Hurricane Review - July 2006

July was quiet on the hurricane front; the Atlantic saw Tropical Storm Beryl.

In the Eastern Pacific, there were three hurricanes, but only one system, Emilia, affected land. Baja California had strong winds and a lot of rain. Hurricane Daniel was in existence for nearly a fortnight. At its peak, it had winds of 160 mph with gusts of 180mph, but Daniel was out at sea all the time.

Over in the Western Pacific, Typhoons Bilis and Kaemi brought flooding and high winds to China and the Phillippines. A new tropical depression has formed and is currently traversing the island of Luzon in the Phillippines. It will strengthen in the East China sea before heading for the area southwest of Hong Kong.

Picture: Shows Hurricane Catarina which occurred in March 2005 in the southern Atlantic off the coast of Brazil. This system turns clockwise as opposed to the anti-clockwise circulation in hurricanes in the northern hemisphere. Hurricanes are extremely rare in the Atlantic south of the equator.