Hurricane Ioke: First Cat5 Hurricane ever in the Pacific

[LynneSin]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/shownh.php3?img_id=13800

Hurricane Ioke

Hurricane Ioke started as all tropical cyclones do, as a depression—an area of low atmospheric pressure. After forming on August 19, 2006, the depression quickly developed into a tropical storm, the threshold for earning a name. Ioke is the Hawaiian word for the name “Joyce.” Storms and hurricanes in the central Pacific are unusual, but they occur often enough for there to be a naming convention, applied by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu. The last named central Pacific storm was Huko in 2002. Ioke rose all the way to hurricane strength in less than 24 hours.

This image of Hurricane Ioke shows the powerful Category 4 hurricane as it was passing south of the Hawaiian Islands. The image was taken by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite at 20:45 UTC (9:45 a.m. HST) on August 21, 2006, and it shows the horizontal pattern of rain intensity within Ioke. Rain rates in the center of the swath are from the TRMM Precipitation Radar, and those in the outer swath come from the TRMM Microwave Imager. The rain rates are overlaid on infrared data from the TRMM Visible Infrared Scanner. A well-defined eye (dark center) marks the center of Ioke. This eye is surrounded by an area of very intense rain on the western side, which is part of the eyewall (dark red arc). Rain bands spiral inwards towards the center (large blue arcs) and transition into an area of moderate rain (green area) as they approach the eyewall. These features are typical of a mature, intense hurricane. At the time of this image, Ioke was estimated to have sustained winds of 184 kilometers per hour (132 miles per hour) by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center

Fortunately for Hawaii this thing is going about 250-500 miles south of the islands. But idiots out there think Global Warming is a joke and yet according to the Honolulu Paper:

http://starbulletin.com/2006/08/27/news/story08.html
Ioke is the first Category 5 hurricane to develop in the central Pacific since record keeping began in the early 1960s, according to the National Weather Service.

[Kagemusha]

1. You do realizes hurricanes long predate 1960 of course.

Which is not to disprove global warming at all. It's to say that we shouldn't mistake "since 1960" as meaning "for all time."

Either way, that sure is one big hurricane.

[LynneSin]

2. That was mentioned in the article

:D

[SteppingRazor]

3. Inaccurate headline....

Typhoon Ioke is the most powerful Cat 5 typhoon ever to come out of the Central Pacific. It is not, however the only Cat 5 ever in the Pacific (there have been many, in fact, and even a few from the Central Pacific), nor is it the most powerful.

In 1979, Supertyphoon Tip dropped down to 870 milibars with sustained winds of 190 mph. At 1,350 miles wide, it was the strongest AND largest cyclone ever recorded.