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Hurricane Michael, currently a catergory-1 storm, is tracking northward across the Caribbean, and is expected to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday. The storm is currently over Cuba, and is expected to strike the Florida Panhandle as a category-3 hurricane, with wind speeds up to 129 mph. Due to the high warmth of Gulf of Mexico waters, the storm could strengthen dramatically and suddenly as it moves off Cuba and out into the Gulf. This is what caused Hurricane Katrina to become such a severe storm as it moved onshore over New Orleans in 2005.
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Hurricane Harvey expanded from a tropical storm to a category 4 hurricane in just 48 hours, and is now stalled over eastern Texas and western Louisiana and dropping rainfall in the area at a rate never before witnessed. But why is this? Like Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy, Harvey expanded to hurricane force with unexpected speed. The reason is that sea-surface waters in the Gulf of Mexico were between 2.7 and 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit above average. Water temperatures in the Gulf have been rising for the past thirty years, with the highest temperatures being recorded in 2011. They then dropped until 2013, and have since been rising again. read more

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As predicted on Unknowncountry.com’s Climate Watch last fall, this is proving to be a winter of extraordinary fury both in the United States and Europe. England is experiencing the worst flooding in 250 years, and winter records are being broken all across the United States. Meanwhile the Austral summer is entering the record books because of its extreme heat. But why? The reason lies in an unprecedented and unexpected change in atmospheric circulation that has caused dramatic strengthening of the Pacific Trade Winds at a time when they would normally be at a seasonal low.
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Update: – As Hurricane Gustav came ashore, it continued movingquickly, driven by a high pressure system to the south. Inaddition, instead of crossing an area of higher watertemperature just south of New Orleans, Gustav encountered cooler water in the same area. This combination caused it to lose rather than gain strength as it made landfall. However, the storm brought heavy rains, and, due to a lack of federal funding, the levee system is still not fully restored. Some overspill due to storm surge is taking place along the IndustrialLevee, butonly time will tell whether or not the levees hold.

Tropical Storm Hannah is behind Gustav, and could also enterthe Gulf of Mexico and intensify into a hurricane during thenext week.
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