Overheard in the National Media
HURRICANE SEASON 2011
From the desk of one of the major national cable news channels on July 29, 2011:
"They're counting on the shear to limit the growth of this thing [Tropical Storm Don], and they're bringing it in as a tropical storm."
From the anchor of a major national cable news channel program on August 22, 2011:
"This thing [Hurricane Irene] is looking to be growing into a major hurricane."
From the anchor of a national network news program on August 22, 2011:
"The hurricane [Irene] has already hit Puerto Rico as a Category-1 storm, and it's expected to grow to a Category-3, with winds stronger than 110 miles an hour by the time it brushes the Florida coast on Thursday."
These reporters are talking about the "growth" of these storms, but actually mean "intensification." Size and intensity are two separate attributes of a storm. "Growth" is a descriptor of storm size: it means the storm is becoming larger in geographical extent, that is, occupying more space. "Intensification" describes an increase in its maximum sustained wind speed, as was intended in all three cases. In the first instance, the reporter was saying that Tropical Storm Don was forecast to encounter wind shear, thus limiting its intensification, and that it was therefore likely to come ashore as a tropical storm rather than a low-category hurricane. In the second instance, the anchor meant that Hurricane Irene was forecast to intensify into a Category-3 storm. The third instance is the same as the second, except that it also makes a reference to the hurricane being in a specific state at a specific location on a specific date in the future, but without including any statement about the uncertainty in either the track or intensity forecast.
From the weather reporter on a national network newscast on August 25, 2011:
"This is the steering pattern as we go into Sunday. We have that huge blocking high still over the central Atlantic; that is preventing the storm [Hurricane Irene] from going east, instead it's creating a pathway to carry the hurricane right up the east coast. Right now it looks like land interaction is almost a certain bet."
The public could benefit greatly from more explanations of this type with respect to hurricane steering. Hurricane motion is in accordance with the environmental wind currents in which the storm is embedded, and this statement along with its excellent accompanying graphic demonstrated in real time to the viewers of this evening news program precisely how the steering concept applied to the approach of a current storm.
From the weather reporter on one of the major cable news channels on August 25, 2011:
"Inland flooding kills more people in a hurricane than anything else."
While this is true for most hurricane seasons taken individually, the statement should have been qualified to take account of the contribution of a few historic storms featuring storm surge - 2005 Hurricane Katrina, the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, the 1900 Great Galveston Hurricane, and several others - to the total number of fatalities historically from hurricanes. These few catastrophic hurricanes have made storm surge the greatest contributor to the total loss of life from hurricanes historically.
Hurricane Season 2010
Hurricane Season 2009
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