Aleria's Adventures

Zeta making landfall on the Yucatan peninsula As post-tropical cyclone Epsilon heads toward Iceland and we get socked with abysmal weather -- heavy rain, hail, sleet, lightning and thunder, gale-force winds and 10-metre waves -- while the Yucatan gets hammered by Zeta, the 27th named storm of one of the busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, I thought it would be good to examine the season so far, even though it doesn't end until November 30. Projected path of Zeta after the second landfall Zeta made first landfall late Monday just north of the ancient Mayan city of Tulum with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph just 20 days after Delta, a category 4 hurricane, hit them in October. It's the third named storm in one month to make landfall in Quintana Roo!  Zeta made landfall again in Louisiana as a category 2 hurricane which would make it the 5th named storm to hit that coast this year.  It’s the 11th hurricane of the season. An average season has six hurricanes and 12 nam...

The last few weeks were extraordinary for storms around the world. It's a strange conundrum that although weather forecasting is getting better, the weather overall is getting worse - more extreme and less stable.

View from the maritime museum toward Bouzas We are docked at the Liceo de Maritimo  in Bouzas, Vigo preparing Aleria for her winter at the Astilleros Lagos  boatyard. We've removed the sails and other sundry items from the deck, stowed the dinghy, cleaned out the fridge, swept up and done the laundry. Yesterday, Alberto Lagos stopped by and we reviewed all the work we'd like done over the winter. He is such a gentle and kind man. We are fortunate to consider him and all the Lagos family our friends. It is very warm and dry but not unpleasant. The climate here is much to be desired.

This time last year, the Atlantic was chock a block with tropical storm activity. This year, as we head into peak season, the silence is deafening. We got our first TS remnants yesterday as Ernesto came through, dumping lots of rain but otherwise fairly benign. Friends had thought about spending more time in Ireland, arriving around next week but I advised against it, as the west coast in the autumn can be very wet and windy as the TS barrel their way across the Atlantic towards our west coast. Was I alarmist? Possibly. So I looked up what the 'experts' were saying .

Subtropical Storm Melissa seen from the GOES East satellite. Considered the last storm of the season. (Photo Credit: NOAA) When I read NOAA's Atlantic hurricane season summary yesterday, I wondered how they could the pronounce the end of the hurricane season almost a week before its official ending on November 30. This from their report: "The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially ends on Saturday, Nov. 30, had the fewest number of hurricanes since 1982, thanks in large part to persistent, unfavorable atmospheric conditions over the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and tropical Atlantic Ocean. This year is expected to rank as the sixth-least-active Atlantic hurricane season since 1950, in terms of the collective strength and duration of named storms and hurricanes."