Tag Archives: weather

Winter Forecast for Canada 2015/2016

Winter is coming, Canadians, but we’re on track for one of the warmest ever.

That’s according to AccuWeather Global Weather Center, which says El Niño once again is to blame.

“We’re thinking this is going to be the second strongest El Niño on record,” senior meteorologist Brett Anderson told Yahoo Canada by phone from AccuWeather’s headquarters near State College, Pennsylvania. “It’s definitely one of the top two, with the one in 1997/98 being the strongest on record. That has a lot of influence on the weather right across Canada, Continue reading Winter Forecast for Canada 2015/2016

FOXweather down due to lightning stroke

Last night a heavy thunderstorm passed over Queens county and quite a few flashes occurred close to FOXweather.
This sadly caused some weather equipment to spark resulting in a station outage from 4-Aug-2015/22:52 ADT to 23:54 ADT.

All systems could be recovered and no data was lost.
However the FOXcam Southwest got damaged and needs replacement. This will take a few days. Stay tuned.

Hurricane naming for the 2015 season

[National Hurricane Center] Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms had been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center. They are now maintained and updated through a strict procedure by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

The list below is used in rotation and re-cycled every six years, i.e., the 2014 list will be used again in 2020. The only time that there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the WMO committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it. Several names have been retired since the lists were created. Here is more information the history of naming tropical cyclones and retired names.

Continue reading Hurricane naming for the 2015 season

Outlook for the 2015 Hurricane Season in the Atlantic

The 2015 Atlantic hurricane season will have its official start on June 1st and it will last until November 30th. Many people live around the Gulf of Mexico or go to the Caribbean to enjoy their holidays during these months and many forecasters have already embarked to Mexico and Caribbean on preparedness missions. So, let’s take a look at the early outlook for this season.

The Colorado State University (CSU) has released its outlook at the beginning of April and it forecasts one of the least active in decades. According to this estimate, there could be seven named storms and three hurricanes. Just one is projected to attain major hurricane status. These numbers are well below the 30-year average of 12 named storms, six hurricanes, and three major hurricanes

Continue reading Outlook for the 2015 Hurricane Season in the Atlantic

Hurricane Gonzalo: Summary

Luckily hurricane Gonzalo did not affect the South Shore of Nova Scotia noticeably. Matter of fact, other than some ocean swells, we had a beautiful week during the duration of Gonzalo. The heavy down pour on Friday, October 17th, 2014 was not related to Gonzalo.

Environment Canada summary:

STORM SUMMARY FOR HURRICANE GONZALO
(October 14 to 19, 2014)

HURRICANE GONZALO WAS A MAJOR CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE THAT PASSED DIRECTLY OVER BERMUDA THEN CONTINUED TOWARDS ATLANTIC CANADA, GRADUALLY WEAKENING BUT ACCELERATING RAPIDLY AS IT HEADED ALMOST DIRECTLY TOWARDS NEWFOUNDLAND. IT CROSSED INTO THE LAURENTIAN FAN SATURDAY EVENING AS A STRONG CATEGORY 1 HURRICANE, AND MAINTAINED THIS INTENSITY AS IT PASSED ABOUT 50 KM SOUTH OF CAPE RACE, AT THE SOUTHEASTERN TIP OF NEWFOUNDLAND, NEAR DAWN ON SUNDAY. IT PASSED EAST OF CANADIAN FORECAST WATERS NEAR NOON ON SUNDAY AND IS HEADING TOWARDS EUROPE AS A STRONG POST-TROPICAL SYSTEM.

THE TRAJECTORY AND MOTION OF THE STORM AS IT ACCELERATED TOWARDS US PRODUCED UNUSUALLY LARGE WAVES AND SWELL, WHICH IMPACTED OUR WATERS FROM THE LAURENTIAN FAN EAST TO THE GRAND BANKS. THIS, COMBINED WITH STORM SURGE ALONG THE SOUTHERN COAST OF THE AVALON PENINSULA AND LOCAL HIGH TIDES AT THE CLOSEST APPROACH OF GONZALO, GAVE A POTENTIAL FOR LOCAL FLOODING. FORTUNATELY THE LARGEST WAVES ARRIVED AS THE TIDE AND SURGE WERE DROPPING, REDUCING THIS RISK GREATLY. FURTHER OFFSHORE, VERY LARGE SWELL IN EXCESS OF 11 METRES WAS OBSERVED AND AFFECTED OFFSHORE AREAS FROM THE LAURENTIAN FAN EAST TO THE GRAND BANKS.

THE STORM ALSO PRODUCED HURRICANE FORCE WINDS OVER PART OF THE LAURENTIAN FAN AND MOST OF THE GRAND BANKS. IT ALSO GAVE RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF ABOUT 30 TO 70 MM FOR MOST OF THE AVALON PENINSULA. 
FINALLY, THERE WAS STORM SURGE OF 80 CM OR HIGHER FOR MUCH OF THE SOUTHERN AVALON PENINSULA.

See Environment Canada’s Hurricane Information Statements for more details.