Two hurricanes were able to “dance” in the Atlantic this week as forecasters warn of life-threatening surfing and rifts along the East Coast. But if the duo dances, it could actually save the East Coast from catastrophic potential rainfall.
According to the National Hurricane Centre (NHC), Tropical Storm Imelda is currently passing through the Bahamas in the northwest and is expected to be hurricane-resistant on Tuesday (September 30). Meanwhile, Hurricane Hambert, hundreds of miles offshore, continues to be furious after reaching Category 5 hurricane status on Saturday (September 27).
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As things stand, Imelda is expected to leave the Bahamas and go out to sea. Forecasters predict that Hurricane Humbel’s strength will drag through Eve East Northeast and sway from the East Coast and towards Humbel.
“The unusual Fujis Effect between Humbel and Imedora is expected to help save the Southeast from widespread flood rain,” Accuweather’s leading hurricane expert, Alex Dasilva, said in an emailed statement. “The impact from the much stronger and larger Humbeld will help pull Imelda and pull the storm away from the US into the sea.”
Imelda is expected to contribute to heavy rains from Florida to North Carolina and southern Virginia, but both storms are likely to produce dangerous RIP currents from South Florida to the Mid Atlantic, the NHC warns. Humbel reports that it is likely to cause flash floods in the northwest Bahamas and eastern Cuba, and that there is a possibility of Cuba landslides.
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The United Nations World Weather Organization names tropical storms when there is a maximum sustained wind speed of 39 mph (63 km/h). According to the NHC, Imelda exceeded that threshold on Sunday (September 28) and currently has a maximum sustained wind speed of 50 mph (85 km/h) (85 km/h).
To become a hurricane, Imelda’s wind speeds must reach 74 mph (119 km/h) or more, and are expected to occur on Tuesday. There are five categories of hurricanes measured against the Safir Simpson wind scale based on the severity of maximum sustained wind speed.
Hurricane Hanbert was formed on September 24th and continued to be strengthened to surpass the Hurricane Scale in Category 5 on Saturday (September 27th). The Hurricane is currently in Category 4 and heads west with similar strength and trajectory to Hurricane Erin, a previous Category 5 Atlantic hurricane formed in August.
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According to Dasilva, Hurricane Hanbert and potential Hurricane Imelda will come within 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) of each other during the closest path. The East Coast will still feel the effects from the storm, but that may have been much worse.
“It’s very rare to see the Fujimatic effect of the Atlantic Basin,” Dasilva said. “The interaction between the two storms should prevent Imelda from landing near the coast or getting stuck.
When two tropical storms meet at the Fuji Howara event, they simply don’t bump into each other. The most likely Fujis scenario is that one storm is absorbed by the other storm. In this scenario, the storm could be sucked in by two smaller ones and rotated temporarily towards each other before becoming part of the larger storm, Accuweather reported.
According to the National Weather Service, Fujiwhara scenarios rarely have additional results as two hurricanes merge to become a stronger single storm. Alternatively, two colliding storms can also rotate in different directions, simply by rotating them towards each other.
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