Good evening everyone. Sorry that I didn’t have anything posted to the web site anytime sooner, but I have been busy staying away from the computer for the past couple days. In addition, when I’ve been on the computer, I’ve been busy trying to keep up with basketball around the area for my high school b-ball site, GMC Hoops. Anyways, the day has finally come. The first day of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season got underway today, and pretty much on cue, the first tropical storm of the season developed in the Atlantic.

On Saturday, Tropical Storm Arthur emerged in the warm waters of the Western Caribbean and the extreme Southern Gulf of Mexico before coming ashore near Belize. The storm developed on Saturday afternoon around the time of 1:00 PM EDT according to the archive of bulletins maintained at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. The storm system then moved over the Yucatan Peninsula, and slowly dragged over the region with its drenching rains. Arthur only had winds of 40 miles per hour, but the slow pace of the storm’s track as well as the elevated plateau of the Yucatan, and the rugged terrain of Belize, Guatemala, and Eastern Mexico provided the necessary ingredients for orographic lifting and torrential rains.

As a result, rainfall amounts were between 5 to 10 inches in most areas while some locales experienced as much as 15 inches. This heavy rainfall had the potential to produce significant flooding and dangerous mudslides. More on this storm a bit later in the blog. Last month, forecasters from NOAA came out with projections that this will be an above average season in the Atlantic with anywhere between 12 to 15 named storms, 6 to 9 hurricanes, and as many as 5 being major hurricanes of Category Three Strength or better on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

The Atlantic Hurricane Season officially runs from June 1st to November 30th, but as we’ve already seen here with Arthur, that is not always the case. In addition to Arthur forming yesterday, there was a Subtropical Storm Andrea that formed back in May 2007. There have also been a number of storms that have formed within the first week of the Atlantic season, especially in recent years such as Hurricane Allison back in 1995. The season has also gone into overtime with storms emerging sometimes well into December such as in the monumental 2005 season. The peak of the hurricane season does not coincide with the astronomical start of summer. Since there is a lag time between the maximum radiation produced by the perpendicular ray of the sun when it moves over the Tropic of Cancer.

As a result, the peak doesn’t come until September. More specifically, the statistical maximum occurs around September 10th. The reason for that is that the oceans take a while to warm up since they encompass so much mass and volume. It requires a relatively large amount of heat energy to bring about a small amount of temperature change in water. It’s specific heat is 1.0 Calorie per gram times degrees C. Land, on the other hand, doesn’t take as long to warm up. It’s (Granite) specific heat is 0.19. The peak portion of the season can span several months though from August to October. On average, the Atlantic sees about 10 named storms per year, 6 hurricanes, and 2 major hurricanes according to the 50 year average. Maximum number of storms in a season was in 2005 with 28 (the previous mark was held in 1933–21). The maximum number of hurricanes in a season was 15 also in 2005 (the previous mark was in 1969–12), and the maximum number of major hurricanes in a season was 8 in 1950.