Seems like there are storms all over the Baltimore, MD & Washington DC area. And I don’t mean the ones on the Hill caused by the Obama gang — a severe thunderstorm warning has been issued and we have the details.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning For

• Southeastern Baltimore County in Northern Maryland…
• Eastern Baltimore City in Northern Maryland…
• South Central Harford County in Northern Maryland…

Until 6:15 PM EDT

Locations Impacted Include
Carney, Rossville, Essex, Perry Hall, Back River, White Marsh, Bowleys Quarters, Kingsville, Middle River

These storms will produce heavy rain. Hail the size of pennies and wind gusts to 60 mph can be expected in the warned area. Stay indoors and away from windows until the storm has passed.

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Hurricane Bill UPDATE: Now category 4 and getting stronger. (8/19 – 11:25EST)

Hurricane Bill is on the warpath. I love it when they name storms after me. Who wouldn’t?

Facts about the Hurricane Bill projected path

1. Location: 13.8N 44.0W or about 1160 miles east of the Lesser Antilles
2. Maximum sustained winds: 75 mph
3. Moving: West-northwest at about 22 mph
4. Minimum pressure: 987 mb
5. Expected to continue moving west-northwest for the next several days
6. Forecasters said the storm could be a category 3 hurricane as it approaches the Lesser Antilles on August 19 or 20

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A typhoon is pummeling Taiwan causing the worst flooding in 50 years, not to mention hotels fleeing, um, tumbling into the sea.

Emergency supplies are being delivered by bicycle.  How would you like that job?

“Hey Wang! The hotel fell into the sea from the winds. Would you mind taking this food on your bicycle to the residents who are stuck out in the winds and raging sea?”

Morakat means ‘emerald’ in Thai.

It means havoc, craziness, death, missing people in Taiwan right now.

Let’s hope casualties are kept to a minimum.

El Nino is back.

US government scientists are saying that the periodic warming of water in the tropical Pacific Ocean, otherwise known as El Nino, which can affect weather all over the world, is back!

The Pacific was in a neutral state, however, forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say the sea surface temps are up about 1 degree C above normal. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center also said temperatures in other tropical regions are also above normal. The readings are warmer than usual as much as 975 feet below the ocean surface.

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The Wyoming Sideways Tornado- Tornadoes have always captivated weather enthusiasts because we strive to understand those amazing funnel clouds and the way they form. For researchers and those who have a passion for such things, a bunch of brave guys managed to capture the Wyoming Tornado on video and to take amazing pictures. It’s a pretty wicked tornado that suddenly turned sideways so that you can actually see its “eye”.

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An Air France plane on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, has been reported missing over the Atlantic Ocean, with 228 people on board. Four hours after its scheduled take-off from the Brazilian city, the Airbus 330-200 crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence” at 0200 GMT on Monday and 14 minutes later it sent an automatic message reporting electrical faults.

The Brazilian Air Force has confirmed the missing plane and already started a search and rescue mission from the the island of Fernando de Noronha off Brazil’s northeast coast. While the Brazilian Navy sent three ships to look for the Air France jet.

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Foam Storm in Cape Town, August 2008

— Whoa! Somebody spilled their beer.
— Huh!? Whaddya mean?
— Dude, look at the foam everywhere … on the streets, under the cars, chasing the kids. Serious foam.
— Ah..um..that would be Neptune, I suppose.
— Neptune!?
— Yeah. He gets drunk sometimes, whips up a storm, spills his beer and sends foam all up and down the coastline.
— …?
— Yeah, it happened in Capetown not long ago.
— Whoa, man! Where’s my mug?

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Because of low humidity and high winds forecasts, wildfires on the coastal region of South Carolina have gotten out of control on Thursday and headed for Myrtle Beach (and the state’s biggest tourist destinations) where they destroyed 40 homes and forced more than 2,500 people to evacuate.

Smoke Caused by Myrtle Beach Fires

The governor declared a state of emergency for the county.

So far no injuries have been reported, but with fires gone wild more than 100 firefighters are digging trenches with bulldozers to create firebreaks that will limit the spread. “I seriously doubt we’ll have it contained before the weekend,” says Russell Hubright, spokesman for the South Carolina Forestry Commission.

The worse fire on records when you consider the number of houses that burned— first reports talk about 40 homes, there are also environmental and probably tourism implications. Because by early Thursday morning more than 15,000 acres with dense vegetation have been charred.

I do agree that weather is unpredictable, but isn’t there anything we can do protect from wildfires? Maybe we should start being more responsible … don’t you think?

A tornado that just hit the western Arkansas city of Mena, on Thursday night, caused three deaths, injured 22 and serious damage to more than 100 homes (some of which where there since the Civil War).

After being hit “like a bomb” at around 8.10 in the morning with 100-year-old trees being uprooted from the ground, a curfew is now in effect for the people from Mena who are now waiting for local authorities and the National Guard to deal with ruptured gas lines and downed power lines.

“There were sirens that went off,” Roger Susanin (reporter for KATV) said. “There were some tornado warnings earlier in the night, but it was not supposed to hit ground level. No one really had too much time to shutter their homes.”

Does it mean that the tornado season has arrived and we’ll get to see more and more of these things? Weather is becoming a big factor of our lives …

In 2006 the world saw a major hurricane that caused arguable the greatest damage to human wealth in the history of mankind. United States bore the brunt of anger and venom unleashed by Hurricane Katrina and while people who have been struck by the tragedy are still recovering from it, rest of the world is seriously starting to ponder about tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons.

What are typhoons?

Image courtesy of ruei_ke

While all of the just differ in name because as a race we still are unable to come to common conclusions, typhoons are just intense tropical storms that occur in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. That line is demarcated by the International Date Line and the equator. The word typhoon seems to have many origins and all of them date back to ancient Greece and the Greek god of winds- Typhon. Subsequently different languages and nations across the planet have adopted different altered versions of the name.

A tropical cyclone is classified as a typhoon when formed in the North-West Pacific region, measures above 10 on Beaufort scale and has wind speeds of above 55 mph. In short, it is a scary, wet windy depression that causes immense destruction if and when it does hit land in full fury.

What causes Typhoons?

Image courtesy of PhillipC

What causes typhoons is a question that has been puzzling the best scientific minds across the planet since long and while we do have substantial understanding of the basic conditions that facilitate a typhoon, exact reasons still are unknown.

Warm water surface is the basic reason for the formation of the low pressure area. Warm waters surrounded by cold conditions inevitably create low pressure and unstable atmosphere above them. Water temperatures of at least 26.5 °C (79.7 °F) are needed down to a depth of at least 50 meters to start a typhoon.

Next is the abundant supply of water around the eye of the storm, ensuring that high humidity will fuel the typhoon constantly helping it grow in size. This is a giant that needs to feed constantly on water. Typhoons also need to maintain a distance of at least 5 degrees north of the equator to sustain and develop. Considering all the conditions needed for their formations, one would imagine that typhoons and tropical cyclones would be a rare occurrence. But off late, that seems not to be the case. Why is it so?

Impact of global warming on typhoons

So by now the general school of thought is that the petty environmentalists are willing to blame global warming for everything and anything that changes in the world climate pattern. The fact though is that whether you like it or not, growing carbon emissions and global warming are having significant impact on formation of typhoons.

The basic condition for a typhoon to come alive is warm waters and with growing global temperature and melting polar ice caps, that would not be too hard to find in years to come. This along with irregular weather patterns and dry drought conditions on land increase chances of typhoons.

According to a UN report, tropical cyclones will grow both in number and intensity in the coming century because of variant global climate patterns caused by both human and natural causes. With no known and proven method to tackle typhoons (except evacuation when a warning is issued), one can expect more scenarios like Hurricane Katrina if our luck goes bad and more of these hit land. Let’s just hope they stay away from heavily populated areas…