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| The eye of Hurricane Michael can be clearly seen in this NOAA image at 10:15 AM GMT on Thursday, 06 September. Click to enlarge. |
Hurricane Michael in the mid-Atlantic Ocean became the first major hurricane of 2012 on Thursday morning, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Centre.
Located just over 1,000 miles westsouthwest of The Azores, category 3 Hurricane Michael does not presently pose any threat to land.
At 10am today (Thursday), maximum sustiuaned winds of 115mph (185kph) were recorded as the small but powerful tropical cyclone drifted northeastwards. Minimal central pressure is 965mb. A turn to the north and later north-northwest with a decrease in forward speed is expected during the next 48 hours.
According to TMT's long range forecaster Peter O'Donnell: "The eventual outcome of both "Leslie" and "Michael" remains very much unresolved with a trend in most recent model runs to bring some kind of extratropical low back towards Ireland (there was a tendency for a while for the storm to travel further north). I think that the very slow motion of Leslie has made all of these forecast scenarios very speculative and we won't really know much about the actual outcome until beyond this weekend, after Leslie passes Bermuda, possibly as a cat-3 storm."
Located just over 1,000 miles westsouthwest of The Azores, category 3 Hurricane Michael does not presently pose any threat to land.
At 10am today (Thursday), maximum sustiuaned winds of 115mph (185kph) were recorded as the small but powerful tropical cyclone drifted northeastwards. Minimal central pressure is 965mb. A turn to the north and later north-northwest with a decrease in forward speed is expected during the next 48 hours.
According to TMT's long range forecaster Peter O'Donnell: "The eventual outcome of both "Leslie" and "Michael" remains very much unresolved with a trend in most recent model runs to bring some kind of extratropical low back towards Ireland (there was a tendency for a while for the storm to travel further north). I think that the very slow motion of Leslie has made all of these forecast scenarios very speculative and we won't really know much about the actual outcome until beyond this weekend, after Leslie passes Bermuda, possibly as a cat-3 storm."
TMT Satellite HERE
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| Michael on Sept. 5 at 0611 UTC (2:11 a.m. EDT) and noticed the strongest thunderstorms and coldest cloud top temperatures (purple) around the center of circulation and in a band of thunderstorms to the northeast of the center. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen |