Saturday, September 10, 2011

Hurricane Katia

imageThere are those who would tell you that Britain cannot suffer from hurricanes. Well normally that is true but his one is different.

Tropical hurricanes are usually slow-moving phenomena, fuelled by warm seas and humid air, which fizzle out as they move north into the colder air of the Atlantic.

In Katia's case, however, it appears that unusually low-altitude and strengthening jet stream winds between North Carolina and New York are providing the storm with an oceanic conveyor belt, speeding its passage towards Ireland and the UK and allowing it to maintain an unusual intensity.

Even though it has been downgraded from a category 4 hurricane to a post tropical storm, it will bring strong winds and sea surges especially to northern Scotland where some structural damage is being predicted.

It is time for our friends and relatives to batten down the hatches, we hope they will all be OK. On occasions like this, my philosophy is to expect the worst and hope that the reality is much better than that.

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