Hurricane Beatriz slams into Mexico; heavy rains, tornadoes hit the Midwest
Hurricane Beatriz plowed into the Pacific coast of Mexico near La Fortuna this morning as a Category 1 hurricane with 90 mph winds, bringing very heavy rains and mudslides to a 200-mile stretch of coast. Acapulco reported 5.20" of rain yesterday, and one injury due to a falling free. Hurricane-force winds extend outwards 25 miles from the center of Beatriz, and these winds are likely to cause moderate damage along a 200-mile stretch of the Mexican coast today as the storm moves northwestwards towards Cabo Corrientes. However, the primary threat from the storm will be heavy rain, and the expected rains of 6 - 12" are likely to cause very dangerous flooding and mudslides today and Wednesday morning. Satellite loops reveal that Beatriz weakened significantly over the past few hours, once the eye moved over land. The mountainous terrain of coastal Mexico will continue to tear up the storm today, and Beatriz will likely be a weak tropical storm by the time it moves back out to sea on Wednesday.
Figure 1. Morning satellite image of Hurricane Beatriz over the Pacific coast of Mexico taken at 9:30am EDT June 21, 2011. Image credit: NASA/GSFC.
Tornadoes, heavy rain slam the Midwest
Severe thunderstorms rumbled through a wide section of the Midwest yesterday, generating numerous tornadoes, baseball-sized hail, and heavy flooding rains. The storm also brought heavy snow to the mountains of Colorado above 9,500 feet, an unusual occurrence for so late in June. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center logged 43 preliminary tornado reports yesterday in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Texas, and North Dakota. The tornadoes mostly avoided populated areas, and only sporadic damage was reported. Perhaps the most significant impact of the storm was the large area of 1 - 4 inches of rain it dropped on Nebraska and South Dakota. This rain will run off into the Missouri River, further aggravating the flooding that has breached two levees and overtopped two other levees in the past week. The large, slow-moving low pressure system responsible for the rains and severe weather will bring additional heavy rains of 1 - 3 inches over portions of the Missouri River watershed today, and will touch off a new round of severe weather today and Wednesday as the storm progresses slowly eastwards. However, the Storm Prediction Center is issuing only their "Slight Risk" forecast for severe weather for both days.
Figure 2. Radar reflectivity image of a supercell thunderstorm with a classic hook echo. The storm spawned a tornado that hit Elm Creek, Nebraska yesterday. The tornado ripped the roofs off of several houses and tore down power lines.
The Atlantic is quiet
The Atlantic is quiet, with no tropical cyclones predicted over the next seven days by the reliable computer models.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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Either way, heat lows rarely have much affect on the steering patterns of storms because they are weak and shallow lows. Shallow means they do not reach the deep, or in other words, mid to upper levels of the atmosphere. Since these heat lows don't really affect the mid to upper layers of the atmosphere (where the winds are that primarily steer hurricanes and other non tropical storms) and since they are usually not very strong (except over large extremely hot deserts like the Sahara) storms aren't significantly steered by heat lows.
Tropical Cyclone Advisory #41
TROPICAL STORM HAIMA (T1104)
15:00 PM JST June 22 2011
====================================
SUBJECT: Category One Typhoon In Northern South China Sea
At 6:00 AM UTC, Tropical Storm Haima (994 hPa) located at 20.7N 113.1E has 10 minute sustained winds of 35 knots with gusts of 50 knots. The cyclone is reported as moving northwest at 6 knots.
Dvorak Intensity: T2.5
Gale Force Winds
===============
120 NM from the center
Forecast and Intensity
=======================
24 HRS: 21.6N 110.0E - 35 knots (CAT 1/Tropical Storm)
45 HRS: 21.5N 106.7E - Tropical Depression
Additional Information
======================
Tropical Storm will move at the same speed for the next 48 hours
Tropical Storm will move west northwest for the next 24 hours then move west
Tropical Storm will keep present intensity for the next 24 hours
Final Initial Dvorak number will be 2.0 after 24 hours
Tropical Cyclone Advisory #7
TROPICAL STORM MEARI (T1105)
15:00 PM JST June 22 2011
====================================
SUBJECT: Category One Typhoon In Sea East Of The Philippines
At 6:00 AM UTC, Tropical Storm Meari (998 hPa) located at 13.8N 128.9E has 10 minute sustained winds of 35 knots with gusts of 50 knots. The cyclone is reported as moving west northwest at 10 knots.
Dvorak Intensity: T2.5
Gale Force Winds
==============
240 NM from the center in northeast quadrant
160 NM from the center in southwest quadrant
Forecast and Intensity
=======================
24 HRS: 17.3N 126.2E - 45 knots (CAT 1/Tropical Storm)
48 HRS: 20.8N 123.6E - 60 knots (CAT 2/Severe Tropical Storm)
72 HRS: 25.2N 122.3E - 75 knots (CAT 3/Strong Typhoon)
Hope you get plenty!!!
And ABOUT TIME!!
Thank you Trauma! Yes it has been a long time coming. The areas that are getting rain to my north have been having fires for months now. I can only hope that will help out with those. I haven't given up hope here yet. Supposed to have at least one more day before the high moves back over us from the west. Hopefully that means this front or whatever it is will drag its rain all along the gulf coast then over Fl. :)
We have actually had a decent amount here in NW Florida over the last couple of weeks. Horses are happy with some fresh grass at least. The combination of HEAT and moisture are giving us more than our usual share of severe thunderstorms but I guess you take what you can get.
Good to hear y'all are getting some rain. Yep, we don't get too picky where our rain comes from. Just hope it comes in the tamest form possible.
Good point IKE!! And good morning!
It has been HIT and MISS around this area.....fortunately we have been hit a few times!!
Then we're doing a little better here in Naples; since May 1st, we've had 2.64"--though more than half of that came in one quick storm back in the second week of May. But even with that relative deluge, since May 1st, we are down 7.15", and well over one foot for the year.
Good morning to everyone.
168 hour 6Z GFS offers hope....
Seems to be noticeably faster downloading pages both here and at other sites.
Plus you can use your privacy settings to opt out of being tracked by commercial info-gatherers.
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
800 AM EDT WED JUN 22 2011
FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...
TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.
$$
FORECASTER AVILA
It has been coming down Hard since about midnight here at 11n 61w.
A little over an inch and a quarter.
More coming.....
Good weather with warm temperatures will be the rule here. It looks like our friends pottery and DDR are getting the bulk of the wave moving thru the SE Caribbean.
Houston has recorded five consecutive mornings with low
temperatures at or above 81 degrees. This is a new record for the city. The previous record was three consecutive mornings and occurred on July 28...29 and 30th 2009. The low temperature has been 81 degrees or warmer 50 times in city history with 23 of these occurrences since June of 2009.
The truck windows are closed this time, but the lawn mower is out in the yard where I busted a drive pulley last night. It needed a wash anyway.
In the last two weeks there's been 4 or 5 times where I've had a few drops of rain on the car on the way home. Lasted about 20 seconds each time.
Those are some remarkable stats. For what it's worth, after about a two- or three-day respite, the whole state will be back to where it has been for the past several weeks: hot and dry.
Sorry, Texans...
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