Hurricane Fiona : The Birth and Death of a Monster
What invisible forces of nature breathes life into Fiona and turns her into a raging monster ?
What invisible forces tear her apart and sound the death knell for Fiona ?
Ironically enough the vast Sahara desert plays a part in her formation . The easterly winds are generated from the differences between the hot , dry desert in North Africa and the cooler , wetter , and forested area to the south. This results in a strong area of high altitude winds known as the African Easterly Jet. The Jet though is unstable , often forming a north to south trough or wave that moves off the west African coast. When these waves of air have enough lift , moisture and instability they quickly form clusters of thunderstorms.
These clusters of thunderstorms moving off the west coast of Africa are only the first key ingredient in the making of a monster. A sea surface temperature of at least 80* F is required along with low vertical wind shear both of which aid her development. Sufficient water vapor in the middle of the troposphere where most of our weather occurs is also another key ingredient in her formation and on Sept. 15 Fiona became a tropical storm.
The warm moist air from the Atlantic flows to Fiona’s core where it is then pushed upwards high into the atmosphere where it flows away from the storm allowing more warm moist from below to rise. Meanwhile the high altitude winds around Fiona are gentle enough to steer the storm but not strong enough to tear her apart.
Three days later on Sept. 18 Fiona reached hurricane Category 1 status as her path shifted and she drew a bead on southern Puerto Rico where some areas received 30 inches of rain and left 1.5 million without power. Twelve hours later she reached the Dominican Republic province of La Altagracia dropping another 22 inches of rain and leaving 710,000 without power.
Moving off the coast of the Dominican Republic and back over warm waters again Fiona was predicted to be a Category 2 hurricane before reaching Turks and Caicos but quickly intensified into a Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds pummeling the fragile islands and leaving 40 % of the inhabitants without power.
Although Bermuda did not take a direct hit from Fiona as she skirted to the west of the island on Sept. 23 as a Category 4 hurricane, Bermuda experienced high winds and heavy rains. Soon Fiona began to weaken and accelerated to the north at 40 mph.
Sept. 24 and 1300 miles to the north Fiona reached Canada’s coastline as a post tropical cyclone and huge waves battered Nova Scotia. Buoy data indicated wave heights of 16–26 feet with offshore waves averaging 39–49 feet with a peak wave of a staggering 98 feet.
As Fiona headed towards Greenland the NHC issued their last warning. Lacking the warm surface water which creates stronger and stronger updrafts pulling in more warm moist air Fiona finds herself starving for fuel and dissipating becoming once more a disturbance.
On Sept. 19 at 1:30 am hurricane Fiona woke me from my sleep at the resort my wife and I were staying at in Punta Cana , DR. I woke up to the sound of shingles being torn off the roof of our third floor suite. Peering out the sliding glass door towards the floodlights on the beach it appeared to be a blizzard between the torrential rain and hurricane force winds.
By daybreak hurricane force wins were replaced by tropical force winds as Fiona moved off to the northwest. A day later the setting was surreal with an eerie calm. The sun was shining and not the slightest breeze. The ocean which had gone rogue with huge rolling swells laid down with only the gentlest of waves . It was as if Fiona had taken all the energy and claimed it as her own.
Even though Fiona had a relatively short life span she will never be forgotten by those who had the misfortune to be in her path.