Three storms and an Invest in the Indian ocean this morning. First, Oscar was torn up by Cuba and is now a disorganized mass headed northeast out to sea across the southern Bahamas – here are links to NHC’s Key Messages regarding Tropical Storm Oscar (en Español: Mensajes Claves).
Not a lot to add, as all along the main threat from Oscar is from rainfall and isolated tropical storm conditions. The storm has had a lot of impacts in Cuba, with at least six dead, and the already stressed energy system has basically collapsed. There is a burgeoning humanitarian crisis, not helped by the ongoing sanctions. The situation is worth a long blog post – hopefully can do that before long.
Zooming out you can see Tropical Storm Kristy off the west coast of Mexico. Kristy formed in part of the the remains of Nicole, and is headed out to sea and shouldn’t be a threat to land so no Key Messages from NHC.
In the Indian Ocean there is an Invest area (IO98) that should become a storm later today or tomorrow. In the West Pacific, Tropical Storm Trami is dumping rain on the Philippines. It should become more organized (the center is offset from the main cloud cover, as seen in this Himawari 9 image from this morning:
Trami should track across the northern island of Luzon by Thursday, then across the South China Sea. JTWC has it south of Hainan Island (China) and approaching the coast of Vietnam near Hue in five days, remaining just below Typhoon (hurricane) strength.
I’m experimenting with some new graphics and display software, and trying to figure out what (if anything) to do for the northern hemisphere winter storm season. As long time readers know, the last couple of years the formal funding for my weather and climate research has been in flux, and now I’ve shifted my work focus back to geopolitical and economics research (sadly, as Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler so eloquently put it nearly 100 years ago in “War is a Racket,” war is good for business – at least some kinds of business). I also have a literal love/hate relationship with blogging – I love that it seems to help people, I really seriously deeply hate the personal attention it draws. That said, I may have some time to expand the weather commentary, assuming vox populi vox dei want and will support. More on this in a few weeks.