Hurricane update - 17 November

We are now within 2 weeks of the end of the hurricane season in the Northern Hemisphere. The Atlantic has been quiet, with 9 named storms, and no hurricanes making landfall in the USA. Tropical storms Alberto and Beryl did impact on US territory, but only brought rain.

The Eastern Pacific still has a rapidly decaying cyclone spinning down: Sergio, who I reported on over the last two days. This region has seen 10 hurricanes, of which Hurricane Daniel was the most impressive. Fortunately, this was raging on its lonesome in the middle of the Pacific. A number of storms brushed the Mexican coastline, and Baja California has not been spared.

The Central Pacific saw its first hurricane in 4 years, and blimey was it a whopper. Ioke remained in my sights for nearly 3 weeks in the second half of August, sustaining category 5 strength for a record length of time.

The Western Pacific has been busy this summer, with the last supertyphoon occurring only within the last week. The Philippines and China have been hard hit.

As winter descends over the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere is warming up. An early cyclone (Xavier) cropped up near Fiji, but did not affect land. Because of the El Nino effect, the Southern Hemisphere season (2006/7) is expected to be quiet. El Nino means that the sea surface temperatures near South America are unusually high, which conversely means that they are lower elsewhere. This is also thought to have been the cause of the quiet Atlantic season. As the El Nino effect strengthens, the 2007 Northern Hemisphere season is likely to be quiet as well.