Bob Breck's Blog: Finally A Major Typhoon In The Western Pacific...

I've been talking about how strange/quiet a tropical season it has been Worldwide. Only the Eastern Pacific has been active. Finally the western Pacific has turned on with a major (Cat 3) Typhoon well south of Japan. It is predicted to become a Cat 4 or 5 as it approaches Okinawa. It has the classic donut eye popping out on satellite views.

Of course, we are all too familiar with that "donut hole " look from all the major storms of the past couple of years. One year ago, Hurricane Ida plowed into south Louisiana as a Cat. 4.

As we all remember, Ida appeared to be heading towards Morgan City, but made an unexpected jog/wobble back to the right that brought the heart/eyewall of the storm across the South Shore. That is why tracking the center line of a storm is so important as any wobble left or right will bring a huge difference in impacts. Fortunately, 2022 seems to be way different. We're still watching many areas of disturbed weather, but none seems to be getting stronger.

I thought 91 L would be named Danielle by now, but it is struggling with stable air, wind shear, cooler waters, or something that is hindering development. Note the lack of storms around a well defined low level center. To the north of that are several more swirls.

They are south of a frontal boundary and that might allow them to develop. That old front extends to the Georgia/Florida coast where a cluster of storms has fired off east of Savannah.

The Caribbean has two tropical waves moving to the west. The color IR also shows no organization, just random T-Storms. The GFS has backed off developing this feature.

And that cluster of storms over the Gulf the past two days is gone. There continues to be a surge of tropical moisture into the Texas coast, but they need the rain. The bottom graphic I grabbed off The Weather Channel (TWC) this morning. It's a statistic that I hope we can become # 1?!!! Finally...