The south west has essentially been battered by several hurricanes over the past few weeks. The most recent storm, hitting the coast on Friday afternoon and lasting until the small hours of Saturday morning, hit wind speeds above 80 mph and waves above thirty feet.
The upper reaches of the widely used Beaufort scale are: Gale Force 8, Strong Gale Force 9, Storm Force 10 and Violent Storm 11 for winds up to 73mph and waves over 37 feet. Hurricane Force 12 is reserved for wind speeds above 74mph, and seas above 46 feet.
No wonder Penzance and Newlyn seafront were decimated, because that's what Hurricanes do.
Although it might have been just a Violent Storm. This graph from the Penzance wave buoy would indicate otherwise, recording a wave over 90 feet.
.
Even if we assume this peak is an anomaly - the machinery that measures and records these waves has yet to be perfected, the Scillies buoy peaked at 29 feet overnight - the wave heights were quite possibly above forty feet, so for my money, Cornwall experienced a hurricane last night. There's a clue in this forecast synoptic below.
Winds have dropped to around 35 mph at time of writing with 15ft seas, making today a Force 7 Moderate Gale. However the sun is shining and, despite the devastation, people have a smile on their faces. What would pass for a massive storm in the summer is cause for relief and joy in the winter.
Cornwall might be bruised by these events, but don't forget, we're still open for business.
See some previous storm videos here: Storm Videos
UPDATE: This information just arrived, from a contact who knows about things meteorological:
'A hurricane is the name for a tropical low pressure storm in the Caribbean area same as a typhoon in the pacific or cyclone in the Indian. It's just the name for a low pressure storm same as Ferrari, Citroen, Rover are names for cars. It does matter which one hits you at 75mph,it's going to hurt.
Hurricane force winds are different as this is the descriptor in the Beaufort scale which equates to force 12 or an average of 64kts or more over 10 minutes or more. So no this was not a hurricane unless Cornwall is in the Caribbean but yes they did get hit by hurricane force winds. Good couple of articles in New Scientist recently about globe warming'.
So, it wasn't a hurricane, but it was hurricane force winds.
The upper reaches of the widely used Beaufort scale are: Gale Force 8, Strong Gale Force 9, Storm Force 10 and Violent Storm 11 for winds up to 73mph and waves over 37 feet. Hurricane Force 12 is reserved for wind speeds above 74mph, and seas above 46 feet.
 |
| Penzance Promenade |
 |
| A whole layer of the promenade scattered |
.
 |
| Large enough |
Even if we assume this peak is an anomaly - the machinery that measures and records these waves has yet to be perfected, the Scillies buoy peaked at 29 feet overnight - the wave heights were quite possibly above forty feet, so for my money, Cornwall experienced a hurricane last night. There's a clue in this forecast synoptic below.
 |
| Hurricane? |
Winds have dropped to around 35 mph at time of writing with 15ft seas, making today a Force 7 Moderate Gale. However the sun is shining and, despite the devastation, people have a smile on their faces. What would pass for a massive storm in the summer is cause for relief and joy in the winter.
Cornwall might be bruised by these events, but don't forget, we're still open for business.
See some previous storm videos here: Storm Videos
UPDATE: This information just arrived, from a contact who knows about things meteorological:
'A hurricane is the name for a tropical low pressure storm in the Caribbean area same as a typhoon in the pacific or cyclone in the Indian. It's just the name for a low pressure storm same as Ferrari, Citroen, Rover are names for cars. It does matter which one hits you at 75mph,it's going to hurt.
Hurricane force winds are different as this is the descriptor in the Beaufort scale which equates to force 12 or an average of 64kts or more over 10 minutes or more. So no this was not a hurricane unless Cornwall is in the Caribbean but yes they did get hit by hurricane force winds. Good couple of articles in New Scientist recently about globe warming'.
So, it wasn't a hurricane, but it was hurricane force winds.
Comments
Post a Comment