal TS or remnant low as it limps W-NW across the Bay.

With yet another hurricane added to the ranks, the rarity of such an active season not having a US landfall is even more striking.  In the last 110 years, there has never been a season with 10 hurricanes and 0 US hurricane landfalls.  You may recall that Ike was the last time the US was hit by a hurricane, and that was in early Sept 2008.


Please visit my tropical Atlantic headquarters.

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