Doppler 22's Blog

South Atlantic Hurricane Season?

Posted by: Doppler22, 4:19 AM GMT on February 28, 2013

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Currently there is not a hurricane season in the Southern Atlantic, that could change. In recent years there have been a few storms that have affected Brazil. The NHC in Miami is now taking notice to these storms and will most likely start tracking them when they form (which is a rarity for now).

Previous Storms

There has been an estimated 92 storms in the years between 1957-2008. Below is a list of the more notable storms:

March 1974 Cyclone: 30mph
The storm came of the Amazon and strengthened in the presence of low wind shear and relatively warm water.

1991 Angola Storm: unknown winds
A weak Tropical Storm formed off the coast of Angola according to satellites. It is the only South Atlantic storm to form in the Eastern part.

January 2004 Cyclone: 35mph/ 1003mb
A small area of low pressure formed into a depression for a short while until wind shear began to weaken it. It moved ashore and caused heavy rain and flooding.

Cyclone Catarina (2004): 100mph/ 972mb
This is the only recorded cyclone in the South Atlantic. It formed and rapidly strengthened to a Category 2 cyclone before making landfall in the Santa Catarina State killing between 3-10 people and causing millions of dollars in damages to Brazil. People were in utter shock that a hurricane formed in the Southern Atlantic and the locals named it Catarina after the state it hit.

February 2006 Storm: 65mph
A Quickscat scan found TS force winds in this storm and it was over generally warm waters. Wind shear eventually tore the system apart.

January 2009 Storm: 40mph
This storm moved right off the coast of Brazil and Uruguay and it hovered there for a while causing 14 deaths , heavy rainfall and an Emergency being declared for 4 cities.

Tropical Storm Anita (2010): 50mph/ 995mb
An extratropical storm developed tropical characteristics and for the first time the NHC payed attention to it. They classified it as Low SL90. It was declared a Tropical Storm March 10th and became extratropical again March 12th. Its ACE index was estimated at 2.05. Local officials in Brazil named it Anita. ** This was the first storm that the Hurricane Center and agencies in the USA tracked a storm in the Southern Atlantic**

November 2010 storm: 1005mb
A cold-core system developed some subtropical characteristics until it ran aground in Brazil/Uruguay causing lots of damage.

Subtropical Storm Arani (2011): 50mph/ 989mb
The Navy Hyrdrographic Center and the Brazilian Navy started tracking a storm and classified it as Subtropical. It was named by the agency above on March 15th. Wind shear caused the death of the system.

**The picture of Arani was deleted because it caused the page to load very slowly**

There is not currently a season for South American cyclones. However, if one were to be made, it would most likely stretch from November 1 to April 30 because thats when most of the storms have formed and its opposite of the Northern Hemisphere. More data may need to be collected and more storms may need to form for anything to be put in place but its just something to think about. Thanks for reading and I hope to have a new entry up soon.

These images and some of this information was gathered by www.wikipedia.org

Updated: 1:47 AM GMT on March 01, 2013

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Hello. I'm just a person who loves weather. I live in York County, PA and have 2 brothers... neither of which like weather ha :)

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