Hurricane records broken in 2017

So strong for so long

PARIS, Sept 9, (AFP): Not even halfway into the 2017 hurricane season, and before Irma makes landfall in Florida, tropical megastorms in the Atlantic basin have already broken several records, and challenged others, experts say. A few that stand out, so far: As it swept across the Caribbean, Hurricane Irma generated winds averaging just over 295 kms per hour (185 miles per hour) for more than 33 hours, longer than any super-storm of comparable power ever recorded.

“Such an intensity, for such a long period, has never been observed in the satellite era” that began in the early 1970s, Etienne Kapikian, a forecaster at Meteo France, said.

The runner up is Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,000 people dead or missing in the Philippines and packed winds of the same speed for 24 hours in 2013.

Irma was the first hurricane on record to reach Category 5 status — the highest intensity level — while still in the Atlantic Ocean, before entering the balmy waters of the Caribbean Sea, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

Tropical storms draw strength from surface waters warmer than 26ºC (79ºF).

The fact that the swirling mass of clouds and water was able to turbo-charge over the Atlantic — whose waters are cooler than the Caribbean but warmer than a few decades ago — is consistent with global warming, scientists say.

Category 5 tropical storms produce sustained winds of at least 252 km/h for at least a minute at a time. Irma has since dropped down to Category 4.

Hurricane Irma has so far caused more than $10 billion (8.3 billion euros) in economic losses across the Caribbean, making it the costliest storm ever for the region’s island nations and territories, according to the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology, based in Karlsruhe, Germany.

The tally is sure to rise as the storm hits the Bahamas on its way to Florida, but it has already surpassed the damage record set by Hurricanes Ike in 2008, and Hugo in 1989, at $9.4 billion each in today’s dollars.

Hardest hit by Irma were Sint Maarten ($2.5 billion) and the US Virgin Islands ($2.45 billion), followed by Saint Martin ($1.55 billion) and the British Virgin Islands ($1.4 billion), according to the estimate.

Tropical storm Harvey — which made landfall in Texas as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug 25 — dumped more rain in places than any cyclone ever measured on the continental United States.