Live Event: Tropical Storm Elsa Expected To Strengthen to a Hurricane at Landfall along Florida Gulf Coast Key Headlines Hurricane Warning Issued for a portion of the Florida Gulf Coast: The National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a special advisory at 2 pm EDT for TS Elsa, indicating the expectation of strengthening to a Category-1 hurricane prior to a landfall ... Continue Reading »
CAT Resource Center
Elsa Strengthens Into a Hurricane
Live Event: Elsa Strengthens Into a Hurricane Key Headlines Elsa becomes the first hurricane of the 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season: The National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded Elsa at 8:30 AM EDT to hurricane status based on surface observations from Barbados. Elsa is a Category 1 hurricane and is forecast to maintain this strength over the next 48 hours. ... Continue Reading »
Exceptional Drought Conditions Enhance Wildfire Risk for Western US and Canada
Key Headlines Current Fire Activity Increasing: Fire activity increased significantly across the West during June. Most of the fire activity was in the Southwest, Colorado, Utah, and Montana through mid-June, coincident with the area of most extreme drought. New and large fires were reported in California and Oregon as record heat set in in the Pacific NW. The ... Continue Reading »
Tropical Storm Elsa Forms East of the Windward Islands
Live Event: Tropical Storm Elsa Forms East of Windward Islands Key Headlines: Elsa is the earliest fifth named storm in Atlantic history: Elsa breaks the earliest record for the "E" storm, set last year when Edouard formed on July 6th. Prior to last season, Emily held the record from 2005, forming on July 12. Current official forecast calls for tropical storm ... Continue Reading »
2021 Tropical Season Forecasts
Key Headlines: Active Atlantic anticipated: Across all forecast entities spanning academia, government and private sector, there is unanimous consent the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season will feature average to above average named storms, hurricanes, major hurricanes and storm days. Factors driving active Atlantic forecast: Factors in play include above-average ... Continue Reading »
CAT-i Bulletin: Severe Hail Activity – U.S. Southern Plains April 28
Severe thunderstorms on April 28 produced heavily clustered hail reports in the U.S. Southern Plains. Significant hail of two inches diameter or more was reported, especially in Texas and Oklahoma, with some reports of destructive hail of up to four inches diameter. Impacts are apparent in the areas of San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth and Oklahoma City. The activity was initiated ... Continue Reading »
CAT-i Bulletin: February 2021 U.S. Arctic Air Outbreak
An intrusion of Arctic air into the central and eastern United States has brought periods of record-setting cold to areas as far south as the Southern Plains. Along the boundary between cold and warm air, several impactful winter storms have crossed from the Southern Plains into the Mid-Atlantic over the recent two weeks. One of these storms, unofficially named “Uri” by the ... Continue Reading »
CAT-i Bulletin: Mw 7.1 Fukushima Earthquake, Japan February 13
The Fukushima Mw 7.1 earthquake occurred at 23:07 local time (14:07 UTC), on Saturday February 13. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported the epicenter to be 96.6 km southeast of Sendai, Japan at a depth 49.9 km. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reported this event to be Mj 7.3, at a depth of 55 km. Multiple aftershocks occurred within less than an hour, and ... Continue Reading »
CAT-i Bulletin: Typhoon Vamco (Ulysses)
Typhoon Vamco made its first landfall on Patnanungan Island (Quezon Province, Philippines) around 10:30 PM local time on November 11 as a category-1 equivalent on the Saffir-Simpon scale. The typhoon then gained category-2 strength before crossing Quezon and then Luzon. The system caused extensive flood damage, with Metro Manila seeing its worst flooding in years. Disruption to ... Continue Reading »
Hurricane Iota – Central America Landfall and Impacts
On the evening of November 16th, Hurricane Iota made landfall on the Nicaragua coast as a category-4 hurricane. The center of circulation moved ashore just south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall in recent weeks, with catastrophic effect. Iota has rendered severe to complete damage due to wind along with flooding and mudslides due to heavy rainfall. The impacts affect ... Continue Reading »
