Hurricane Lorenzo, Strongest Storm Ever This Far East in the Atlantic, Roars Toward the Azores

[Judi Lynn]

Hurricane Lorenzo, Strongest Storm Ever This Far East in the Atlantic, Roars Toward the Azores
By Mindy Weisberger - Senior Writer 3 days ago Planet Earth

Lorenzo is surprisingly strong — and much farther east than is usual for powerful storms.



Satellite images captured by NOAA's GOES-16 (GOES-East) showed Hurricane Lorenzo as it rapidly intensified from a Category 2 storm to a Category 4 storm on Sept. 26.(Image: © Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies)

Hurricane season's most intense period is winding down, but it isn't quite done with us yet. And the latest storm to watch is whipping things up much farther east than where powerful hurricanes are typically found.

Lorenzo formed as a tropical storm on Sept. 23 in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and it reached Category 5 strength on Sept. 28, with winds nearing 160 mph (260 km/h), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported. Since the 1920s, 35 Category 5 storms — hurricanes with winds of 157 mph (252 km/h) or higher — have formed in the Atlantic. But Lorenzo is the first hurricane of this strength to appear so far to the east — about 650 miles farther east than Hurricane Hugo, the former record-holder that pummeled the Caribbean with Category 5 winds in 1989, according to the Weather Channel.

Lorenzo, now a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 km/h), is barreling toward the Azores — an archipelago that lies 972 miles (1,564 km) off the coast of Portugal — and is expected to make landfall early Wednesday morning, according to an NHC advisory issued today (Sept. 30) at 5 a.m. AST.

NHC hurricane data dating to 1851 show just how much of an outlier Lorenzo is. Most powerful storms that formed in the Atlantic reached their peak strength as they neared the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. But lonely Lorenzo, all alone in the middle of the ocean, is in "a league of its own for this time of year," climate scientist and FEMA strategic planner Michael Lowry said in a tweet.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/hurricane-lorenzo-farthest-east.html

[KY_EnviroGuy]

1. Thanks, Judi Lynn and here's more info....

Projeced path (credit: Irish Times):


From the Irish Times:

Storm Lorenzo: Ireland braced for severe gusts and flooding
Follow our updates as Lorenzo approaches, with torrential rain and strong wind forecast to hit the country

Link: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/storm-lorenzo-ireland-braced-for-severe-gusts-and-flooding-1.4037598

and....

Storm Lorenzo: High winds, flooding and damage expected
Orange alert in place for five counties with gusts of up to 120km per hour forecast

Link: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/storm-lorenzo-high-winds-flooding-and-damage-expected-1.4038742

(snips)

She said Storm Lorenzo is now “100 per cent crossing Ireland”, but the severity of the winds may not be as bad as was originally feared. However, she cautioned that there is still the prospect of coastal flooding and structural damage in many places.

“Rivers are still high and the ground is still saturated so there is the risk of some coastal flooding in the west and near some rivers,” she said.
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A yellow wind alert is in place for the rest of the country from 9am on Thursday to 6am on Friday with gusts of 100km/h expected in most places.

KY.........