We’re somewhat used to watching hurricanes build in intensity from tropical depression to tropical storm to hurricane over a week or so across the Atlantic and into the Carribean. Humberto popped up almost overnight in the Gulf of Mexico and is drenching the Texas/Louisiana border area.
“A surprise Hurricane Humberto ripped into Texas near the Louisiana border this morning, bringing winds of 85 mph and torrential rains to the coast. Humberto didn’t even exist yesterday morning, and grew from a tropical depression at 11am EDT to a hurricane just 14 hours later.”
Beyond the immediate problems for folks on the ground the interest we have is what this storm adds to data about unusual weather and the underlying conditions. What predictions can be made to encourage people to change behavior.
“Call it the instant hurricane. Humberto, which grew faster than any storm on record from tropical depression to full-scale hurricane landfall, surprised the Texas-Louisiana coast early Thursday with 85-mph winds and heavy rain that knocked out power to more than 100,000 and left at least one person dead.
Meteorologists were at a loss to explain the rapid, 16-hour genesis of the first hurricane to hit the U.S. since 2005.”