Two Hurricanes in the Pacific

In the winter time I have one of the tabs in my browser set to the weather page at Alta Ski Area as it guides me on what to expect when I go skiing. That information is useless in the summer time and so instead I focus on hurricanes. While this may not seem to effect me as I reside in the landlocked state of Utah, it actually does. Furthermore hurricanes have a huge effect on vacation and travel plans. An Atlantic hurricane can really screw up flights throughout the entire country.

I have been watching NOAA's hurricane site for about 10 years and have seen something today I have never seen before. There is currently a hurricane south of Hawaii named Iona. Fortunately it is on a westward path and Hawaii is safe, for now. Behind it is the tropical storm Keli. I wouldn't expect there to be hurricanes so close together as the first one should be pulling energy from the ocean that would be required for the one behind it. That is probably why Keli is only a tropical storm and not expected to grow as it continues west and well south of Hawaii.

While I have seen multiple storms in either the Atlantic or Pacific oceans at the same time, I haven't seen two additional storms starting to form with a probability greater than 60% to become named storms. The furthest west storm is just east of Keli and has a 70% chance of turning into a tropical storm. A little bit closer to Mexico the conditions are a bit higher for storm formation as it has a 90% chance of forming into something of concern.

I am not worried about a hurricane making its way to Utah but I have seen storms like that send copious amounts of moisture my way. While it could be devastating for those near the coast, it could provide the Western United States with some badly needed precipitation. For some it will be bad, for others it will be good.

Fortunately I am not headed to Mexico, Hawaii, nor Florida in the near future and so I don't need to worry about changing vacation or travel plans. If I planned to go to Hawaii next week, I would keep those plans as none of the storms seem to be headed that way. If I planned to go to the west coast of Mexico, I might be watching the storm forming there but probably wouldn't change my plans either. The Atlantic has been relatively calm this year so far and continues to look that way now. With that being said, now is a good time to pay attention to hurricane forecasts as this is the time of year when it really gets interesting.  

Hurricane Season 2023

Sailors are very aware of hurricane season as none of us want to be caught out in the ocean during one. I've personally been caught in two, both in the Pacific. They are not fun. Unfortunately I have a morbid fascination with hurricanes now and want to know how they are developing out in our oceans.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or US weather service has a great site to watch as storms form and strengthen. There are 3 tabs on the page that show the Central Pacific, Eastern Pacific, and Atlantic. When a storm first begins to form it is marked with a yellow "X". Hovering your mouse over the X gives you important information about the storm such as intensity and probability of becoming more severe. As it grows in strength, the X goes from yellow to orange to red. Then it progresses through depression, storm, and hurricane icons.

The beginning of hurricane season is in June but is actually very boring and so I didn't start watching the site until July. Even then there is not much going on. The real action begins in August and so I have the site up all day. I watched as Dora went from a probable storm up through a hurricane. I took particular interest because it started where the sailor Donald Lawson got into trouble. The Mexican Coast Guard kept talking about how weather contributed to hampering the search for the missing sailor. Being able to watch the storms build really underscored the difficulty experienced.

Hurricane Katrina happened towards the end of August. Then hurricanes Fiona and Ian that happened last year formed in the middle and end of September. I hope we have a very boring hurricane season this year but now is the time to start watching.