Ignacio Brushes Hawaii, Islands Brace for Jimena

Another history-making storm, Fred, passed over the Cape Verde Islands Monday into Tuesday as a Category 1 hurricane, dumping rain and causing high surf as it went.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite gathers infrared data that reveals temperatures. The road was cleared just before 7:25 a.m. Tuesday.

Forecasters from the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation are also warning the weather phenomenon may gather strength and reach its peak between October and January – with its effects felt for many weeks afterwards.

The system (picture from earlier this week above) is traveling west out of the National Hurricane Center coverage zone. That means weaker thunderstorms with less cold cloud top temperatures, because there wasn’t as much uplift in the atmosphere to push them higher.

A satellite image of the three hurricanes. In the image it appeared that Ignacio developed a tail that extended to the northeast as its clouds and thunderstorms were being pushed in that direction.

As of 5 a.m. HST Tuesday (Sept 1) the center of Hurricane Ignacio was located about 275 miles (445 km) north-northeast of Hilo, Hawaii. The Class four storm has been sustaining power and had most sustained winds round 150 miles per hour Monday. “The estimated minimum central pressure is 955 mb (28.20 inches)”. The Saffir-Simpson scale classifies hurricanes from 1 to 5, where 5 is the strongest.

However, Hurricane Jimena remains a powerful Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 130mph.

According to the Weather Channel, this hurricane season is the first on record where three Category 4 hurricanes were happening at the same time in the Pacific Ocean. Resultant surf will be large…potentially damaging and life-threatening.