Posted on 02/19/2016 4:35:12 PM PST by dirtboy
Mighty Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Winston, upgraded to 165 mph winds at 1 pm EDT Friday by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), is now the strongest tropical cyclone and first Category 5 storm on record to hit the South Pacific island nation of Fiji. The eye of Winston passed over the small Fiji island of Vanua Balavu near 1 pm EST Friday, when the storm was at Category 5 strength. At that time, the island's airport was in the western eyewall of Winston, and measured 10-minute average winds of 106 mph (perhaps roughly equivalent to 120 mph winds using the U.S. 1-minute averaging time.) Winston's central pressure was estimated at 920 mb at 1 pm EST Friday by the Fiji Meteorological Service. Winston is tracking north of its previous forecast track, and is now expected to make landfall on Fiji's second largest island, Vanua Levu, near Nambouwalu at approximately 0600 UTC (1 am EST) Saturday, as a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). This would make Winston the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the South Pacific waters east of Australia.
(Excerpt) Read more at wunderground.com ...
Wow, prayers for Fiji. Who else is in the path?
That said, Fiji is an island T-Bone Burnett never went to
Just wow.
Prayers for all those people.
That track is unbelievable. Rove must have been testing his weather machine.
Seriously though - that is really hard to imagine it would do a 180 like that!
“Good Morning FIJI! Now that the hurricane has passed by to the south and is heading out to sea - lets check in with Susi and what is on the school lunch menus today!”
See, see Fiji is burning too much fossil fuels!
And realize that in the Southern hemisphere on that track, the south side of the eye has the worst conditions.
In 94 we were trying to make the cut between 2 typhoons in westpac as part of an exercise with the Japanese and S. Koreans. Both of the typhoons decided to head for middle ground with us in the middle. Both had to make ~a 90* change from track to do it.
Not a good scenario for anyone. Lost radar masts, sonar domes, helo blades, water of the carrier bow...I had a blast...most everyone else got seasick. XO was very displeased with the chipper LT :)
over not of - sigh
“And realize that in the Southern hemisphere...”
I thought you were going to rag on me for calling it a hurricane and not a cyclone! Whew!
I’m guessing that the idyllic picture of Fiji with grass huts will be gone for awhile. (Say - don’t the pretty girls also wear grass skirts!?)
I'm anal, but I'm not that anal...
“...first Category 5 storm on record to hit the South Pacific island nation of Fiji.”
A couple of questions: How long have records been kept on Fiji? How long have the “weather entities” on Fiji had electro/mechanical storm measurement devices?
Looks like it made a dip to the south straight for the main island, this is real bad!
#Cyclone #Winston, strongest TC on record in the Southern Hemisphere. Wind gusts to 225 mph: http://www.weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/cyclone-winston-impacts-preps
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