We're only seven years into the 21st century but we've already seen the five biggest storms, in terms of climate change news, that are going to occur in the Atlantic basin. Katrina, Rita, and Wilma are just footnotes below the smaller storms that gave advanced notice that things are changing.
I don't normally grovel like this but climate change is a burning issue and I feel this diary is a nice, concise exposition on the Atlantic hurricane aspect of the problem. May I pretty please get some recommends so this stays up for a while and people can squirrel it away for future reference?
(UPDATE: several people commented about the wording of this first paragraph. The point of this article is that while Katrina and her wicked step sisters get all of the press, a little inspection will show the warnings of significant change were to be found in lesser storms one to two years in advance of the 2005 season. Others commented about missing tidbits of information regarding this storm or that - excellent discussion, to be sure, but I wanted this article to be concise, to flow, to hit the high points, and be something that people pass around as a sort of cheat sheet for the happenings in the Atlantic basin.)
Tropical storm Ana formed April 20th of 2003 and is the first and thus far only tropical storm to have occurred in the month of April in the Atlantic basin. The ocean gets warmer earlier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Tropical storm Odette formed December 4th of 2003 and is the first confirmed tropical storm to form in the Caribbean in the month of December. The ocean stays warm longer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Between March 24th and March 28th of 2004 cyclone Catarina, a category two storm, formed and struck the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. This storm makes the number one position for being the first full fledged hurricane recorded in the cold, windy south Atlantic basin. The ocean is warm enough for hurricanes in places that previously haven't been.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Hurricane Emily reached category 5 status on July 11th, making this the first time a category 5 storm formed in July. Emily was the first of four category 5 storms to appear in the 2005 season and the only years previously to have more than one were 1960 and 1961, which had two category 5 storms each. Again the ocean is warmer and much earlier, as the other category fives all seem to form the first week of September.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Hurricane Vince formed in the eastern Atlantic on October 5th, 2005, and struck Spain six days later. This is the first recorded tropical Atlantic hurricane to strike Europe. Due to global warming the Atlantic surface area that is warm enough to support hurricanes now extends three hundred miles further east than it did a generation ago. Again the ocean is warm enough for hurricanes in places where they've not been previously.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
My first diary on this subject was published under a different name and only covered the top three storms. Given Dean's approach I thought now would be a good time to polish this up and re-release it in a finalized form.
No matter how much CO2 we pour into the atmosphere these five storms are going to keep their places in the record book. There are however quite a few honorable mention storms and seasons I evaluated in making this list.
Hurricane Alberto of 2000 gets two honorable mentions. The loop this storm inscribed is the largest seen so far and it remained a tropical storm as far as 53 degrees north on its way to brushing Iceland. Only one other storm has gone so far towards the arctic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The entire 2001 season gets honorable mention for four cyclones forming, degenerating to tropical depressions, and then reforming.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The 2002 season gets honorable mention for weird occurrences, with the most storms to ever form in September(8) and no storm formation after September. Blame this stuff on El Niño.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Juan of 2003 was the first hurricane to hit Nova Scotia since 1893.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The 2004 season deposited Bonnie and Charley in Florida within twenty four hours of each other. This is the first time sequentially named storms have ever hit the same state to say nothing of them both being active at the same time, and there are lots of other juicy firsts this year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The 2005 season. *sigh* Four category 5 storms besting 1960 and 1961's record of two storms each. Dennis and Emily are the two strongest July storms ever. Wilma was the most intense Atlantic storm ever with an eye pressure of 882 millibars and a record 98 millibar drop over twenty four hours to get to that level. Rita was the most intense Gulf of Mexico storm with an eye pressure of 895 millibars. We saw the first use of Greek letter names due to running out of storm names. Five storm names(Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan, and Wilma) were retired, beating out four previous seasons in which four names were retired in each.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
2006 was quiet due to El Niño just like 2002, but now we've got an ugly Cape Verde storm about to enter the Gulf of Mexico. Sea surface temperatures are higher than they were in 2005 and we're likely to exceed that season's Accumulated Cyclone Energy of 248 by a small margin.