AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH.

[camwyn]

Zeta.

ZETA.

000
WTNT35 KNHC 301710
TCPAT5
BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM ZETA SPECIAL ADVISORY NUMBER 1
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
1 PM AST FRI DEC 30 2005

...LATE SEASON TROPICAL STORM...THE 27TH OF THE YEAR...FORMS IN THE
EASTERN ATLANTIC...

AT 1 PM AST...1700Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM ZETA WAS LOCATED
NEAR LATITUDE 25.0 NORTH... LONGITUDE 36.9 WEST OR ABOUT 1070
MILES...1720 KM... SOUTHWEST OF THE AZORES.

ZETA IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 8 MPH ...13 KM/HR. A TURN
TO THE WEST-NORTHWEST IS EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 50 MPH... 85 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS. ALTHOUGH SOME STRENGTHENING IS POSSIBLE LATER TODAY...A
WEAKENING TREND IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN TOMORROW.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 85 MILES
...140 KM FROM THE CENTER.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 1003 MB...29.62 INCHES.

REPEATING THE 1 PM AST POSITION...25.0 N... 36.9 W. MOVEMENT
TOWARD...NORTHWEST NEAR 8 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED
WINDS... 50 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1003 MB.

THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL
HURRICANE CENTER AT 5 PM AST.

FORECASTER FRANKLIN


$$

ARGH.

Comments

[mephron]

I think we're heading for the 'ruinstorms' mentioned in Transmetropolitan.

Either that, or wearing raingear from May to December due to the near-constant band of dying hurricanes along the East Coast.

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

Someone left their weather ray on and pointed at Bermuda. This is nuts. Grass fires here in Texas, flooding in California, and hurricanes in Florida.

Happy frigging new year.

[tamnonlinear.livejournal.com]

nope, been staring at the comment box for minutes now and can't rise above "..." and "omgwtf?".

so

... omgwtf?

More and more true as year follows year...

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

The Merry Minuet
by Kingston Trio

They're rioting in Africa,
They're starving in Spain.
There's hurricanes in Florida,
And Texas needs rain

The whole world is festering
With unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans,
The Germans hate the Poles;

Italians hate Yugoslavs,
South Africans hate the Dutch,
And I don't like anybody very much!

But we can be tranquil
And "thankfill" and proud,
For man's been endowed
With a mushroom-shaped cloud.
And we know for certain
That some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off,
And we will all be blown away!

They're rioting in Africa,
There's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man!

Re: More and more true as year follows year...

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

Bravo.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

....Gah. I am speechless.

What the hell will they use if there's ANOTHER, now that they're out of greek letters?

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Jeebus Wep.

That's just crazy talk. Zeta.

I mean, couldn't they think of a better Z name? Zelda at least?

[sunavatar.livejournal.com]

Not even close to out of Greek letters. Zeta is the sixth.

[camwyn]

They're not out yet. They have up through Omega.

But after that, I'm guessing Aleph, Beyt, Gimel, Daleth, He, Vov... either that or they go Cyrillic, but Cyrillic is too close to Greek to be entirely useful.

[camwyn]

's not a choice, man. They go through all the slotted human names in a single year, they go on to letters of the Greek alphabet.

[crisavec.livejournal.com]

Its not a name, its a letter...sixth in the greek alphabet and what they go with once the 24 preselected names are exhausted for the year.

[sunavatar.livejournal.com]

Actually I would guess the 47th tropical storm would be *drumroll* ...Tropical Storm #47.

[camwyn]

That, or that's the point at which they start giving them realistic names.

Hurricane Oh Hell, Not Another One
Hurricane We're All Doomed, Aren't We
Hurricane That's An Awful Lot Of Wind And Water
Hurricane Bugger This For A Game Of Soldiers, I'm Moving To Saskatchewan

[feonixrift.livejournal.com]

So, has anyone calculated, given how long it takes tropical storms to form, what the theoretical maximum number in a year actually is?

[camwyn]

Hmm... no idea, honestly.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Beg your pardon, that's what I get for the sleep deprivation.

[camwyn]

Happens to the best of us.

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Gee. Maybe increases in ocean temps are causing these storms?

Could it be?

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

The President says we need to do more study on climate science. And we all know that he's a scientist.

Oh, was that snarky? I can never tell.

/sarcasm

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

Oh. Good. GRIEF.

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

Maybe after this they start naming storms with the entire English alphabet?

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Well, no, it isn't anything to do with that, because this isn't unusual. It's just the return of the high-activity cycle that we last had 30 or 40 years ago. There's no reason to think that this year was more active than the peak of the last cycle; the reason the number of named storms is so high is because we now have sattelites to spot them. Remember that many of this year's named storms never hit land anywhere, let alone anywhere important. Before the advent of weather sattelites, nobody would ever know about those storms, and they would never have been named.

And none of this years hurricanes were stronger or more destructive than some of the ones we've had in the past. I think the worst hurricane to hit the USA is still the one that took out Galveston about 100 years ago.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Since you can have several running simultaneously, the number is quite big.

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Don't screw up my snark with FACTS!

:)

LOL!

[highdancer.livejournal.com]

Actually, no. The reason they don't use X, Q, Z and so on is they have to have room to retire names (i.e. Andrew, Katrina, Floyd) after really monstrous storms. The unused letters don't have enough names to retire names.