 Typhoon Wutip, a powerful tropical cyclone in the Pacific Ocean, surpassed Typhoon Higos as the strongest February typhoon on record just two days ago. The journey since then, hasn't been all that great. Wutip has now moved into a very hostile environment allowing it to weaken rapidly back to a tropical storm. One of the major factors to Wutip's rapid decrease in strength was the presence of what meteorologists call wind shear. Before we get into how wind shear affects tropical cyclones, let us first dive into what exactly wind shear is. Wind shear as defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) is the variation of the wind's speed or direction over a short distance within the atmosphere. Typically wind shear is most observed in the higher latitudes of the atmosphere as well as close to the jet stream (30,000 feet). But, it also plays a major role in the strength and structure of tropical cyclones. A favorable environment for a tropical cyclone would be an area where ocean temperatures are at or above 80° F and little to no wind shear. When wind shear is not present, the low pressure center has the best opportunity to become vertically aligned from the surface all the way up to the upper-levels of the atmosphere. Tropical cyclones are known as heat engines. They are powered by the large amount of heat energy released by the warm water of the ocean. With a vertically aligned center of circulation, the flow and transport of this heat is uniform throughout the entire system. This will not only allow the tropical cyclone to stay in tact, but for further strengthening to occur. As we saw from Typhoon Wutip, it entered a section of the Pacific Ocean where no wind shear was present allowing it to rapidly strengthen into a category 4 typhoon. Then after undergoing an eyewall replacement cycle (ERC), it would further strengthen into a powerful category 5 hurricane with 1-minute sustained winds of 160 mph and have a minimal central pressure of 915 millibars.  However, in an environment where wind shear is present, a storm’s core structure becomes vertically tilted instead of vertically stacked. A vertically-titled system will have a much higher level of difficulty drawing in the warm moist air from the ocean. This decreases the chances for the system to develop and strengthen. Wind shear basically rips the tropical cyclone. Sometimes to the point where the low-level circulation can be seen spinning across the ocean's surface by satellite. Wind shear tore apart Hurricane Lee (2018) saving Hawaii from a catastrophic situation. And now we are seeing wind shear take it's toll on what was Typhoon Wutip. Below is a current satellite image of what was Typhoon Wutip as well as the outlook provided by the Joint-Typhoon Warning Center. A tropical cyclone that was once a powerful category 5 typhoon, has now been stripped of it's thunderstorm activity due to strong wind shear aloft.
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© 2019 Meteorologist Joey Marino
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DISCUSSION: We may already be well into 2019 already, however, it is always important to look back on history to be able to better prepare for weather disasters which will occur in the future. In the case of Hurricane Michael which in early to mid-October of 2018, this is such a situation which deserves such an amount of due respect and appreciation for what unfolded. Even though Hurricane Michael was slow to get going as the system developed from a group of relatively disorganized thunderstorms just to the east and northeast of the Yucatan Peninsula in eastern Mexico, the future track and intensity of the storm is arguably what took most Florida and Georgia residents by surprise the most. In the case of Hurricane Michael, this tropical cyclone ended up being such a surprising tropical cyclone since it rapidly intensified much faster than was ever anticipated during most of its history making it a very bad surprise for those who were living and/or vacationing across parts of northwest Florida. Up to this point, it is believed that the storm reached a maximum intensity with 155 mph maximum sustained winds right at landfall which made it a very powerful Category 4 hurricane and with it being 1 mph short of a Category 5 storm.
In digging a little deeper into the impacts of the period both leading up to, during, and after the system’s landfall, it became evident that this storm was incredibly powerful upon seeing images and imagery of different areas which were in the path of this storm before and after it hit. For example, in the imagery attached above within the embedded Tweet (courtesy of Dr. Rick Knabb), you can see how a portion of the landmass of St. Joseph Peninsula State Park which is located just offshore from Port St. Joe, Florida no longer exists after the passage of the storm. It goes without saying that water power (and specifically storm surge from a Category 4 hurricane) is the most powerful natural force on Earth. However, it is worth noting that the power needed to destroy a portion of a coastal inlet and a corresponding beach zone such as this is immense. Thus, it just goes to show that even a relatively compact storm such as Hurricane Michael is more than capable of packing a prolific and a horrific punch on a region which can last for months and years well after the storm has come and gone. The moral of the story here is to ALWAYS respect the natural power of a tropical cyclone and to never underestimate how intense or powerful a storm may be at landfall since that will nearly always be a factor one would never want to be faced with. To learn more about other tropical cyclone-related topics from around the world, click here! © 2019 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz |
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