926Hpa Depression

[J07]

The Southern Ocean is a pretty grim place with far "worse" weather than equivalent latitudes in the northern hemisphere*. It doesn't help that the world's windiest place (Antarctica) is to its south. But this storm is notable even for such waters!

* eg Campbell Island, at the same latitude as London has only 900 hours of sunshine per year (London has about 1500 and is dull by the standards of most world cities).

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1581

Massive 926 mb extratropical storm generating huge waves off Antarctica

One of the most intense extratropical storms in recent years is churning up the waters near the coast of Antarctica in the South Indian Ocean. The powerful storm peaked in intensity yesterday afternoon with a central pressure of 926 mb--the type of pressure typically found in a Category 4 hurricane. Storms this intense form on average once per year, or perhaps less often, according to an email I received from Jeff Callaghan of the Australia Bureau of Meteorology. Since extratropical storms do not form eyewalls, the winds at the surface from this monster storm probably reached "only" 100 - 120 mph (equivalent to a Category 2 or 3 hurricane.) The storm is forecast to generate huge waves with a significant wave height of 13 meters (44 feet) today, according to the NOAA Wavewatch III model (Figure 3.) I have flown into an extratropical storm this intense--in 1989, I participated in a field project based in Maine that intercepted a remarkable extratropical storm that "bombed" into a 928 mb low south of the Canadian Maritime provinces. You can read my story of that somewhat harrowing flight here.

[BornFromTheVoid]

That's one hell of a storm alright! Probably goes some way towards explaining how Antarctica lost over 450,000km2 of sea ice yesterday, which I imagine is close to a record. Antarctic ice has been near record high levels for a while, so could this storm be down to an increased thermal gradient perhaps?

[Mondy]

Seems to have filled to 940mb now which is equivalent to some of the real monsters which churn up the north Atlantic during winter.

Whilst 926mb is extremely low for an extra-tropical depression, it still has a little way to go reach 914mb (lowest central pressure of an extra tropical ever recorded in the north Atlantic. This occured in 1993. You can read more here on that.

And most spectacularly, on 10 January 1993, when a record North Atlantic low pressure of 914 mb was recorded:

Rockall, Malin, Hebrides, Bailey. Southwest hurricane force 12 or more.

LINK

[vortex_liam]

Holy Guacamole, THATS A BEAST, sorry for capitals

Edited August 20, 2010 by Vortex_Liam

[J07]

Funnily enough I got my Campbell Island claim wrong. Annual sunshine is nearer 600 hours, which is simply appalling. 320 days with precipitation per year. Dreadful.