| Above: GOES-16 visible image of Hurricane Humberto at 8 am EDT September 19, 2019. Humberto had peaked as a Category 3 storm with 125 mph winds three hours prior. Image credit: NOAA/RAMMB. |
Hurricane Humberto, the second major hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic season, roared past Bermuda Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm with 120 mph winds. The powerful right-front eyewall of Humberto battered Bermuda with sustained winds well in excess of hurricane force as the eye passed 75 miles to the north of Bermuda near 8 pm EDT.
15k+ without power, including us. Closet point of approach 8pm eastern. Hurricane force winds predicted for 2 hours: 7-9pm eastern. We’re hunkered down. #Bermuda #HurricaneHumberto pic.twitter.com/Z8jxEKE5vN
— Glenn Jones (@BdaGlenn) September 18, 2019
An automated station (MAROPS) on the northeast end of Bermuda recorded sustained winds of 102 mph, gusting to 132 mph, at 7:53 EDT Wednesday; an automated station at Pearl Island reported sustained winds of 100 mph, gusting to 123 mph, shortly before that. The winds at both of these locations may have been enhanced by the instruments being sited at higher elevations than sea level, however. Bermuda’s Wade International Airport (elevation 5.6 meters) reported peak sustained winds (10-minute average) of 82 mph, gusting to 115 mph, between 7 - 8 pm EDT Thursday.
 |
| Figure 1. Hurricane Humberto as seen by the Bermuda radar at 22:37 local time Wednesday, shortly before the radar went down. At the time, the powerful winds of the right-front eyewall were battering Bermuda. Image credit: Bermuda Weather Service. |
Bermuda is well fortified against hurricanes, but Humberto’s winds caused extensive power outages, with 27,000 customers—about 80% of the island--losing power at the height of the hurricane on Thursday night, according to CNN. The Bermuda Government reported no major damage from the storm, but was urging people to stay off the roads on Thursday until downed trees and power lines could be dealt with.
Humberto was racing to the northeast at 24 mph away from Bermuda as a Category 2 hurricane with 110 mph winds at 11 am EDT Thursday morning, after peaking as a high-end Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds at 5 am EDT. This strength made Humberto the strongest hurricane so far north since Hurricane Alberto of 2000, according to CSU’s Dr. Phil Klotzbach. Humberto had begun transitioning to a powerful hurricane-strength extratropical storm on Thursday morning, and will likely be declared post-tropical later in the day. Humberto will not impact any other land areas.
We’ll have much more on the tropics later today, including the unfolding extreme rainfall event over Southeast Texas from Tropical Storm Imelda.
