mariners weather log - vos.noaa.gov

Mariners Weather LogVol. 46, No. 2 Fall/Winter 2002

Midshipman Jeff Musk conducting a map discussion using the surface and 500 mb maps of the North Atlantic.

(See Marine Weather Reporting at Maine Maritime Academy p. 8)

Mariners Weather Log

U.S. Department of CommerceDonald L. Evans, Secretary

VADM Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr. (USN-Ret.)Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and

Atmosphere

National Weather ServiceBrig. Gen. John J. Kelly, Jr. (USAF-Ret.)

Assistant Administrator for Weather Services

Editorial SupervisorRobert A. Luke

EditorBernadette Duet

Layout/DesignTony CastelluciBernadette DuetPatti GeistfeldStuart Hayes


Hello, and welcome to another issue of the Mariners WeatherLog (MWL). It has been some time since we last chatted, and alot of things have happened. In the past issue, we talked abouta pillar of the VOS program, Mr. Jim Nelson, retiring as PortMeteorological Officer (PMO) in Houston. Since then, we havewelcomed aboard a new family member, Mr. Chris Fakes, whosigned on to take over the daunting tasks left in the wake ofJim’s departure. Chris comes to us with nearly 30 years ofexperience as a Navy Meteorologist, so he should fit in nicelyinto this rogues’ gallery. Although he was too shy to record hislife story in this issue, perhaps he can be persuaded to providehis biography for the next issue. And while we are on the topic of departing and arrivingpersonnel, we need to say goodbye to Mr. Lynn Chrystal, whodid a stellar job as a part-time PMO up in Kodiak, AK. But, wedid not leave this vital duty vacant. No-Siree! I want towelcome Ms. Debra Russell as our new PMO in Kodiak.Debra comes to us from King Salmon, AK and has alreadybeen doing an outstanding job in support of VOS. (See storyon p. 7) Speaking of change, it is time for you to help us make theMWL better. Please take the time to fill out the questionnairefound on p. 3 and mail it back in to us. We look forward tohearing from you to see what course you want the MWL tosteer.Other offerings this issue include a great but tragic story of therecent events onboard the GALAXY in the Bering Sea, a newtraining technique at the Maine Maritime Academy, and somenoteworthy analysis reports from the Marine Prediction Center.You will also see the return of the Cooperative Ship Report onpage 90. This National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)statistical report has been modified and tested, and is onceagain operational. So, please grab a cup of coffee, find a comfy place to sit, andenjoy our offering of the MWL.Happy Holidays! - Luke

2 Mariners Weather Log

Some Important Web Page AddressesNOAA http://www.noaa.govNational Weather Service http://www.nws.noaa.govNational Data Buoy Center http://www.ndbc.noaa.govAMVER Program http://www.amver.comVOS Program http://www.vos.noaa.govSEAS Program http://seas.nos.noaa.gov/seas/Mariners Weather Log http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/

mwl/mwl.htmMarine Dissemination http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/

marine/home.htmU.S. Coast Guard http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/

Navigation Center marcomms/See these Web pages for further links.

Articles, Photographs, and Letters should be sent to:

Mr. Robert A. Luke, Editorial SupervisorMariners Weather LogNDBC (W/OPS 52)Bldg 1100, Room 353DStennis Space Center, MS 39529-6000

Phone: (228) 688-1457 Fax: (228) 668-3153E-Mail: [email protected]

From The Editorial Supervisor

Mariners Weather Log 3




U.S. Department of CommerceNatonal Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationNational Data Buoy CenterBuilding 1100, Room 353DStennis Space Center, MS 39529-6000ATTN: Mariners Weather Log

OFFICIAL BUSINESSPENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE $300



Table of Contents

Galaxy Explodes, Weather Fights Rescue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

New PMO in Alaskan Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Marine Weather Reporting at Maine Maritime Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

The Gust Factor During Hurricanes as Measured by NDBC Buoys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Characteristics of the Gust Factor Measured by C-MAN StationsDuring Hurricane Georges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Servicing NOAA Buoys on the Central California Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Wind/Wave Damage Along the SW Cape Coast 24-25 May 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Shipwreck: Maurice Desgagnes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Gdynia PMO Retires after 45 Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99

Departments:

Marine Weather ReviewNorth Atlantic, January - April 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20North Pacific, January - April 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38North Atlantic, May - August 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49North Pacific, May - August 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58Mean Circulation Highlights and Climate Anomalies, March - August 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68Tropical Atlantic and Tropical East Pacific, January -April 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

Coastal Forecast Office NewsCanadian VOS Program Special Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79Alaska Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80

VOS ProgramNew Recruits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84VOS Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85VOS Cooperative Ship Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90

Meteorological Services - Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100


Galaxy Explodes

On 20 October 2002, the largefishing vessel Galaxy sent amayday reporting that the ship

had exploded while sailing in theBering Sea.

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)Kodiak Station received the call at4:30 pm AST that Sunday in which aGalaxy crewmember reported that thevessel exploded and caught fire,forcing the crew to prepare toabandon ship.

Three Galaxy crew members becametrapped in the wheelhouse, and threeothers couldn’t escape from the bow,prompting a USCG helicopter crew tohoist the six people to safety, but therest of the crew jumped into the coldwater. Many of the men who wentoverboard were not wearing survivalsuits. Two of the twenty-six men whowere aboard the Galaxy when itexploded are still missing, and onehas been reported dead.

USCG PAO Lt. Jim Zawrotny said,“It was scary, knowing these peoplewere out on a boat [in cold water]where their choice was to freeze or toburn.”

The USCG, along with the 210thRescue Squadron of the Alaska AirNational Guard, the U.S. Air Force,and the fishing vessels Glacier Bay,Blue Pacific, and Clipper Express,searched for over 50 hours for the twomissing men before the USCGsuspended its search at 7 p.m.Tuesday, 22 October 2002.

Tragically, a crewman from theClipper Express, assisting in the

search of themissingGalaxycrewmen,had fallenoverboard ataround 10a.m. AST thatday about 90miles southof St. PaulIsland.

The ClipperExpress wason its way toDutch Harborto off-loadtwo Galaxycrewmen theyhad picked upSundayevening. Atthe time that the Clipper Express losta crewman, it was braving 30-footseas and 50-60 knot winds as it sailedto bring survivors to safety. It isbelieved Daniel Schmiedt of theClipper Express went missing afterbeing struck by a rogue wave duringthe rescue.

To help locate the missing ClipperExpress crewman, U.S. Coast Guardrescue crews diverted one of the twoUSCG helicopters in the Galaxysearch area south. The USCG and theClipper Express searched for over 10hours for Schmiedt, and the CoastGuard suspended its search at 8:15p.m. AST Tuesday, 22 October 2002.

Chief Petty Officer Marsha Delaneywas aboard a Coast Guard C-130 thatsupported and then took part in the

rescue efforts for the Galaxy.

“According to initial interviews withthe crew [survivors of the Galaxy],the fire engulfed the ship so fast thatsplit second decisions had to be madeabout jumping into cold water withoutsurvival suits,” Chief Delaney said.

During the rescue, the weatherbecame a problem. “We were gettingthrown around pretty bad up there.”Delaney said.

To complicate things for the search,there was no fuel available for aircraftat St. Paul Island. The C-130 thatChief Delaney was aboard first had todeliver fuel to St. Paul Island to refueltwo H-60, and one H-65 helicoptersbefore continuing to help with thesearch.

“Galaxy” Explodes, Weather Fights RescueTony Castelluci and USCG Public Affairs Office, Kodiak, Alaska

The burnt hull of the Galaxy drifts aimlessly in Alaskan waters.USCG Rescue Squadron Kodiak led the rescue.

(Official U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of LT. Dave Wierenga, AirStation Kodiak and Petty Officer Carlene Adams, Long Range

Navigation Station, St. Paul Island)

Okay, so now you are thinking,What do the the beaches ofTexas and the rocky shores of

Alaska have in common? The latestanswer is Debra Russell. Debrarecently took over the duties as theOfficial in Charge and PortMeteorological Officer (PMO) in sunnyValdez, Alaska. Previously, Debra wassupporting the folks up in King Salmonwith all their weather needs.

Some might think it is a stretch to gofrom south Texas up to Alaska, but notfor Debra. From her early days as aGalveston Ball High School Tornado,Debra was destined to be involved withthe weather. Like most young people,Debra searched for a place to fit in andcall home. As she put it, “I am not acowgirl, and I don’t have big hair,” sowhen the U.S. Navy mailed her an “It’snot just a job. It’s an adventure”brochure, Debra was hooked. It was thelure of those snazzy uniforms andimages of ships cutting into the waveswith the swell and spray goingeverywhere that started Debra on herquest for adventure.

After basic training in Florida, Debra

joined the fleet in Vallejo, CA on theNavy Tug Dekaury (YTM-178). In herspare time between swabbing decks,scraping barnacles and getting to knowway too much about Brasso; Debradreamed of becoming an AerographerMate (ok, Navy weather guesser to thecivilian folks). Well, she got her wishand was transferred to the “beautiful”corn fields of Rantoul, Illinois for basicweather school. And you thought theNavy adventure was a myth. Debra’sfirst tour in Navy weather was at alovely little hideaway called Adak,Alaska. This jewel of a tour is wherethe Debra got bit by the Alaska bug(among others). Debra felt a sense ofhome and craved the challenge in theAlaskan environment. The Navy movedher to Guam (talk about climatechanges) and then back to the Texasbeaches at Corpus Christi.

In 1991, the call of the wild (ok maybeit was the moose or caribou) got thebest of Debra, and she left the Navy tostrike out on her own. It took over ayear atop Stampede Pass, Washingtonto re-acclimate herself to the northernenvironment, but then the National

Weather Service finally realized thatDebra has a lot to offer (she hadweather experience and she WANTEDto go to Alaska), so they shipped her upto McGrath. Since then, she has been asolid (yet slightly frozen) fixture inYakutat, Anchorage, King Salmon andnow Valdez.

Life is an adventure, but Debra hasbeen blessed. She has gotten the chanceto live out her dreams, surrounded byall her loves: her family, the marinecommunity, and the great Alaskanspirit. Who says you cannot go homeagain...

Welcome Aboard Debra - Luke

The USGC Cutter Jarvis based inHonolulu Hawaii, was in the area andsent its H-65 “Dolphin” helicopter toassist in the rescue. As the weatherturned foul during the rescue, it soonbecame apparent that the helicopterwould be unable to return to theJarvis, so the H-65’s crew landed inSt. Paul and spent the night.

Details regarding what caused theexplosion had not been released atthe time this issue was in production.

The Galaxy still smokes from the firethat engulfed it.

(Official U.S. Coast Guard photocourtesy of LT. Dave Wierenga, Air

Station Kodiak and Petty Officer CarleneAdams, Long Range Navigation Station,

St. Paul Island)


Galaxy Explodes

From Galveston Bay to the Prince WilliamSound - It’s closer than you think... By Robert LukeVOS Program Lead

A Texan in Alaska. Debra Russell, PortMeteorological Officer, in sunny

Valdez, Alaska.


Weather Reporting

Marine Weather Reporting at Maine Maritime Academy, a New Course, a New ApproachCaptain G. Andy ChaseProfessor of Marine TransportationMaine Maritime Academy

"We've got strong meridional flow.Basically everything is flowingaround this very large High in themid-Pacific. This large trough will bedigging rapidly over the next two orthree days. We have the M/VEisenhower going from SanFrancisco to Yokohama. This systemhas been building slowly, but lookslike it might intensify rapidly now.This storm is forecast to produce ninemeter seas, and 50 knot winds. OnWave Watch the storm shows up verywell, showing it forming quickly."

"We've been passing under the High,so we've had following winds prettymuch the whole way, so far. We'llkeep going south for a while. It'sbasically the sailing ship route, andit's been working well for us so farthis trip."

"We're going from Surigao Straits toLos Angeles, on the M/V Richard T.Matthiesen, fully loaded. We'regoing to follow the great circle trackfor now. We're ahead of schedule sofar. We are still well south of the 5640meter line on the 500 millibar map.We're thinking the 500 millibar flowmay be moving back toward zonalflow before long. That would put thestorm track farther north by later inthe week. In that case we canprobably stick to the great circletrack."

"We have also had pretty goodweather so far, we've been prettylucky. It was a little dicey when we

first started out, but it's goodnow. We're going fromYokohama to San Francisco.We're on the great circle, andwe're already over the top. Ithink we'll be all right."

You may think that soundslike the operations center ofan ocean routing company,but it's not. It is actuallycoming from a classroom atMaine Maritime Academy,where our future mariners areconducting "virtual voyages."

Every day the students,working in pairs, download afull suite of marine weatherfax maps from the NationalWeather Service's MarinePrediction Center. Studyingthese maps, they make routingdecisions for a chosen ship, or vessel,on a route of their choosing. Twice aweek the class meets for two hours,and discussions flow around the room,comparing strategies, successes andfailures. When one of these studentssays "man, did we get hammered lastnight," they are not referring to a visitto a bar. They are referring to havingencountered 30-foot seas and force-10winds in the Winter North Atlantic.

The idea for this course sprang from a5-day course I took in the spring of2001, sponsored by the Sea EducationAssociation of Wood's Hole,Massachusetts, and conducted by theMaritime Institute of Technology and

Graduate Studies (MITAGS) ofLinthicum Heights, Maryland. In thiscourse, entitled Heavy WeatherAvoidance, mariners are taught toavoid severe weather by instructorsMichael Carr and Lee Chesneau.

I had been teaching Meteorology atMaine Maritime Academy in Castine,Maine for about nine years, andalthough I was teaching it to mariners,and I am myself a mariner, I havealways known that I was not coveringenough material on simplyinterpreting weather maps. Given thetime constraints of the course and thenecessity of covering thefundamentals of meteorology in thattime frame, I only got to spend aboutthree weeks looking at surface

Midshipman Jeff Musk conducting a mapdiscussion using the surface and 500 mb maps of

the North Atlantic.


Weather Reporting

analysis maps, and only about twodays looking at the upper level, 500-millibar maps.

After taking the course with Michaeland Lee, I knew I had to dosomething about this. Before the fiveday course was over, I had a roughoutline of the course I wanted todevelop at Maine Maritime, and I haddeveloped what would be the keycomponent of that course. The oneadvantage I would have over theMITAGS course would be that Iwould have the students for fourteenweeks, and this enabled me to runweather routing exercises in real time,using real weather data. I dubbed theidea a "Virtual Voyage" and decidedto prepare the whole course aroundthat concept.

The Virtual Voyage goes like this:The students pair up and choose aship they would like to operate. Sincewe have a mix of students who areworking toward 200-ton, 500-ton, andunlimited tonnage licenses, some willchoose large ships and some willchoose smaller vessels including tugs,yachts and even sailing vessels. Withthe ship chosen, they write up adiscussion of the ship's characteristics,including whether or not they have"vulnerable" cargo (such as deckcargo), an approximation of thevessel's stability characteristics, theapplicable load line zones they willtransit, and any particular issues theirship might have that would affecttheir routing decisions.

For example, one group is on a carcarrier, which is particularly sensitiveto seas from ahead or astern, and ismost suited to winds and seas on thebeam. Another group is routing theGreenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior,which is a 160-foot auxiliary sailvessel, so they are looking for

favorable sailing conditions. Onegroup is on the Richard T.Matthiesen, a tanker, loaded, whileanother group is on the same ship butin ballast. The latter group will haveto consider whether or not to take onstorm ballast.

They then choose an ocean. Forstarters, we are working in the NorthPacific and North Atlantic, but I hopesomeone will venture into theSouthern Hemispheric waters. Finallythey decide on a departure point and adestination. I assign the departuredate, and we all get underway at thesame time.

The students work on a Pilot Chart,and they start by laying out the least-distance track, typically the greatcircle route. They then study anymaterial they can find to plan theroute they will actually sail. They usethe Sailing Directions; the BritishAdmiralty publication 136, OceanPassages For The World; variousprivately published sailing andcruising guides, and any othermaterial they can find. With all ofthat, they start looking at the real timeweather maps about two days prior todeparture. On the day of departurethey lay down a voyage track thatthey feel represents the best route forthe present conditions.

They then lay down a comparativetrack. If they are sailing on the greatcircle track, they use a rhumb line orcomposite track for comparison. Ifthey decide to sail on a rhumb line, orgo well to the south on a "bucket"route, they use the great circle trackfor comparison. In any event, theymust write up a justification for theirchosen route. They also prepare anestimated time of arrival (ETA) and adescription of the weather theyanticipate.

For the next couple of weeks, theywill plot their ship's position everyday at noon GMT, both on theirchosen route and on their comparisonroute. By transferring their positionfrom the Pilot Chart to the surfaceanalysis map, they evaluate the windconditions they should beencountering. They also transfer theirposition to the sea state analysis mapand determine the sea condition. Withthis information, they look at a polarvelocity plot for the ship they are onand determine the speed they expectto make good in those conditions.

The polar velocity plot is a circulargraph of speed made good in varioussea conditions. To prepare these I sitdown, (either in person or on thephone) with someone who has asignificant amount of experience on aparticular vessel and ask what speedthey would expect to make good inthe given conditions. For example, inforce-8 winds and 12-foot seas, theship might be able to maintain fullspeed when these conditions are fromabaft the beam, but as the wind andseas draw forward of the beam, shemight have to reduce from a sea speedof 16 knots to 12 knots. Since thisoccurs gradually, we will draw acurve that goes from 16 knots to 12knots as it approaches dead ahead. Wedo this for various conditions, fromcalm weather up to force-12 windsand 40-foot seas. These curves lookvery different for different types ofvessels. See figures 1 and 2. (We donot try to quantify the speed reductiondue to wind, even though this can besignificant. We simply don't haveenough data on these ships to quantifyeverything, so we use anapproximation. On ships with a greatdeal of windage, I do encourage themto approximate the wind factor, but itwill be a rough guess at best.


Weather Reporting

Once the students have determinedthe speed they expect to make good inthe given conditions, they must allowfor the current they are encountering.They pick the currents off the pilotchart and estimate the speed reductionbased on the angle at which thecurrent is hitting them. This reduction(or addition, if the current is fair) istaken from (or added to) the speedcalculated for wind and waves. Theynow have a speed of advance.

Since these students have a great dealof other homework to do for othercourses, I only require them toperform this operation once per day,

using the 1200 GMT weather mapsuite. They presume that the speed ofadvance just calculated will apply for24 hours. The next day they repeat theprocess, and so on for the duration ofthe voyage. After each day's run isplotted, they make a decision tocontinue on course or deviate to avoidbad weather, adverse currents, or toget a lift from more favorableconditions.

They must perform the samecalculations for their comparativeroute. They slow down or speed uptheir ship on the comparative routeusing the same polar diagrams, but

they do not deviate from thecomparative route. That ship stays oncourse unless severe weather requiresit to heave to or run before the windand sea.In this way, they havesomething to measure their success orfailure by. At the end of the trip theycan see if their decisions broughtthem to their destination ahead oftheir comparison ship, or if thecomparison ship encountered severeweather that they avoided by theirgood judgment.

Once they have made all thesecalculations for the day, they areallowed to fire up theircomplimentary copies of the Orionrouting software, provided by WNIOcean Routes Inc., and see what acomputer solution for their track lookslike. This program digests a dailyweather data report from OceanRoutes, and runs numerous tracksolutions to solve for the best route.They are not allowed to change theirroute based on this information, butthey are encouraged to see whatanother solution looks like. This way,they have yet another track to whichto compare their route. They can alsorun an animation feature in thisprogram which will project their shipand the weather data ahead in time tosee how the wind and wave fields willchange and affect them down theroad.

For their final report, they compile aday by day discussion of their weatheranalyses and decisions with anoverview of the conditionsencountered by both ships (theirs andthe one on the comparative route).They must summarize the number ofdays of weather above force 6, andnumber of days of reduced speed. Ifthey encountered any severe weather,

Figure 1: Polar Velocity Plot for the car carrier Overseas Joyce. This wasprepared with help from Mr. Chuck Zenter, Second Mate. In this diagramyou will note that although her sea speed is 18 knots in good conditions,she slows down substantially in any head seas. She also slows down infollowing seas, when her rocking horse motion allows her propeller toemerge and race, causing overspeed trip on her main engine. Theconcentric circles of the plotting sheet represent ship’s speed in 3-knotincrements, and the plotting sheet is oriented in a ship’s head uporientation like a head up radar display. As an example, note that in a 16-to 22-foot sea, her speed varies from about 7 knots for a head sea, to amaximum of about 13 knots when the seas are just abaft the beam, andthen back down to about 11 knots when the seas are from astern.


Weather Reporting

they must decide if they might haveincurred any cargo damage, shipdamage, or personal injury to crew orpassengers.

These students have concluded thatthey don't ever want to make a routingdecision without having a 500-millibar map at hand, and preferablynot without a full suite of 500-mb,surface, and wind/wave maps,including the analysis, 48- and 96-hour forecasts for each. They havebecome quite adept at glancing overthe various maps and picking out thetrends, tying the surface features tothe 500-mb features, and consideringthe ramifications of significant waveheight versus maximum wave heightpotential. They know now that they

can use the surface and 500-mb mapsto plan for the next 5 days, the 500-mb trend to look a couple of daysbeyond that, and the Pilot Charts forthe rest of the voyage.

The students have also discovered thetrove of information available to themon the Internet. While this resource isnot available to many ships at sea yet,when it is, these mates will knowwhere to look to find QuickScatScatterometer derived wind fields,Wave Watch III wave modelanimations going out 10 days,superstructure ice accretion forecasts,and any number of other valuableadditions to the basic weather forecastinformation.

During this course I have beenfortunate to have had first class helpfrom the folks at the MarinePrediction Center, MITAGS, WNIOcean Routes, Inc., Locus Weather,Marine Computer Systems, and othersin the private sector who have comeall the way to Castine, Maine to giveus guest lectures and materials towork with. They are all contributingto preparing these students to bebetter mates and masters who willmake better decisions and bring thenext generation of ships into portfaster, with less damage, and with thecargo in better condition.

Figure 2: PolarPlot for M/VRichard T.Matthiesen, in thiscase in ballast.This plot wasprepared with helpfrom CaptainRalph Pundt, whoserved as hermaster for 6 years.Note that in seaconditions of over16 feet he wouldnot allow his shipto get beam to theseas, and in seas ofover 40 feet hewould heave to.We also prepareda plot for thissame ship whenloaded, andnaturally it looksquite different.


Gust Factor Measurements

Characteristics of the Gust Factor Measured by Coastal-MarineAutomated Network (C-MAN) Stations During Hurricane Georges in 1998Professor S. A. HsuLouisiana State University

The gust factor is defined as theratio of the maximum (or peak)gust speed to the sustained

wind speed. This factor is importantfor mariners to know, particularlyduring storms. The purpose of thisbrief note is to synthesize the gustfactor recorded by NDBC buoysduring hurricanes.

In order to obtain a large sample fromas much spatial variability as possible,a ten-year data set has been compiledin Table 1. The period from 1991through 2000 was used. The area of

coverage included the Gulf of Mexicoand the U.S. Eastern Seaboard fromFlorida northward to the Gulf ofMaine. Buoy measurements includedboth deep and shallow waterlocations. The data sets are based onthe "Annual Summaries" for Atlantichurricane seasons as published in theMonthly Weather Review.

In Table 1, the gust factor is obtainedfrom the ratio of peak gust to thesustained wind. The grand mean fromall 67 measurements is 1.29, with astandard deviation of 0.077. The

coefficient of variation (ordispersion), defined as the ratio of thestandard deviation to the mean, isapproximately 6%. Since thesedeviations are small, the gust factor of1.3 based on the 3 tropical storms and16 hurricanes listed in Table 1 shouldbe useful operationally. For example,if only the wind speed is available, thepeak gust can be estimated simply bymultiplying the speed by 1.3 duringstorm conditions.

The Gust Factor During Hurricanes as Measured by NDBC BuoysProfessor S. A. HsuLouisiana State University

The gust factor is the ratio ofpeak gust to sustained windspeed. Two questions often

asked are: "Does the gust factorincrease with wind speed?" and "Doesit increase with height?" In order torespond, simultaneous measurementsfrom a large number of stations areneeded. Such an opportunity aroseduring Hurricane Georges inSeptember 1998. The measurementsare listed in Table 1, along with theanemometer height for each station. Itis evident from this table that the gust

factor does not increase with eitherheight or sustained speed withinapproximately 20 to 160 ft and 24 to81 kts.

Between 1400 and 1500 UTC on 25September 1998, four C-MANstations along the Florida Keysprovided an interesting sub-data set.These four stations were: MolassesReef (C-MAN MLRF1), Long Key(LONF1), Sombrero Key (SMKF1),and Sand Key (SANF1). When thewind speed increased from 46 kts at

MLRF1 to 81 kts at SMKF1, the gustfactor remained virtually the same atboth locations, even though theanemometer height at MLRF1 was 52ft versus 159 ft at SMKF1.

We therefore conclude from the dataprovided in Table 1 that the gustfactor does not increase with eitherheight or speed. Certainly, more dataare needed to substantiate thisconclusion.


Gust Factor Measurements

Table 1.Measured sustained wind and peak gust recorded by NDBC buoys

during hurricanes from 1991 through 2000.


Servicing NOAA Buoys

Servicing NOAA Buoys on the Central California CoastBy Jeff LorensNational Weather ServiceEureka, California

NOAA environmental andoceanographic data buoysprovide an invaluable source

of data for monitoring weather andwave conditions in the coastal andoffshore waters of the United States.The U.S. Coast Guard, in closecooperation with the National DataBuoy Center (NDBC) at StennisSpace Center in Mississippi,maintains responsibility for theservicing of these buoys. In earlySeptember 2002, I had an opportunityto ride along on a buoy-servicing tripto see first-hand how the Coast Guardand NDBC accomplish this mission.

Early Monday morning, September9th, I boarded the USCGC Aspen(WLB-208) at Coast Guard Base SanFrancisco Bay, located at Yerba BuenaIsland in San Francisco Bay. Built byMarinette Marine Corp. in Marinette,

Wisconsin, and commissioned onSeptember 28th, 2001, the Aspen isone of the Coast Guard's newestcutters. Following a transit down theSt. Lawrence River, down the eastcoast and through the Panama Canal,the Aspen arrived at it's new homeport on December 18th, 2001. Alsoaboard on this trip were Chief WarrantOfficer (CWO3) John Ward (a CoastGuard liaison officer assigned toNDBC), John Blackmon, and DaveParrett (SAIC technicians; SAIC isthe primary contractor under NOAAresponsible for buoy maintenanceservices).

The U.S. Coast Guard hasresponsibility for maintaining aids tonavigation in coastal and inlandwaterways throughout the UnitedStates. Although not considered "aidsto navigation," the servicing of

NOAA's environmental data buoys isincluded in this mission (in closecoordination with NDBC). Although arelatively small part of the CoastGuard's overall buoy maintenancemission, it is a vital one. On this trip,the Aspen would service three NOAAdata buoys off the central Californiacoast, along with two navigationalbuoys. The three NOAA buoysscheduled for service included HalfMoon Bay Buoy (# 46012), MontereyBay Buoy (# 46042), and Cape SanMartin Buoy (# 46028).

Not all buoy servicing missions arealike. In some cases, new buoys aredeployed for the first time, whileothers are re-deployed after havingbroken their mooring and gone adrift.In both cases, the deploymentinvolves putting a large concretesinker on the ocean bottom, whichserves to anchor the buoy in position.For this trip, each buoy would bereplaced on-site with a completely re-conditioned buoy, with one dayscheduled for each.

The servicing operation actuallybegins at NDBC's facility at StennisSpace Center, which schedulesperiodic (emergency in some cases)data buoy servicing missions with theCoast Guard. It is here that buoyspreviously delivered from otherservicing missions are overhauled,outfitted, and tested. The re-conditioned buoys are then carriedacross country by flatbed truck to theport, lifted on board Coast Guardbuoy tenders by crane and secured tothe deck. The Aspen, with a beam of46 feet, can carry three of the 3-meter

San Francisco Bay with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.



discus buoys (side by side) to beserviced on this trip. Once on-site ateach location, the buoy in the waterwould be hauled aboard and replacedwith a re-conditioned buoy. Althougheach of these buoys was of the samebasic design, each was unique due tosome slight (but significant)differences in instrumentation andconfiguration. Each was thereforedesignated to replace a specific buoy.In fact, each of the "new" buoysalready had it's number painted onbefore it arrived at the port (e.g. the"old" buoy # 46012 would be replacedby the "new" # 46012).

The first of the NOAA buoys on theschedule was # 46012, located just offthe California coast about half waybetween San Francisco and MontereyBay. Weather conditions on this daywere nearly ideal, with a clear bluesky, northwest winds at 5-10 knots,and a 3-4 foot swell with periods of17-20 seconds. Weather and seaconditions are absolutely critical tobuoy maintenance operations. If theseas become too rough, conditions canquickly turn unsafe for the deck crew.These buoys weigh between 3,500 and4,000 pounds and provide more thansufficient force (in motion) to causeserious injury.

The Aspen proceeded to the buoy'slocation, guided by its sophisticated"Integrated Ship Control System,”which brings together (and displaysinformation from) the cutter's satellitenavigation system, radar, andelectronic nautical charts. Thisinformation is integrated with themaneuvering system, consisting ofvariable pitch props, rudders, and twothrusters (bow and stern), allowing forvery precise navigation andmaneuvering.

The NDBC technicians had reason tobelieve this particular buoy may havehad some saltwater intrusion, whichcan result in a dangerous build up ofhydrogen gas (due to interaction ofthe saltwater with the batteries).Hydrogen is a highly explosive gas,and bringing the buoy on board couldhave exposed the crew andtechnicians to an unacceptable risk.For just such an occasion, the SAICtechnicians were equipped withsensitive "sniffing" gear. The Aspen'screw lowered a small boat and tookthe two technicians out to the buoy tocheck for the possible presence ofhydrogen. In this case, no dangerousemissions were detected and the buoywas deemed "safe" for taking aboard.

The Aspen then slowly and carefullymaneuvered toward the buoy, bringingit closely alongside. The Aspen (andother similar Coast Guard cutters)uses a very precise maneuvering

system for just such occasions. Theship's bow and stern thrusters can bemanually driven or, using anintegrated computer, provide specificmaneuvering instructions to beimmediately carried out. The ship canbe moved in very small increments inall directions until the buoy is in anoptimum position for working.

In preparation for this day's operation,the deck crew conducted a briefing toensure all parties involved intimatelyknew their specific roles andresponsibilities. For this operation,there were eight crew membersworking on deck, led by a senior pettyofficer. A safety observer was alsopresent, watching every step from

above. On the bridge, LieutenantCommander Adam Shaw, Aspen'sCommanding Officer, had overallcontrol of the entire operation, withsafety being his primary

3-meter discus buoys in a diagonal position along the deck with the Aspen’s cranepoised overhead.



consideration. The operation wouldnot commence until the Captaindecided conditions were safe and thecrew was completely ready.

Once the buoy was safely alongside,the deck crew attached a line toprepare it for lifting (not always easy,given less favorable weatherconditions). Once the line was inplace, the crane hook was securelyattached to one of the lifting points onthe base of the buoy. Using theAspen's 20-ton hydraulic crane (witha 60-foot boom), lifting began almostimmediately, but proceeded slowlyand carefully. Rather than hoisting thebuoy high up, then rotating the craneto lower it on deck, the buoy wasslowly dragged aboard, using thecrane in combination with ahorizontal cable ("crossdeck") pulledby a separate winch. This procedureminimizes the risk of the buoyswinging and potentially injuringcrew members. After the buoy wassafely secured on deck, the anchorchain (still attached to a 6,000 poundsinker on the bottom, 259 feet below)was slowly pulled on deck. To preventthe chain from being pulled back intothe water and to protect the deckcrew, it was secured on deck with aspecial "chain stop." The crew thenproceeded to scrape the buoy's hull ofits abundant accumulation of sea life,which had made this particular buoyits home for the past year. Finally, thechain was disconnected from thebottom, inspected for abrasions andother weak points, and subsequentlyreconnected to the "new" buoy #46012.

The next phase of the operationinvolved attaching the crane's hook tothe new buoy, releasing the chainssecuring it on deck, lifting it, and

finally putting it in the water. Thisphase of the operation is easier saidthan done. With two other buoys ondeck to the side and (now) anotherbuoy in the center of the deck (i.e. the"old" # 46012, just out of the water),this would prove to be a delicatemaneuver. The buoy would have to becarefully lifted and rotated such thatit's sensitive environmentalinstrumentation (on the top of thebuoy) would not impact any obstacles,either on the ship or the other buoyson deck, thus risking damage.Damage to its instrumentation wouldhave meant certain delay, and (ifserious), could even have resulted in along postponement of this particularbuoy's replacement.

After careful planning and discussionby the deck crew, the new buoy wasslowly lifted and, using the"crossdeck" cable to control itshorizontal movement, was thenrotated over the side and slowly

lowered into the water. Then, with thecrew safely out of the way, the buoy'sanchor chain was released from thechain stop and the "new" NOAA databuoy # 46012 was free from theAspen and ready to begin its job ofgathering and transmitting vital data.For about the next three hours, NDBCmonitored the buoy’s environmentaland oceanographic data, transmittedvia satellite. The data was comparedto data on-site ("ground truth") and,with no significant discrepancies, theoperation was deemed a success. TheAspen then proceeded on to its nextoperation.

Over the next two days, the Aspen'screw repeated this operation,replacing NOAA data buoys offMonterey Bay (# 46042) and CapeSan Martin (# 46028). While similarin most respects, there were a fewsignificant differences. As mentionedpreviously, no two buoy servicingoperations are alike. Weather

Operation in action: replacing 3-meter buoy off the coast of California.



conditions are never the same and, attimes, the configuration of the buoyrequires adjustments to handlingprocedures. Additionally, the buoy'slocation in itself is significant.

The next day, the Aspen proceeded tobuoy # 46042, west of Monterey Bay.While again sunny with excellentvisibility, the winds were slightlystronger and the seas slightly higher.Additionally, this buoy was located inmuch deeper water - nearly 7,000feet. As part of it's design, each buoyis given a certain amount of "room toroam." Due to constantly changingwinds and currents, buoys must havea certain amount of slack in themooring chain so that it is free tomove about (within limits). Theprecise term is "watch circle radius."In the case of the first buoy workedon this trip (# 46012 off Half MoonBay), the water depth was "only" 259feet, with a corresponding watchcircle radius of about 130 yards,meaning it had freedom of movementwithin a circle of that size. In the caseof the much deeper water at buoy #46042, however, the watch circleradius increased to more than 1,700

yards. When strong currents arepresent, the ship may have to "chase"the buoy, making its capture moredifficult.

Buoy # 46042 also had a differentmooring chain configuration,including an attached device knownas a "flounder plate." NDBC wasevaluating the wave data on buoyswith and without this device attached.

Buoy # 46028 off Cape San Martin,replaced on the third day of thevoyage, also had a directionalcapability, but had no "flounder plate"attached to it.

Maintaining coastal aids to navigation(and NOAA data buoys) along theCalifornia coast is the Aspen'sprimary mission, but it is certainly notits only mission. The Aspen alsoperforms vital search and rescue, lawenforcement, and pollution controlmissions as well. I genuinelyappreciate having had the opportunityto experience life aboard the Aspenfor a few days, and to watch her veryprofessional crew in action.

3-meter buoy on station. The verticalbars around the deck of the buoy arecalled “seal cages” and are placed onbuoys to prevent seals from climbingaboard, thus avoiding possible harm tothe seal while preventing damage to thebuoy.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Aspen


Wind/Wave Damage

Wind/Wave Damage Along the SW Cape Coast May 24-25, 2002 Ian T. HunterDeputy Director: Marine Meteorological ServicesSouth African Weather Service

The attached time series of airpressure comes from a driftingweather buoy which was deployed

by the SA Agulhas on 20 September2001 during her annual relief voyage toGough Island. Note that the air pressureat the present location of the buoy (41S08E) plummeted almost 50 hPa fromThursday afternoon to early Fridaymorning - a very good example ofexplosive cyclogenesis. The cold front associated with this lowpressure system passed over Cape Townlate on Friday afternoon, withnorthwesterly winds at the SAWSautomatic weather station at Cape Point,gusting up to 120 km/ hr ahead of thefront. Places such as Betty's Bay andHermanus, with their mountainousterrain upwind, experienced veryturbulent conditions, and there was muchdamage to homes in the region.

It was, however, the waves generated bythis storm that caused most of thedamage to coastal structures around theSW Cape coast. The swell wavesgenerated southwest of Cape Town the

previous day arrived in the early hours ofSaturday morning and unfortunately, thiscoincided with a spring high tide. Three,Anchor Bay, Bakhoven, Hermanus, andseveral other coastal sites again sufferedwave damage on the scale of suchlegendary storms as 17 May 1984 and 5September 2001. At Bakhoven, theNational Sea Rescue Institute, NSRI'srescue craft had to be airlifted off thebeach to prevent it being destroyed bythe heavy surf.On the western Agulhas Bank south ofMossel Bay, average wave heightsreached almost 11m - not that far off theestimated 1-in-100 year wave height ofapproximately 12m for this ocean region.The various numerical models availableto SA Weather Service forecasters gavevery good guidance of what to expect. Infact, the global wave models run byNOAA (US National Weather Service)and the UK Met Office were predictingthe extreme waves 4 days ahead of theevent!

The small freighter MauriceDsegagnes had a diversecareer, mixing deep sea,

coastal, Arctic and Great Lakestrading.

This vessel was originally known asVaasa Provider, and it had been builtin 1963 at Terneuzen, Holland. The296-ft long by 44-ft wide generalcargo carrier was sold to A/BRauanhelmo O/Y of Finland in 1966and sailed as Lauri-Ragnar. The shipwas renamed Finnrunner whenacquired by R. Nordstrom & Co. in1971.

A year later it became the flagship ofDesgagnes Navigation and moved toCanadian registry as MauriceDesgagnes, where it replaced the ill-fated Voyageur D. that had been loston the St. Lawrence in January 1972.

Maurice Desgagnes initially operatedbetween Montreal and Sept Iles, PQ.Other trips included a voyage toBrazil in 1973, annual excursions inthe summer supply run to theCanadian Arctic and occasionaltrading into the Great Lakes.

On February 26, 1974, the vesselmade the news when it caught firewhile in Montreal. The fire damagedthe interior and resulted in minorburns to the Captain, his wife andinfant daughter. Just over a year afterthat tragedy, the ship collided with theSkua at Sorel on April 14, 1975.

Maurice Desgagnes travelled to theBahamas, Guatemala, and Egypt in1978, brought steel from Europe in1979 and had just visited Venezuelaprior to heading north to load a cargoof oak railway ties.

The ship loaded the last cargo at NewOrleans, LA for Sept Iles when it wascaught by a late winter storm in theAtlantic on March 11, 1980. Whilesailing about 75 miles ESE of Halifaxin 50 - 60 mph winds, a monster wavestruck the vessel, causing the cargo toshift drastically

Fortunately, the Canadian destroyerHuron was nearby and senthelicopters in response to the distresscall. They evacuated all 21 sailorsfrom the listing freighter on March12, 1980.

Maurice Desgagnes sank in theAtlantic about 30 minutes after thelast man left the pitching decks.

Shipwreck: MAURICE DESGAGNESSkip GillhamVineland, Ontario, Canada


Maurice Desgagnes

Freighter Maurice Desgagnes


Marine Weather Review

Introduction

The most active period was throughmid-February, when a series of low-pressure systems developed off theU.S. East Coast and tracked northeast.Most of these, with few exceptions,passed between Greenland and GreatBritain. The month of January wasespecially stormy, with many of thelows developing hurricane-forcewinds. MPC issued 55 high seaswarnings for hurricane force windsduring January, the most in any monthin MPC’s North Atlantic high seasarea (north of 31N and west of 35W)since 1995, when MPC began keepinga count of its high seas warnings.Only the North Pacific high seas areain January 1998 had more suchwarnings (60).

The weather pattern became morevariable from the second week ofFebruary through April, with blockinghigh pressure becoming frequent overthe central North Atlantic. This forcedlow-pressure systems to move northfrom the Canadian Maritimes towardGreenland and then turn east; withslow-moving cutoff lows sometimesforming over the southern high seaswaters or off Portugal. The last of theevents with hurricane-force winds wasin late March.

Significant Events of thePeriod

Central Atlantic Storm of 2-4January: Figure 1 depicts three low-

pressure centers south ofNewfoundland which quickly mergedinto one center and deepened duringthe following 24-hour period to formthe 959-mb central Atlantic storm inthe second part of the figure. Evenwhen taking the initial centralpressure from the deepest of the threecenters (997 mb), the system droppedan impressive 38 mb in the 24-hourperiod covered by Figure 1, whichwas the period of most rapiddeepening. By 1200 UTC January 3,MPC classified this system as ahurricane-force storm. The QuikScatimage of Figure 2 confirms this,showing wind barbs as high as 70 ktsouth of the center. The valid time ofthe image is about one hour after thetime of the second analysis in Figure1. The highest wind reported by shipswas 60 kt, with the P&O NedlloydSydney (PDHY) encountering asouthwest wind of 60 kt and 12.2-meter seas (40 feet) near 51N 30W at1800 UTC January 3. The CanmarHonour (ZCBP5) reported asouthwest wind of 45 kt and seas of14.0 meters (46 feet), the highest seasreported in this storm. This systemsubsequently weakened near theeastern coast of Greenland late onJanuary 4.

North Atlantic Storm of 4-6January: This storm originated as afrontal wave of low pressure in theGulf of Mexico on the first andmoved off the U.S. East Coast on thethird, developing multiple centers.Figure 3 depicts the primary center as

the 993-mb storm near 34N 71W at1200 UTC January 4, plus twosecondary low-pressure centers to thenortheast. The easternmost centerdeepened rapidly in the following 24hours and became the main center,shown as the hurricane-force storm(943 mb) near Greenland at 1200UTC January 5. The drop in centralpressure was an impressive 47 mb(1.39 inches) during this period,almost 2 mb per hour. The centralpressure bottomed out at 942 mb(27.82 inches) as the center reached62N 39W six hours later. This madethe storm the second deepest of theJanuary-to-April period, not only inthe North Atlantic, but also in bothoceans. The highest winds and seasreported by ship were on the backsideof the primary storm center off theU.S. East Coast. The Sea-LandPerformance (KRPD) reported anorth wind of 60 kt and 8.8-meterseas (29 feet) near 37N 62W at 0000UTC January 5. The Lykes Liberator(WGXN) encountered a northwestwind of 55 kt and 13.7-meter seas (45feet) near 34N 71W at 1800 UTCJanuary 4. The redeveloped strongersystem near Greenland was in an areaof sparse ship data, but QuikScat data(Figure 4) revealed winds as high as65 kt southeast of the center. Theinfrared satellite image (Figure 5)shows the storm near maximumintensity with a well-defined centernear 60N 40W and associated frontalbands. The broadening of the frontalband well south of the center is the

MARINE WEATHER REVIEW - NORTH ATLANTIC AREAJanuary through April 2002By George P. BancroftMeteorologistMarine Prediction Center



Figure 1. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts valic 0600 UTC January 2 and 3, 2002.



Figure 2. QuikScat scatterometer image of satellite-sensed winds valid approximately 0700 UTC January 3, 2002.(Image courtesy of NOAA/NESIDIS Office of Research and Applications)



Figure 3. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts valid 1200 UTC January 4 and 5, 2002.



Figure 4. QuikScat scatterometer image of satellite-sensed winds valid approximately 0700 UTC January 3, 2002.(Image courtesy of NOAA/NESDIS/Office of Research and Applications)



Figure 5. METEOSAT 7 infrared satellite image valid 1500 UTC January 5, 2002. Satellite senses temperature on a scalefrom warm (black) to cold (white) in this type of image. The valid time is only 3 hours later than that of the second surface

analysis in Figure 3.


Figure 6. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysischarts (Part 2 - west) valid 0000 UTC January 13 and 14, 2002.

low on the trailing front, depictednear 39N 47W in the second part ofFigure 3, which subsequently movedrapidly northeast past Iceland by 1800UTC January 6, while the main centerweakened near the Greenland coast.

Gulf of Maine “Bomb” - 13-16January: Originating near theCarolina coast at 0000 UTC January13, this system developed explosivelyas it passed east of New England onthe afternoon of January 13 Figure 6depicts the storm during its most rapiddevelopment over a 24-hour period.The central pressure dropped 50 mb(1.48 inches) during this period, with34 mb of that drop occurring in thelast 12 hours. The storm reached

maximum intensity at 0000 UTCJanuary 14 (954 mb or 28.17 inches),before beginning a slow weakeningtrend while continuing on anortheastward track across theCanadian Maritimes. The hurricane-force winds in this storm were mainlysouth and southwest of the center andlasted only 12 to 18 hours, but werequite intense. The British Harrier(MZFK4) encountered southwestwinds of 80 to 90 kt near 43N 66W inthe six hour period ending at 0600UTC January 14, and seas of 14.9meters (49 feet) near 43N 65W at1200 UTC January 14. Bycomparison, a QuikScat pass takenabout 2230 UTC January 13 showswinds of 75 kt in the Gulf of Maine

(Figure 7). The Pharos (ELTX9)reported west winds of 55 kt and16.2-meter seas (53 feet) near 41N56W at 1800 UTC January 14, themaximum seas reported in this storm.Hibernia Platform 44145 (46.7N48.7W) clocked southwest winds ofup to 77 kt at 2100 UTC January 14.Canadian buoy 44142 (42.5N 64.0W)reported southwest winds of 49 kt,with gusts to 62 kt, at 0300 UTCJanuary 14, and seas 12.5 meters (41feet) at 0700 UTC that same day, thehighest winds and seas reported frombuoys. Among coastal C-MANstations, Matinicus Rock (MDRM1,43.8N 68.7W) reported the highestwinds, with a northwest wind of 55 ktand gusts to 65 kt at 2300 UTC


Figure 7. QuikScat scatterometer image of satellite-sensed winds valid approximately 2230 UTCJanuary 13, 2002.

(Image courtesy of NOAA/NESDIS/Office of Research and Applications)



Figure 8. GOES-8 infrared satellite image valid 0015 UTC January 14, 2002. The valid time is approximatelythat of the second surface analysis of Figure 6.

January 13. The infrared satelliteimage of Figure 8 shows the stormnear maximum intensity with a well-defined center near Cape Sable andstrong convection along a portion ofthe cold front near 59W. The stormsubsequently stalled east of Greenlandon January 16, where it weakened to agale by the next day.

North Atlantic Storm of 16-20January: After passing northeastthrough MPC’s offshore waters onJanuary 15, this system absorbed twoother lows to the north, pulled arctic

air into its circulation andaccomplished much of itsintensification in the 24-hour periodending at 0600 UTC January 17. At0600 UTC January 17, the stormcenter was at 50N 46W with a centralpressure of 972 mb. The Talisman(LAOW5) south of the center near43N 46W reported a southwest windof 70 kt. The storm’s central pressurebottomed out at 960 mb near 57N29W twenty-four hours later, similarin intensity to the January 2-4 storm.The Alligator Reliance (ZCBN5)encountered southwest winds of 70 kt

near 48N 31W at 0000 UTC January18. The Irving Primrose (8POI)encountered west winds of 65 kt near54N 27W at 1200 UTC January 18.Buoy 62108 (53.4N 19.4W) reported12.2-meter seas (40 feet) six hourslater. At 0000 UTC January 19, theship ZCBP6 reported west winds of50 kt and seas of 11.0 meters (36feet), the highest seas reported by shipin this event.

Eastern Atlantic Storm of 19-22January: While the aforementionedstorm was elongating and weakening





Figure 9. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts valid 1200 UTC January 19 and 0000 YTCJanuary 21, 2002.

east of Greenland (Figure 9), a stormdeveloped in the eastern NorthAtlantic with an intensity similar tothat of the 2-4 and 16-20 Januarystorms, but tracked farther east. Thefirst part of Figure 9 shows thesystem passing south ofNewfoundland. Rapid intensificationfollowed as the system absorbed thelow to the northwest near Cape Racewith its trailing arctic front, and thecentral pressure dropped 35 mb in the24-hour period ending 0600 UTCJanuary 20. The second part of Figure9 shows the storm at maximumintensity (959 mb) west of Ireland. At1200 UTC January 20, theLeverkusen Express (DEHY) near47N 31W, and the Marchen Maersk(OWDQ2) near 47N 25W,encountered winds from the northwestand southwest at 60 kt, respectively.The Lykes Liberator (WGXN) to thewest near 45N 41W reportednorthwest winds of 45 kt and 11.3-meter seas (37 feet) at this time.QuikScat data (not shown) availablearound this storm near maximumintensity revealed hurricane-forcewinds of 65 kt south of the center inan area of no ship data. The stormsubsequently weakened to a galewhile passing just north of the BritishIsles on January 22.

North Atlantic Storm of 20-23January: Again referring to Figure9, this storm followed immediately inthe wake of the preceding event andwas unlike most preceding storms inthat it developed earlier and farthersouth after moving off the U.S. EastCoast. The period covered by Figure9 includes the period of most-rapidintensification, the 24-hour periodending at 0000 UTC January 21 whenthe central pressure dropped 39 mb.The center developed a maximum

intensity of 961 mb in the centralNorth Atlantic eighteen hours later.The ship SLCO (40N 58W) reporteda west wind of 60 kt at 1800 UTCJanuary 20. Six hours later, the shipZQYJ6 encountered northwest windsof 60 kt near 39N 56W. At 0600 UTCJanuary 21, the Nordmax (P3YS5)near 38N 51W experienced northwestwinds of 50 kt and 12.8-meter seas(42 feet). The Canadian buoy 44140(43.7N 51.7W) reported north windsreaching 49 kt, with gusts to 66 kt, at0200 UTC January 21 and maximumseas of 7.5 meters (25 feet) two hourslater. At 1800 UTC January 22, withthe storm center slowly weakeningand approaching Great Britain, theLykes Liberator (WGXN) near 47N19W reported south winds of 50 ktand 13.7-meter seas (45 feet), thehighest seas reported in this event.The weakening system subsequentlypassed east across Great Britain andthe North Sea on January 23 and 24.

Northwest Atlantic Storm of 22-30January: This storm began asmultiple low-pressure centers near thenortheast coast of the U.S. at 1800UTC January 2, which movednortheast and merged into one whilerapidly intensifying (by 36 mb) in thefirst 24 hours. At 0600 UTC January23, with the center east ofNewfoundland near 47N 49W (972mb), MPC classified it as a hurricane-force storm. At 0000 UTC January23, the Zim Korea (4XGU) near 39N56W reported west winds of 60 kt and8.5-meter seas (28 feet). Twelve hourslater, the vessel ELVF6 (43N 47W)encountered west winds of 55 kt and13.4-meter seas (43N 47W). Thestorm center then moved north whileslowly deepening and stalled onJanuary 24, south of Greenland near55N, blocked by a strong high-

pressure ridge over Greenland. Figure10 depicts the stalled center south ofGreenland at 0000 UTC January 26near maximum intensity. TheQuikScat image in Figure 11, validmore than 15 hours prior to the validtime of the first part of Figure 10,shows hurricane-force winds up to 80kt north of the center, off the southerntip of Greenland. The systemsubsequently looped back to thenorthwest and weakened to a galewest of Greenland by January 31.Meanwhile, other significantdevelopments were occurring to thesouth and east of this persistentsystem, as indicated below.

Eastern Atlantic Storm of 26-28January: Low pressure moved off theNew England coast at 0000 UTCJanuary 25 and elongated eastwardwhile slowly intensifying. The systemformed a new center to the east,which appears in the first part ofFigure 10 as the 989-mb center at42N 42W. This took over as the maincenter while moving northeast andintensifying, leading to the hurricane-force storm (954 mb) in the secondpart of Figure 10. With the long fetchof gale to storm-force southwestwinds apparent in the eastern Atlantic,seas became quite high. The AtlanticConcert (SKOZ) reported asouthwest wind of 70 kt and 17.1-meter seas (56 feet) near 48N 21W at1200 UTC January 27, while the Sea-Land Motivator (WAAH) to thesouthwest encountered southwestwinds of 45 kt and 13.7-meter seas(45 feet) near 45N 29W. Later, at0600 UTC January 28 with thesystem near maximum intensity, theAtlantic Companion (SKPE)reported southwest winds of 65 ktnear 55N 12W, while the ArinaArctica (OVYA2) north of the center



Figure 11. QuikScat scatterometerimage of satellite-sensed windsvalid approximately 0830 UTC

January 25, 2002.(Image courtesy of

NOAA/NESDIS/Office of researchand Applications)

Figure 10. MPC NorthAtlantic Surface analysis

charts (Part 1 - east) valid0000 UTC January 26 and

28, 2002.





Figure 12. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts: A full-ocean chart valid 1800 UTC January 30 plus twoPart 1 analysis charts valid 1800 UTC January 31 and February 1, 2002.



Figure 13. MPC 500-Mb analysis of North Atlantic valid at 1200 UTC January 31, 2002. The chart is computer-generated with short-wave troughs (dashed lines) added by the analyst.

experienced northeast winds of 65 ktnear 62N 13W. The storm thenweakened while passing north ofGreat Britain on the 28th beforemoving inland over Norway byJanuary 29.

Eastern Atlantic Storm of January30 to February 1: The nextdeveloping storm system moved eastof the island of Newfoundland at1800 UTC January 29 and thenmoved northeast while rapidlyintensifying. The system is shown inthe first part of Figure 12 twenty-fourhours later as the developinghurricane-force storm near 52N 30W.Twelve hours later, the center wasnear 55N 23W with a central pressuredown to 964 mb, a drop of 31 mb in

24 hours. The Contship Endeavour(ZCBE7) encountered west winds of60 kt and 6.1-meter seas (20 feet) near50N 24W at 0600 UTC January 31,after the center passed to the north. Atthe same time, the ship PFAQ nearbyat 51N 24W reported west winds of55 kt and seas of 9.1 meters (30 feet).Another ship, ELZT6 near 47N 31W,experienced west winds of 40 kt and10.7-meter seas (35 feet), the highestseas reported in this storm. The stormcenter appears in the second part ofFigure 12 just south of Iceland, aboutto loop back to the southwest andbecoming absorbed by a much largerstorm system described next.

Eastern Atlantic “Bomb,” January30 to February 2: Following close

behind the preceding system, the nextmajor storm developed from the1010-mb low south of Newfoundlandshown in the first part of Figure 12.This low underwent explosiveintensification with much of thedeepening occurring in the first 24hours, in which the central pressurefell 62 mb (1.83 inches) in 24 hours.Thirty-two millibars (0.94 inch) ormore than half of that drop in pressureoccurred in the final six hours, leadingto the 948-mb hurricane-force stormshown in the second surface analysisof Figure 12. Figure 13 is a 500-mbanalysis valid at a time when thesurface low was deepening mostrapidly. It shows strong support aloftin the form of an intense short-wave

Figure 14. QuikScat scatterometer image of satellite-sensed winds valid approximately 2000 UTC January 31, 2002.

(Image courtesy of NOAA/NESDIS/Office of Research and Application)

trough and jet stream of up to 135 ktcoming off the Canadian coast. In thesecond analysis of Figure 12 the shipContship Endeavour (ZCBE7),reported a 90-kt west wind just southof the 948-mb center. This reportlooks reasonable when compared tothe QuikScat image of Figure 14 validabout two hours later, showing two80-kt wind barbs just south of thecenter. The storm center underwent

further intensification in the following24 hours, leading to the 933-mbcenter approaching Iceland (third partof Figure 12). The center passed overa buoy (62520 at 59.61N 16.02W)which reported pressures as low as925 mb at 1600 UTC February 1. Theinfrared satellite image of Figure 15 isvalid near the time of maximumintensity, revealing a well-definedmain center northwest of Great

Britain with cold cloud tops indicatingconsiderable vertical development.The clouds appear more convective inthe cold air behind the front, wherethere is a secondary circulation near50N 29W corresponding to the newhurricane-force storm center near 50N26W in Figure 12. The highest windsand seas occurred with this new centerafter the primary center pulled to thenorth. This is not surprising, since



Figure 15. METEOSAT-7 infrared satellite image valid 1500 UTC February 1, 2002. The valid time is only 3hours prior to that of the third surface analysis in Figure 12.

cold air over the ocean surfaceproduces instability, mixing strongerwinds from aloft down to the surface.The cold air also has more “bite” onthe sea surface, enhancing waves. Theship ELZU3 near 46N 47W reporteda northwest wind of 70 kt at 0600UTC February 1, while another vessel(ELZT6) encountered west winds of65 kt and 19.8-meter seas (65 feet)near 47N 39W. At the same time, abuoy to the northeast (62108 near53.3N 19.3W) reported southwestwinds of 55 kt and 13.4-meter seas.Another ship, the Atlantic Compass

(SKUN) near 49N 29W, experiencedsouthwest winds of 50 kt and 18.0-meter seas (59 feet) six hours later.The storm subsequently passed east ofIceland late on February 2 and beganto weaken.

In summary, this was the mostsignificant event of the period,producing maximum reported windsequal to those reported in the January13-16 storm, plus the highest seas,lowest central pressure and greatestrate of intensification.

North Atlantic Storm of 4-8February: This system formed offthe southeast U.S. coast at 0000 UTCFebruary 4 and tracked northeast tonear Sable Island 24 hours later,absorbing another low and arctic frontthat were over the northeastern U.S.After initially deepening 31 mb in thefirst 24 hours, the center underwentfurther intensification after passingnortheast of the island ofNewfoundland and developedhurricane-force winds (Figure 16).The central pressure bottomed out at947 mb at 0000 UTC February 7





when the center was near 54N 40W.The Fidelio (WQVY) near 50N 43Wreported a southwest wind of 65 kt at1800 UTC February 6 (Figure 16).Also at this time, the ship LAIP5 near46N 47W encountered a west wind of60 kt and 11.3-meter seas (37 feet),while the Canmar Honour (ZCBP5)near 46N 38W experienced southwestwinds of 40 kt and 14.0-meter seas(46 feet). The ship PFAQ near 43N44W reported a southwest wind of 55kt and 15.2-meter seas (50 feet) at1200 UTC February 6. The stormsystem then weakened slowly whiletracking east, before dissipating nearthe British Isles on February 9.

Northwest Atlantic Storm of 14-20March: Unlike other stormspreceding it, this hurricane-forcestorm developed from a primary low-pressure center which moved throughsoutheastern Canada before exitingthe southern Labrador coast andabsorbing weaker lows that weresouth of the Canadian Maritimes(Figure 17). The central pressuredropped 33 mb in the 24-hour periodending at 1200 UTC March 15. Thesecond part of Figure 17 shows thesystem at maximum intensity (956mb). The Newfoundland Otter

(CFD3659) reported a northwest windof 80 kt near 53N 53W at 1800 UTCMarch 15. The ship PDHW near 46N44W reported 11.0-meter seas (36feet) along with west winds of 35 ktat 1200 UTC March 16. Blocked byhigh pressure over Greenland, thestorm then moved southeast andstalled for several days near 52N35W, weakening to a gale on March20.

North Atlantic Storm of 17-20April: This developing storm trackedeast-northeast from Nova Scotia at0000 UTC April 16 and intensifiedrapidly after passing east ofNewfoundland late on April 16. Thecentral pressure fell 26 mb in the 24-hour period ending at 0600 UTC April18, when the center was near 52N39W at 963 mb. The center stalled inthe vicinity and became as deep as958 mb thirty-six hours later beforebeginning a weakening trend. Thisstorm was almost as intense as theMarch storm in terms of centralpressure. The strongest winds andhighest seas were southwest and southof the center. The ship SDBQreported the highest wind, a southwestwind of 60 kt near 45N 43W at 0000UTC April 19. The same ship

reported a west wind of 50 kt alongwith 13.4-meter seas (44 feet) near45N 44W twelve hours later. At 0000UTC April 20, the vessel LART5near 42N 40W encountered westwinds of 55 kt and seas of 15.5meters (51 feet), the highest seasreported in this storm. The systemaccelerated toward the northeast lateon the April 20, passing northeast ofIceland on April 22.

References

Sienkiewicz, J. and Chesneau, L.,Mariner’s Guide to the 500-MbChart (Mariners Weather Log,Winter 1995).

Bancroft, G., High Seas Text BulletinsIssued by MPC (MarinersWeather Log, Vol. 40, No. 2,Summer 1996).

Bancroft, G., Marine WeatherReview-North Atlantic Area,September through December1999 (Mariners Weather Log,April 2000).

Figure 16. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts (Part 2) valid 0600 UTC February 5 and 1800 UTCFebruary 6, 2002.

Figure 17. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts (Part 2) valid 1800 UTC March 14 and 15, 2002.




MARINE WEATHER REVIEW – NORTH PACIFIC AREAJanuary through April 2002By George P. BancroftMeteorologistMarine Prediction Center

Introduction

The weather pattern began with low-pressure systems tracking east-northeast to the Gulf of Alaska oreastern Aleutians; but, as the seasonprogressed, blocking high pressurebecame more frequent over Alaskaand the eastern North Pacific,especially after mid-February. Thiscaused low-pressure systems over theNorth Pacific to stall or moveerratically, or move north into theBering Sea. When using numbers ofhigh seas warnings as a means ofcomparison, it would appear that theweather over the North Pacific wasless active than in the Atlantic. MPCissued a January-February combinedtotal of 22 warnings for hurricane-force winds over the North Pacifichigh seas area, much less than the 55issued for the North Atlantic inJanuary alone. Also, there were fewerhigh seas storm warnings issued forthe North Pacific than for the NorthAtlantic in each of the four months.

Tropical Activity

The January-to-April period is theleast active (for tropical cyclones) ofthe four-month periods covered in thispublication. Two tropical cyclonesmade brief appearances near thesouthwest corner of MPC’s oceanicsurface analysis chart prepared for HFradiofacsimile transmission. Neither

redeveloped into significantextratrpical storms, as describedbelow.

Tropical Storm Mitag: Formerly atyphoon well southwest of Japan,Mitag weakened to a tropical stormupon entering MPC’s oceanic surfaceanalysis area near 19N 137E at 0000UTC March 8, with maximumsustained winds of 50 kt and gusts to65 kt. Blocked by building highpressure to the north, Mitag becameextratropical and drifted south of thearea at 1200 UTC March 8.

Tropical Depression 4W: Thissystem formed near 17N 160E at1800 UTC April 6 with maximumsustained winds of 30 kt and gusts to40 kt, but it merged with a nearbyfront and became extratropical sixhours later.

Other Significant Events

Complex North Pacific Storm of 3-6January: A complex ormulticentered area of low pressuremoved off the coast of Japan onJanuary 1. The storm center near 45N162E became the primary center(Figure 1) and drifted east, while theold primary center near SakhalinIsland weakened. A secondary stormcenter emerged off the coast of Japanearly on January 2 in the cold airbehind the primary system and isdepicted in Figure 1 as the 978-mb

center at 38N 156E. Passing south ofthe primary storm center over warmwater, this secondary centerdeveloped hurricane-force winds, asindicated in the QuikScat imagery ofFigure 2, which has a valid time onlyone and one-half hours later than thatof the first surface analysis in Figure1. There is a 70-kt wind barb near36N 156E associated with the surgeof cold air behind the secondarystorm center. The southwest winds ofup to 50 kt off to the east near 172Ein Figure 2 are associated with theprimary storm system to the east andnortheast. Thirty-six hours later, thesecondary center deepened to 952 mband became the main center, while theold center lagged behind andweakened (second part of Figure 1).Twelve hours later, the storm systemredeveloped to the east as a newcenter formed on the front and movedtoward the Gulf of Alaska. It appearsin the first part of Figure 3 as the 950-mb center at 48N 150W. This was thelowest central pressure reached byany of the centers in this complexsystem and the second lowestpressure in the North Pacific duringthe January-to-April period. By 5January, the storm circulation coveredmuch of the North Pacific. Thesystem subsequently lifted slowly tothe north and slowly weakened, andmoved inland over south centralAlaska on January 7. The StellarImage (3FDO6), traveling eastbound


Figure 1. MPC North Pacific Surface Analysis charts valid 0600 UTC January 3 and 1800 UTCJanuary 4, 2002.





Figure 2. QuikScat scatterometer image of satellite-sensed winds around the south side of the complex storm system shown inFigure 1. The valid time is approximately 0730 UTC January 3, 2002.(Image courtesy of NOAA/NESDIS/Office of Research and Application)

Figure 3. MPC North Pacific Surface Analysis charts valid 0000 UTC January 6 and 8, 2002.



while the storm system passed to thenorth, transmitted the followingreports:

Among other reports, the Manoa(KDBG) encountered south winds of60 kt near 41N 142W at 0600 UTCJanuary 5, the highest wind reportedby ships in this event. The RubinStella (3FAP5) near 40N 171Wreported west winds of 55 kt and12.8-meter seas (42 feet) at 0000 UTCJanuary 5.

North Pacific Storm of 5-9 January:While the preceding storm systemwas nearing maximum strength, the

next developingstorm moved eastof Japan at 0000UTC January 5and tracked east-northeast. Figure3 shows theevolution of thissystem over a 48-hour period, with

the second analysis depicting thestorm at maximum intensity (950-mbcentral pressure) with hurricane-forcewinds. The central pressure fell 24 mbin the 24-hour period ending at 1200UTC January 7, the most rapid rate ofdeepening during this event. Thisstorm therefore could be considered ameteorological “bomb” during aportion of this period. The ship

VRWE7 reported a west wind of 50kt and 9.1-meter seas (30 feet) near39N 173E at 0600 UTC January 7.Twelve hours later with the storm atmaximum intensity, the vesselMHCQ7 near 43N 173W reported anorthwest wind of 65 kt (Figure 3),the highest wind reported by ship inthis storm. At 0600 UTC January 8,the Stellar Image (3FDO6)encountered southwest winds of 55 ktand 13.1-meter seas (43 feet), thehighest seas reported in this event.The system subsequently turned northtoward western mainland Alaska andelongated, weakening to a gale by0000 UTC January 10 and movinginland shortly thereafter.

Western Pacific Storm of 26-31January: This system rapidlyintensified to a storm while passingoff the central coast of Japan late on



Figure 4. MPC North Pacific Surface Analysis charts (Part 1- east) valid 0600 UTC February 7 and 8, 2002.



January 26, developing a centralpressure of 972 mb by 0000 UTCJanuary 28 near 41N 148E. Althoughthis system later was as deep as 964mb as it moved into the Bering Sea bythe 31st, the storm generated thehighest winds and seas while over theNorth Pacific. At 0600 UTC January27, the President Grant (WCY2098)reported a southeast wind of 60 ktnear 37N 148E. Twelve hours later,the ship ELXU2 encounteredsouthwest winds of 60 kt near 34N148E. These were the highest reportedwinds in this storm. At 1200 UTCJanuary 29, the vessel ELYD5

encountered southwest winds of 50 ktand seas of 12.2 meters (42 feet) near44N 161E, and six hours later thesame winds and seas up to 15.2meters (50 feet), the highest seasreported in this storm. The systemlater weakened to a gale and turnedeast after reaching the central BeringSea late on the January 31.

Eastern Pacific “Bomb,” 7-10February: Low pressure passedsouth of Japan early on February 3and tracked about due east with littledevelopment until the center crossed170W on the 7th. Rapidintensification occurred as the center

turned toward the northeast (Figure4). The central pressure fell 32 mb inthe 24-hour period ending at 0600UTC February, with 22 mb of that falloccurring in a six hour period endingat 0000 UTC February 8. The 500-mbanalysis of Figure 5 corresponds withthis period of most rapidintensification. This development isassociated with a short-wave trough inthe southern branch of the jet streamat 500 mb. The weaker low in thewestern Gulf of Alaska is associatedwith its separate short wave andnorthern branch of the jet stream.Both systems are well defined in the

Figure 5. MPC 500-Mb Analysis of North Pacific valid at 0000 UTC February 8, 2002. The chart is computer-generated withshort-wave troughs (dashed lines) added by the analyst.


Figure 6. QuikScat scatterometer image of satellite-sensed winds around the storm shown in Figure 4. The valid time of thepass is approximately 0500 UTC February 8, 2002, or close to that of the second surface analysis in Figure 4.



infrared satellite image of Figure 7and include an occluded southernstorm, unusually intense for thatlatitude. The northern branch short-wave trough came into play later on,causing further intensification of thesouthern storm as it was pulled north

into the Gulf of Alaska on 9 February.The center developed a centralpressure of 960 mb near 55N 143W at0000 UTC February 10 beforeweakening and moving inland later onthat day.

The storm developed hurricane-force

winds by 0600 UTC February 8 asrevealed by the QuikScat windsshown in Figure 6. The Manoa(KDBG) reported a northeast wind of65 kt and 17.1-meter seas (56 feet)near 39N 154W at 0300 UTCFebruary 8, followed by a report of



Figure 7. GOES-10 infrared satellite image valid at 0700 UTC February 8, 2002. Satellite senses temperature, which isdisplayed on a scale from warm (black) to cold (white) in this type of imagery.

seas 18.9 meters (62 feet) three hourslater. The same vessel then observed asouth wind of 65 kt with 16.5-meterseas (54 feet) near 37N 149W at 1800UTC February 8. At 1200 UTCFebruary 9, the John P. Tully(CG2958) encountered southeastwinds of 65 kt near 49N 135W, whilethe Daishin Maru (3FPS6) to thenorth near 51N 134W reported

southeast winds of 50 kt and 14.0-meter seas (46 feet). Later, at 0000UTC February 10, the Daishin Maruexperienced south winds of 50 kt and15.8-meter seas (52 feet).

In summary, this was the mostsignificant event in the North Pacific,featuring hurricane-force winds andthe highest seas observed in the

January-to-April period.

North Pacific Storm of 8-12 March:This system followed an east-northeast track across the Pacific,leaving the coast of northern Japan at0000 UTC March 7 and later makingfinal landfall as a weakening gale at0600 UTC March 13. The first part ofFigure 8 depicts this storm at



maximum intensity (962 mb) near48N 156W at 1800 UTC March 10,and the second and third parts showthis system weakening as itapproaches the coast of BritishColumbia. The Maersk Wind (S6TY)reported a north wind of 65 kt twelvehours later near 53N 153W. At 0000UTC March 12, the Oriental Bay(MKYJ8) experienced west winds of50 kt and 15.5-meter seas (51 feet)near 44N 144W, the highest seasobserved in this storm.

Northwest Pacific and Bering SeaStorm of 11-13 March: The secondand third parts of Figure 8 show therapid development of this system tomaximum intensity over a 24-hourperiod, with the central pressuredropping 40 mb in this period. Thiswas the most rapid pressure fall overa 24-hour period in the North Pacificin the four-month period. The centralpressure of 948 mb reached at 1800UTC March 12 was the lowest in theNorth Pacific during this four-monthperiod. The intense center movedthrough an area of sparse ship reports.The strongest wind reported was fromthe Maersk Wind (S6TY), with a

south wind of 50 kt near 54N 176W at0600 UTC March 13. The system wasweakening rapidly and headingnorthwest at that time.

Western Pacific Storm of 4-6 April:Figure 9 shows the development ofthis storm east of Japan over a 24-hour period to maximum intensity,980 mb, at 0600 UTC April 5. Slowweakening followed as the centerdrifted east, blocked by the high-pressure ridge to the east and north.The Toba (LHOE3) near 36N 158Ereported a southeast wind of 60 kt at0600 UTC April 5, while the CSXReliance (WFLH) near 33N 143Eencountered north winds of 50 kt and11.6-meter seas (38 feet), the highestseas observed in this storm. The CSXReliance also reported a northwestwind of 60 kt and 9.8-meter seas (32feet) near 33N 145E at 1200 UTCApril 5. The QuikScat image ofFigure 10 shows winds of 50 to 60 kton the backside of the storm, similarto what ships were reporting. Thesystem subsequently weakened to agale as it reached 160E early on April6.

References


Bancroft, G., High Seas Text BulletinsIssued by MPC (MarinersWeather Log, Vol. 40, No. 2,Summer 1996).

Bancroft, G., Marine WeatherReview-North Atlantic Area,September through December1999 (Mariners Weather Log,April 2000).



Figure 8. MPC North Pacific Surfaceanalysis charts valid 1800 UTC March

10, 11, and 12, 2002.



Figure 9. MPC North Pacific Surface Analysis charts (Part 2 - west) valid 0600 UTC April 4 and 5, 2002.

Figure 10. QuikScatscatterometer image of satellite-sensed winds around the back

side of the storm shown inFigure 9. The valid time of the

pass is approximately 0900 UTCApril 5, 2002, or three hours

later than the valid time of thesecond analysis in

Figure 9.(Image courtesy of

NOAA/NESDIS/Office of Researchand Applications)



Introduction

With the progression of the seasoninto summer the main track of low-pressure systems shifted north, fromthe Canadian Maritime Provincesnortheast toward Iceland with severalturning north into the Davis Strait.Although cyclonic activity is normallyin decline with summer approaching,the period from the middle of Maythrough the middle of June wasespecially active, with several lowsdeveloping storm force winds to 60 kt

to the west of Great Britain. Also,June 1 marks the start of the Atlantichurricane season. Two named tropicalcyclones affected MPC’s waters northof 31N, including the first of theseason in mid-July and the thirdnamed storm in early August.

Tropical Activity

Tropical Storm Arthur: Arthur, thefirst tropical cyclone of the 2002Atlantic hurricane season, originatedas a weak low in the Gulf of Mexico

on July 9, then emerged off the SouthCarolina coast early on July 14 andbecame Tropical Depression 1 at 1800UTC July 14 with maximumsustained winds of 30 kt with gusts to40 kt. The system tracked east justsouth of a stationary front andintensified to a tropical storm eighteenhours later. Figure 1 shows Arthurwith a maximum intensity of 50 ktwith gusts to 60 kt about to mergewith the front to the northwest andbecoming an extratropical storm. Theship LAFQ5 near 36N 64W

MARINE WEATHER REVIEW – NORTH ATLANTIC AREAMay through August 2002By George P. BancroftMeteorologistMarine Prediction Center

Figure 1. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts (Part 2 - west) showing development of Tropical Storm Arthur. Validtimes are 0600 UTC July 15 and 1800 UTC July 16, 2002.

encountered south winds of 45 kt and5.5-meter seas (18 feet) at 0000 UTCJuly 16. Later, at 1800 UTC July 16,the Choyang Zenith (DACP)experienced southwest winds of 35 ktand 8.5-meter seas (28 feet) near 40N53W, following passage of Arthur’scenter. The Canadian buoy 44141(42.1N 56.2W) reported a northeastwind at 39 kt with gusts to 52 kt, 3.5-meter seas (11 feet) and a pressure of997.5 mb at 1500 UTC July 16.Figure 2 is a GOES8 infrared satelliteimage of Arthur near maximumintensity, revealing a central dense

core of cloudcover around the center,a characteristic of tropical cyclones.The remains of Arthur then movednorth into the Davis Strait as a gale-force low early on July 19.

Tropical Storm Cristobal: The thirdtropical cyclone of the season beganas a weak non-frontal low near theSouth Carolina coast early on August4 which drifted southeast, becomingTropical Depression 3 near 32N 77Wat 2100 UTC August 5. It was namedTropical Storm Cristobal by TPC at0900 UTC August 7 just south ofMPC’s waters near 29.5N 76.2W with

maximum sustained winds of 40 ktwith gusts to 50 kt. The system wassubsequently picked up by anapproaching cold front andmaintained the same intensity, re-entering MPC’s waters near 31.5N76.0W at 2100 UTC August 8 beforebecoming extratropical. The Figaro(S6PI) reported a southwest wind of35 kt near 38N 57W at 1200 UTCAugust 9 as the center passed to thewest. Twenty-four hours later, theEver Reward (3FYB3) reported 5-meter seas (16 feet) near 45N 45W,along with south winds of 30 kt.

Figure 2. GOES-8 infrared satellite image valid 1145 UTC July 16, 2002. Satellite senses temperature on a scale from warm(black) to cold (white) in this type of image. The valid time is about 6 hours prior to that of the second part of Figure 1.





The remnants of Cristobal thenmoved northeast past Iceland early onAugust 14 as a gale-force low.

Other Significant Events ofthe Period

Western North Atlantic Storm of 4-6 May: Figure 3 shows a low-pressure center moving off the NewEngland coast and intensifying over a36-hour period to become the 972-mbstorm (at maximum intensity),northeast of Newfoundland in thesecond part of the figure. This was themost intense low (in terms of centralpressure) in the western NorthAtlantic during this four-monthperiod. At 1200 UTC May 4, theMaersk Wind (S6TY) reported southwinds of 50 kt and 6.5-meter seas (21feet) near 44N 43W, while theAlligator Reliance (ZCBN5)encountered southwest winds of 45 kt

and 8.5-meter seas (28 feet) near 46N43W, the highest seas reported in thisstorm. Six hours later, the Kometik(VCRT) reported southwest winds of50 kt and 4.5-meter seas (15 feet) at46N 48W, followed by southwestwinds of 40 kt and 8.5-meter seas (28feet) at 0000 UTC May 5 when theship was at 47N 48W. This systemsubsequently lifted northeast andweakened, passing northwest ofIceland late on May 6.

Eastern North Atlantic Storm of 15-16 May: Like the mid-June event tobe described below, this stormoriginated as a secondarydevelopment on the southeast side ofa parent gale-force low in the centralNorth Atlantic. A 998-mb low formednear 45N 27W at 0000 UTC May 15and absorbed the parent low to thenorthwest in the following twenty-four hours while intensifying to 982

mb. The maximum intensity wasreached at 0600 UTC May 16 (980mb) when the center was at 49N 22W.Although not as intense as the mid-June storm and with no shipsreporting storm-force winds, reportedseas were as high as 11.5 meters (37feet) from the Sea-Land Developer(KHRH) near 45N 24W at 0000 UTCMay 16. Reported winds from thisship were southwest 45 kt. Thissystem subsequently began a slowweakening trend while drifting north,then northwest, before merging with agale coming off the Canadian coaston May 18.

North Atlantic Storm of 19-21 May:This storm, unseasonably strong forlate May, originated near the mid-Atlantic coast of the U.S. early onMay 18 and followed a northeastwardtrack. Figure 4 depicts the period ofmost rapid deepening of this system,

Figure 3. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts (Part 2) valid 0600 UTC May 3 and1800 UTC May 4, 2002.

with the central pressure dropping 28mb over a 48-hour period. The systemis shown near maximum intensity at969-mb central pressure just west ofthe British Isles in the second part ofFigure 4. Six hours prior to this time,the central pressure was 968 mb,equal to the lowest pressure in themid-June storm and the mostintense (among non-tropicallows) of the May-Augustperiod in both the NorthAtlantic and North Pacific.This system became a storm by1200 UTC May 20 near 50N40W, when the vessel LAFQ5(47N 36W) reported westwinds of 50 kt and 6-meterseas (20 feet). Six hours later,the same ship encounterednorthwest winds of 60 kt and8-meter seas (27 feet) near47N 38W. At 0000 UTC May21, the Queen Elizabeth 2(GBTT) experienced northwestwinds of 55 kt and 6-meterseas (19 feet) near 47N 31W.At 1200 UTC May 21 the

Atlantic Cartier (C6MS4) reportedfrom near 48N 21W with northwestwinds of 60 kt and 11.5-meter seas(38 feet), the highest wind and seaconditions reported in this storm. Thefirst part of Figure 5 shows thissystem weakening early on the May22 while passing just west of Ireland,

and heading toward Iceland.

Northeastern AtlanticStorm of 22-24 May: Thisstorm followed closelybehind the aforementionedintense low and originatednear the north Florida coastas a gale-force low at 1200UTC May 19. Figure 5 showsthe period of most rapiddevelopment over the 36-hour period ending at 1800UTC May 23 when thecentral pressure dropped 30mb. The central pressurebottomed out at 972 mb sixhours later, at 0000 UTCMay 24. MPC analyzed thissystem as a hurricane-forcestorm (maximum winds of at

least 64 kt) at 1800 UTC May 23(second part of Figure 5). A QuikScatimage taken at about that time (Figure6) shows the stronger winds occurringsouth and southwest of the center,with three 60-kt wind barbs apparentnear 51N 20W. Availableconventional surface reports were

Figure 4. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts: A Part 2 (west) panel valid 1200UTC May 19 and a Part 1 (east) panel valid 1200 UTC May 21, 2002.

Figure 5. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts (Part 1) valid 0600 UTC May 22and 1800 UTC May 23, 2002.





outside the area of strongest winds.The Bonn Express (DGNB) reportedthe highest wind (a west wind of 45kt) near 53N 17W at 0600 UTC May24, a time when the system wasbeginning to weaken. The AlligatorReliance (ZCBN5) sent three reportsof seas 9 meters (30 feet) or higher

from 1200 UTC May 23 to 0000 UTCMay 24, with the highest being 10meters (33 feet) at 0000 UTC May 24near 47N 30W (accompanied by awest wind of 30 kt). The systemsubsequently weakened and becamestationary just northwest of GreatBritain, where it dissipated on May

26.

Northeastern Atlantic Storm of 8-9June: This developing storm took amore west-to-east track thanpreceding systems mentioned above,emerging off the southern Labradorcoast at 0000 UTC June 7. Figure 7

Figure 6. QuikScat scatterineter unage if satekkute-sensed winds valid 1843 UTC May 23, 2002, or approximately the validtime of the second part of Figure 5.




shows this system eighteen hourslater, and 36 hours afterwards whenthe storm was at maximum intensity(980 mb) just west of the British Isles.The ship ZCBP5 (50N 28W) reporteda west wind of 45 kt and 10-meterseas (33 feet) at 1800 UTC June 8.At 0600 UTC June 9, the AtlanticCartier (C6MS4) encounteredsouthwest winds of 50 kt and 5-meterseas (16 feet) near 50N 17W. Thehigh-resolution QuikScat image ofFigure 8 valid at this time shows alarge area of gale-force or higherwinds on the south and southwestsides of the center with some 50-ktflags mixed in. Twelve hours later, thebuoy 62029 (48N 12W) reported seasof 7.5 meters (25 feet). This systemsubsequently turned toward thenortheast and weakened northwest ofthe British Isles on June 10.

Northeastern Atlantic Storm of 15-16 June: This storm developed froma secondary low passing to the

southeast of a parent low (Figure 9) ina manner similar to that described inthe 15-16 May event. The most rapidperiod of intensification was the 24-hour period ending at 1800 UTC June16, when the central pressure dropped26 mb. The 500-mb analysis (Figure10) is for 1200 UTC June 16, withinthis period of rapid development. Ashort-wave trough and associated jetstream rounding the base of a larger-scale trough support development.

The second part of Figure 9 shows thestorm at maximum intensity (968mb). Along with the 19-21 Maystorm, this low was the most intenseof the four-month period in bothoceans, for non-tropical (orextratropical lows). The system in itsintense phase passed through an areaof sparse ship and buoy data, but aQuikScat pass (Figure 11) shows anarea of winds to 60 kt northwest ofIreland about 6 hours prior to the timeof the second part of Figure 9. The

highest wind reported by ships was 45kt, from the southwest as reported bythe Naparima (3FMM6) near 40N26W at 0600 UTC June 16, andsoutherly from the Happy Buccaneer(PEND) near 52N 11W at 0000 UTCJune 17. The Discovery (GLNE)reported the highest seas, 10.5 meters(34 feet) along with a south wind of35 kt, near 64N 5W at 0600 UTCJune 18. The buoy 64045 (59N 11W)reported a south wind of 30 kt and 9-meter seas (29 feet) at 1800 UTCJune 17. The storm then weakenedwhile moving north, passing east ofIceland late on June 19.

Northeastern Atlantic CyclonicActivity, 12-19 August: A weak low-pessure center passed east of theisland of Newfoundland on August 12and tracked east-northeast beforeturning more north while intensifying.The system reached a maximumintensity of 988 mb just west ofIreland near 57N 14W at 0000 UTC

Figure 7. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts (Part 1) valid 1800 UTC June 7 and0600 UTC June 9, 2002.



Figure 8. High-resolution QuikScat scatterometer image of satellite-sensed winds valid 0600 UTC June 9, 2002. Theresolution is 12.5 km, versus 25 km in regular QuikScat imagery (Figure 6). Wind barbs of 40 kt or higher stand out in this

black-and-white reproduction of the original colored image.(Image courtesy of NOAA/NESCDIS/Office of Research and Application)

August 15, when MPC classified it asa storm at that time and for thefollowing six hours. Ship data waslacking, with the Norrona (OZ2000)reporting a southwest wind of 40 ktnear 63N 9W at 0000 UTC August 16as the system was passing just east ofIceland. The low-pressure system

which followed originated in thecentral North Atlantic and attained asimilar intensity, 985 mb, near 55N14W at 1200 UTC August 17 beforelifting north and weakening nearIceland on August 19. A ship withcallsign VRVQ9 near 51N 13Wencountered south winds of 45 kt at

0000 UTC August 17, with a nearbybuoy reporting 5-meter seas (17 feet).The buoy 62106 (56N 10W) reportedsouth winds of 35 kt and 7.5-meterseas (25 feet) at 1800 UTC August17.

Figure 10. MPC 500-Mb Analysis of North Atlantic valid at 1200 UTC June 16, 2002. The chart iscomputer-generated with short-wave troughs (dashed lines) manually added.



Figure 9. MPC North Atlantic Surface Analysis charts (Part 1) valid 1200 UTC June 16 and 17, 2002.

Figure 11. QuikScat scatterometer image of satellite winds valid approximately 0600 UTC June 17, 2002.(Image courtesy of NOAA/NESDIS/Office of Research and Application)




Introduction

Low-pressure systems often trackedfrom southwest to northeast duringthe period, while high pressureprevailed off the west coast of theU.S. Occasionally the high pressureextended into the Bering Sea and Gulfof Alaska, forcing cyclonic systemscoming off Japan or eastern Russia toturn more north or northwest or evenstall. Several non-tropical lowsdeveloped storm-force winds, mainlyin May and June. Later in thesummer, with weaker cyclonicactivity in the mid-latitudes, thetropics became more active. Most ofthe significant weather events duringJuly and August were associated withtropical cyclones, or extratropicalcyclones with tropical origin. Severalof the tropical cyclones recurvednortheast and became extratropicalupon entering the mid-latitudewesterlies near the latitude of Japan.Tropical cyclones were also present inthe eastern Pacific, but these arecovered by the Tropical PredictionCenter in Miami.

Tropical Activity

Super Typhoon Hagibis: Hagibisappeared on the southern edge ofMPC’s oceanic Mercator surface-analysis area as a minimal typhoon at0000 UTC May 18 near 16N 140Eand moved north, with a gradual turntoward the northeast. The Mokihana(WNRD) reported a northeast windof 35 kt and 8-meter seas (27 feet)

near 18N 139E at 1200 UTC May 18.Maximum sustained winds increasedfrom 65 kt to 120 kt in the 24-hourperiod ending at 0000 UTC May 19,when th center reached 17.7N 140.5E.The system was briefly a super-typhoon (maximum sustained windsof 130 kt or higher) from 0600 to1800 UTC May 19. At 1800 UTCMay 19 Hagibis attained a maximumstrength of 140-kt (sustained winds),with gusts to 170 kt near 20.7N143.2E before beginning to weaken.Figure 1 shows Hagibis as a strongtropical storm crossing 160E intoMPC’s high seas area, the onlytropical cyclone to do so during theMay-August period, and then mergingwith the extratropical low (993 mb) at40N 154E. In the second part ofFigure 1, at 0600 UTC May 22,Hagibis has become extratropical andappears as the gale-force low (995mb) at 41N 179E. At 0000 UTC May22, the ship 3FQO4 (37N 175E)reported southwest winds of 40 kt and6.5-meter seas (21 feet). Twelve hourslater, the vessel 4XFQ encounteredsouthwest winds of 45 kt near 37N174W. At 0000 UTC May 24, the LeoForest (3FPH8) encounteredsoutheast winds of 35 kt and 8-meterseas (27 feet) near 51N 158W. Also atthat time, the Arctic Sun (ELQB8)near the eastern Aleutians (54N162W) reported east winds of 45 kt.The remnants of Hagibis became agale-force 985-mb low in the centralAleutians by that time, before driftingnorthwest and weakening over theBering Sea by May 26.

Typhoon Chataan: Chataan appearedon MPC’s oceanic chart area justsouth of Japan at 0600 UTC July 10with maximum sustained winds of 65kt with gusts to 80 kt. Six hours later,the Tenaga Dua (9MSM) near 34N140E reported south winds of 65 kt.By 1800 UTC July 10, Chataanweakened to a tropical storm near35.7N 140.9E. The CSX Defender(KGJB) at that time encounteredsouthwest winds of 55 kt and 17-meter seas (56 feet). The systembecame an extratropical gale-forcelow with central pressure 984 mb near41N 144E at 0600 UTC and thencontinued to move north and weaken.

Typhoon Halong: Halong passedacross the southwest corner of MPC’soceanic analysis area as a typhoon at1200 UTC July 12, near 16N 136E,with maximum sustained winds of110 kt with gusts to 135 kt. Afterbecoming a super typhoon west of thearea twelve hours later, Halongrecurved toward the northeast andweakened. Halong then followedChataan on a similar track, re-enteringthe waters south of Japan at 1800UTC July 15 as a tropical stormundergoing extratropicaltransformation (Figure 2). UnlikeChataan, Halong re-intensified into apotent extratropical storm soon aftertransformation, appearing as the 976-mb storm in the second part of Figure2, just 12 hours later. At that time, thePolar Eagle (ELPT3) reported southwinds of 75 kt near 36N 143E. AQuikScat pass valid about three hours


MARINE WEATHER REVIEW – NORTH PACIFIC AREAMay to August 2002George BancroftMeteorologistMarine Prediction Center



Figure 2. MPC North Pacific Surface Analysis charts (Part 2) valid 1800 UTC July 15 and0600 UTC July 16, 2002.

Figure 1. MPC North Pacific Surface Analysis charts (Part 2 - west) valid 0600 UTC May 21 and 22, 2002.


Figure 3. QuikScat scatterometer image of satellite-sensed winds valid approximately 0900 UTC July 16, 2002. The validtime is only three hours later than that of the second part of Figure 2. (Image courtesy of NOAA/NESDIS/Office of Research and Applications)

later (Figure 3), reveals a compactsystem with a small area of 50 to 60kt winds just southeast of the center.An infrared satellite image of thestorm (Figure 4) taken near the timeof the second analysis in Figure 2 issuggestive of a hybrid system withsome characteristics of a tropical

cyclone (central dense cloudcover andcompactness) and of an extratropicallow (such as becoming associatedwith a frontal cloud band over easternJapan). The highest reported seas withthis system after passing east of135W was 12 meters (40 feet) fromthe Green Cove (WCZ9380) near

34N 140E at 0600 UTC July 16. Thisship also reported southwest winds of45 kt at that time. Extratropical“Hagibis” subsequently weakened toa gale-force low near the Kurileislands eighteen hours later beforemoving into the western Bering Seaon the July 18. After looping to the




Figure 4. GMS infrared satellite image of extratropical storm “Halong” valid at 0532 UTC July 16, 2002. Satellite sensestemperature, which is displayed on a scale from warm (black) to cold (white) in this type of imagery. The valid time is

approximately the same as in the second part of Figure 2.



south of the central Aleutians on 20July, the remnants of Halong becamea large gale in the southern BeringSea on the 22nd before looping to thesoutheast and then northeast andfinally moving inland over mainlandAlaska late on July 26.

Super Typhoon Fengshen: Figure 2shows Typhoon Fengshen which wascentered just south of MPC’s oceanicchart area and tracking west at thetime. At 0000 UTC July 20 Fengshenappeared on the southern edge of thechart area near 16.0N 158.5E as asuper-typhoon drifting west-northwestat 6 kt. The intensity peaked at 1200UTC July 21 near 20.5N 154.3E withmaximum sustained winds of 145 ktand gusts to 175 kt. Fengshensubsequently weakened to a minimaltyphoon while passing south of Japanand west of MPC’s surface-chart areaby 0000 UTC July 25.

Tropical Storm Fung-Wong: Thissystem formed as a minimal tropicalstorm near 24N140E at 1800UTC July 20with maximumsustained windsof 35 kt andgusts to 45 ktand driftedwest, passingwest of MPC’soceanicanalysis area at0000 UTC July22.

TropicalDepression15W(Kalmaegi):This tropicalcyclone formedfrom a tropical

disturbance that was near 18N 180 at1200 UTC July 20, becomingTropical Depression 15W (Kalmaegi)near 17.2N 178.1E, six hours laterwith maximum sustained winds of 30kt with gusts to 40 kt. This systemwas short-lived, drifting northwestand dissipating at 1800 UTC July 21.

Tropical Depression 17W: Thisweak western Pacific tropical cycloneformed east of Japan near 34.2N150.6E at 0600 UTC August 5 andmoved east 10 kt but dissipated as aremnant low 34N 152E twelve hourslater. The maximum sustained windswere 25 kt with gusts to 35 kt.

Super Typhoon Phanfone: Phanfoneentered the far southern waters inMPC’s oceanic analysis area near16.8N 154.8E at 1200 UTC August 13with maximum sustained winds of 70kt with gusts to 85 kt. The systemtracked northwest and intensified intoa super typhoon at 1800 UTC August15 near 23.9N 143.3E with maximum

sustained winds of 135 kt with guststo 165 kt. Phanfone remained a supertyphoon through 1800 UTC August16 before turning more north andslowly weakening. At 0000 UTCAugust 18, the Mirai (JNSR)encountered north winds of 50 kt and8-meter seas (26 feet) near 31N 134E.Figure 5 shows Phanfone down tominimal-typhoon strength near thecoast of Japan at 1200 UTC August19, recurving northeast and becomingan extratropical storm within twenty-four hours with developing fronts.The CSX Defender (KGJB),appearing north of the storm centernear 43N 149E in the second part ofFigure 5, reported northeast winds at40 kt. Extratropical “Phanfone”underwent rapid intensification in thefollowing twelve hours, with thecentral pressure bottoming out at 972mb near 44N 152E at 0000 UTC onAugust 21. This made it the seconddeepest non-tropical low in the NorthPacific during the May-August

Figure 5. MPC North Pacific Surface Analysis charts (Part 2) valid 1200 UTC August 19 and 20, 2002.



period. The Nyk Starlight (3FUX6)reported a southwest wind of 45 ktnear 42N 156E six hours later. Thesystem then weakened to a gale at0000 UTC August 22, then passedsouth of the Aleutians beforebecoming absorbed by a gale-forcelow in the southwest Gulf of Alaskalate on August 25.

Typhoon Rusa: Rusa followed atrack west-northwest across the waterssouth and southeast of Japan, enteringMPC’s chart area at 0000 UTCAugust 23 near 16N 161E as atropical storm with maximumsustained winds of 40 kt with gusts to50 kt. Rusa intensified into a minimaltyphoon near 19N 157E twenty-fourhours later. The maximum intensitywas 115 kt for sustained winds, withgusts to 140 kt, at 0600 UTC August26 when the center was at 22.5N

145.6E. The Chubu Maru (3FBJ7) atthat time reported from 22N 142Ewith a north wind of 35 kt and 5-meter seas (16 feet). Rusa then begana slow weakening trend, but remaineda typhoon when passing west of135W and south of Japan at 0600UTC August 28.

Tropical Depression Alika: Thisweak central Pacific tropical cycloneentered MPC’s oceanic analysis areanear 16N 168W at 0300 UTC August28 and drifted northwest, dissipatingat 1200 UTC that same day. Themaximum sustained winds were 25 kt,with gusts to 35 kt.

Typhoon Sinlaku: TropicalDepression 22W formed at 16.7N154.3E at 1800 UTC August 28 andbecame Tropical Storm Sinlaku near20.5N 153.2E twelve hours later, with

maximum sustained winds of 35 ktwith gusts to 45 kt. Sinlaku became atyphoon near 22.5N 152.6E at 1200UTC August 30 and developedmaximum sustained winds of 110 ktwith gusts to 135 kt at 0600 UTCAugust 31 near 23.7N 149.7E. Thesystem turned more west by the endof the month, passing west of 135Wnear 25N early on September 3.

Typhoon Ele: Ele was formerly acentral-Pacific hurricane whichcrossed 180W, becoming Typhoon Eleas such cyclones are called in thewestern North Pacific, on August 31.Further information on this systemwill be covered in the next issue ofMariners Weather Log.

Other Significant Events

North Pacific Storm of 25-27 May:Figure 6 depicts this storm forming

Figure 6. MPC North Pacific Surface Analysis charts: Part 2 (west) valid 0600 UTC May 25 and Part 1 (east) valid0600 UTC May 27, 2002.


Figure 7. QuikScat scatterometer image of satellite-sensed winds valid about 0600 UTC May 27, 2002, or thesame valid time as in the second part of Figure 6.



from the consolidation of two westernNorth Pacific lows over a 48-hourperiod ending at 0600 UTC May 27.In terms of wind and sea conditions,the system was near maximumstrength at 0600 UTC May 27 (secondpart of Figure 6). The central pressureactually dropped to as low as 970 mbat 1200 UTC May 28 when the center

was at 49N 149W, but the circulationof this system expanded in area withan associated decrease in winds togale force. This central pressure wasthe lowest in the North Pacific duringthe four-month period among non-tropical lows. The ship V7CXreported a southwest wind of 45 ktand 7.5-meter seas (25 feet) near 40N

178W at 1200 UTC May 26. TheQuikScat data in Figure 7 reveal awell-defined circulation and storm-force winds of 50 kt south of thecenter. Later, at 0000 UTC May 28,the vessel V7DL4 experienced westwinds of 35 kt and 8-meter seas (26feet), the highest seas reported in thisevent.



North Pacific Storm of 7-8 June:This system originated near the KurileIslands early on June 3 and driftedeast, with a new center forming to theeast. Figure 8 shows the new centernear 45N 169W (995 mb) in the firstpanel, which curved toward the northand developed a lowest centralpressure of 978 mb near the easternAleutians twenty-four hours later.The highest winds and seas with thissystem occurred near the easternAleutians early on June 8.

The NOAA ship Miller Freeman(WTDM) encountered northeastwinds of 52 kt near 55N 160W at0300 UTC June 8. The same shipreported from 55N 161W three hourslater with an east wind of 30 kt and 9-meter seas (30 feet), the highest seasobserved in this storm. At that timeanother NOAA ship, the Rainier(WTEF), reported east winds of 45 ktat 56N 158W. The system then begana weakening trend while turning more

west into the Bering Sea.

Western Pacific Storm of 9-10 June:The rapid development of this stormis shown in Figure 9, with the 1000mb low down near 30N 143E at 1800UTC June 8 absorbing another low tothe north (994-mb center just north ofJapan) twenty-four hours later. TheUnited Spirit (ELYB2) near 42N157E reported southeast winds of 45kt and 4.5-meter seas (14 feet) at 1800UTC June 9, while the ship H3EPencountered west winds of 45 kt at39N 146E. The CSX Patriot (KHRF)experienced a southwest wind of 40 ktand 6-meter seas (20 feet) near 43N155E at 0000 UTC June 11. Thesystem slowed after 1800 UTC June 9and looped northwest then southeastduring the next twenty-four hoursbefore heading northeast andweakening near the western Aleutianson the June 14.

Western Pacific Storm of 18-19June: Much of the development ofthis compact system occurred over a

twenty-four hour period and wasunusually far south for the time ofyear. A low-pressure center (1000 mb)moved northeast off the southerncoast of Japan after 0000 UTC June18 and developed a 988-mb centralpressure at 0000 UTC June 19 near40N 147E. The strongest winds werereported at this time, with the Mirai(JNSR) reporting a northwest wind of55 kt on the backside of the systemnear 39N 145E, along with 9.5-meterseas (31 feet). These impressivenumbers, if reliable, are likely due toenhancement by the warm KuroshioCurrent. The storm center continued anortheastward motion and began toweaken after developing a centralpressure of 986 mb at 0600 UTC June19. The system reached the centralAleutians as a gale-force low on the22nd, followed by someredevelopment in the Gulf of Alaskaon the 25th before weakening near theAlaskan coast on June 26.

Eastern North Pacific Storm of 7-8July: This storm, while not among the

most intense of the period interms of central pressure, wasaccompanied by the highestreported winds among non-tropical systems. Figure 10displays the period of mostrapid development of thisslow-moving system over thetwenty-four hour periodending at 1800 UTC July 7,when the central pressurebottomed out at 992 mb. At1200 UTC July 7, the MaerskSea (S6CW) reported asoutheast wind of 40 kt and 6-meter seas (20 feet) near 43N147W. At 0000 UTC July 8,or six hours later than the timeof the second part of Figure10, the Hanjin Amsterdam(DHDH) encountered a

Figure 8. MPC North Pacific Surface Analysis charts )Part 1 - east) valid 0600 UTCJune 7 and 8, 2002.



Figure 9. MPC North Pacific Surface Analysis charts (Part 2) valid 1800 UTCJune 8 and 9, 2002.

Figure 10. MPC North Pacific Surface Analysis charts (Part 1) valid 1800 UTC July 6 and7, 2002.



Figure 11. GOES-10 infrared satellite image of the storm in Figure 10, valid 2200 UTC July 7, 2002. The valid time is fourhours later than that of the second part of Figure 10.

northwest wind of 58 kt and 6.5-meter seas (21 feet). These reportedwinds appear to be reliable and aresupported by QuikScat data (notshown). A satellite image of the stormnear maximum intensity is shown inFigure 11 and reveals a well-definedand mature cloud pattern andcirculation center. The systemsubsequently continued an eastwarddrift and weakened.

Reference



MEAN CIRCULATION HIGHLIGHTS AND CLIMATE ANOMALIESA. James WagnerSenior Forecaster - Climate Prediction Center NCEP/NWS/NOAA


MARCH - APRIL 2002

The map of mean 500-mb height andheight anomalies show generallyabove normal heights over much ofthe Pacific Basin, except for astronger than normal trough at lowlatitudes northwest of Hawaii, mainlyduring April. A ridge extended northfrom middle latitudes of the Pacificinto the Bering Sea and over Alaska,where surface pressures were wellabove normal. The Aleutian Low wasnoteworthy by its virtual absence,appearing only as a tiny 1016 mbcontour in the mid-Pacific. The mostextensive area of below normalheights in the Northern Hemispherewas over much of Canada, extendingout across the North Atlantic, while to

the south, above normal mid-tropospheric heights and sea levelpressures prevailed across most of theU.S. and middle latitudes of theAtlantic. The circulation was alsosomewhat more anticyclonic thannormal over most of Europe, both atthe surface and aloft.

Unusually cold air remained in placeover most of Canada and southeasternAlaska, and frequent late-seasonArctic outbreaks affected much of thecentral and northern sections of theLower 48 States, especially duringMarch. During April, the cold airremained over western Canada mostof the time, and the strong BermudaHigh expanded its area of influencenorthwestward, bringing early-season

warmth to much of the southern andeastern parts of the U.S.

Over the Eastern Hemisphere, a weaktrough was located over central Asiabut mid-tropospheric heights wereabove normal elsewhere. Most areasenjoyed above-normal temperatures,and excessively hot conditionsdeveloped over southeastern Asia andparts of the Indian subcontinentduring April. Most of the two-monthperiod was dry in Europe, whereanticyclonic flow conditionsprevailed.

Over the Pacific, La Niña conditions,characterized by below normal SSTsalong the equator, were replaced inearly March by moderately above


normal SSTs, indicating the earlystages of a new El Niño. Atmosphericindices, however, remained in theneutral range, showing that thewarming of the SSTs along theequator had not yet had much effecton the overlying atmosphere. Impactsof El Niño on the atmosphere areusually greatest during its maturestage, which is not expected forseveral months and are mosteffectively transmitted to the middlelatitude circulation during the colderpart of the year.

MAY - JUNE 2002

The circulation during the late springand early summer months wascharacterized by a band of fastwesterlies extending from easternCanada across the middle latitudes ofthe Atlantic, with a tendency forstorms to stall just west of the British

Isles. Higher than normal pressure andgenerally anticyclonic conditionsprevailed both at low latitudes andhigh latitudes of the Atlantic. Exceptfor a blocking ridge over the westcoast of Alaska and the Bering Sea,conditions were close to normal overthe Pacific. No strongly anomalouscirculation patterns were in evidenceover the lower 48 states either, butthis was due to highly variableconditions during the two months.May was on the cool side, with recordlow temperatures occurring in theMidwest and Northeast during thethird week of the month, while Junewas predominantly warm, with hotweather, some of record proportions,developing over both the Southwestand the north-central states by the endof the month.

In Europe, temperatures were above

normal much of the time in northernareas, but hot weather developed overmuch of the southern and central partsof the continent during the latter partof June, where strongly anticyclonicconditions prevailed.

Over the tropical Pacific, El Niñoconditions continued to develop.Equatorial SSTs were at least 1 Cabove normal over a wide areaextending from just west of the dateline to about 110W longitude. Astrengthening of the Humboldt currentprevented the warm water fromreaching the coast of South America.The Southern Oscillation Index, oftentaken as a measure of the phase of ElNiño conditions, was negative for thefourth consecutive month in June,suggesting that the El Niño wasbeginning to have an effect on theatmosphere.




JULY - AUGUST 2002

Stronger than normal anticyclonicconditions were in evidence at mostmid- latitude locations during Julyand August, especially over theeastern Pacific, the Great Lakesregion, the central Atlantic, andScandinavia. Vigorous troughs andcyclonic activity were confined to asmall area of the central Pacificsouthwest fo the Aleutians, the Arcticbasin just north of the CanadianArchipelago, central Asia, and part ofsouthern Europe and theMediterranean Basin. The storminessin southern and central Europe wasassociated with record flooding insome areas during August, andextended into eastern Europe. Above-normal temperatures prevailedprimarily over eastern Europe in Julyand the area of anomalous warmth

moved north to Scandinavia inAugust.

Record and near-record heat andincreasing drought plagued manyparts of the United States, and thesummer as a whole (including June)ranked with the Dust Bowl summersof 1934 and 1936 and the recent hotsummer of 1988 as among the hotteston record on a nationwide basis.Drought continued through most ofthe summer over much of the Westand Southwest, where wildfirescontinued to be a problem. Droughtbegan to develop in the eastern cornbelt also under the anticyclonic flowpattern, following a spring that hadmostly good rains.

Much of the Middle Atlantic areacontinued to have worsening drought,and the Northeast began to dry again

following fairly normal spring rainsin most areas.

El Niño conditions continued todevelop over the Pacific, and moreatmospheric indices began to show itsinfluence. Although typhoons wereactive over the western Pacific, dryconditions prevailed over easternAustralia and parts of Indonesia.

Eastern Pacific tropical storms wereactive also, but tropical activity overthe Atlantic was relatively weak andinfrequent until the very end ofAugust, when several storms, mostlyweak, formed in early September. Allof these are typical atmosphericresponses to El Niño conditions overthe equatorial Pacific.


Southwest Gulf of Mexico StormEvents February, 2002: Several galeevents typically occur over thesouthwest Gulf of Mexico each winterseason. The gales develop whenstrong high pressure systems over thecentral United States build southwardalong the Mexican coast. The strongnortherly winds are magnified overthe extreme southwest Gulf as theyfunnel down the eastern slopes of theSierra Madre Mountains. In Mexico,these events are known as aAchoclatero@ or Achocolate gale@(American Meteorological Society,2000) as large amounts of blowingsand and dust produce a brownish orchocolate-colored sky. In February,two such events produced storm forcewinds on both land and sea.

The first storm event occurredbetween 10-12 February. It beganwhen a strong cold front entered theGulf of Mexico shortly after 0600UTC 10 February. An unusuallystrong 1052 mb high pressure centerwas located northwest of the frontover the northern Rockies. As the highbegan to build over the Gulf behindthe front winds increased to gale forceover the western Gulf of Mexico. By1200 UTC, the front extended fromsoutheast Louisiana to the Mexicancoast near 23EN 98EW. Buoy 42002in the western Gulf near 26EN 94EWobserved 34 kt winds with gusts to 40

kt at 1700 UTC. Wave heights at buoy42002 quickly rose to 4.5 m (14 ft) by2300 UTC.

At 0000 UTC 11 February, the frontextended from the western FloridaPanhandle to the southwest Bay ofCampeche. The Koeln Express(9VBL) provided extremely usefulhourly-observations from thesouthwest Bay of Campeche duringthis event (Figure 1). The shipexperienced winds above gale forcefor 24 consecutive hours and

encountered storm force winds for 8hours. The Koeln Express observedpeak winds of 58 kt at both 0400 and0500 UTC. Based on the observationsa storm warning was issued for theextreme southwest Gulf of Mexico.

By 1800 UTC 11 February, the coldfront was located from south-centralFlorida to the eastern Bay ofCampeche. High pressure northwestof the front weakened and moved intoeastern Texas. At this time, stormforce winds ended over the southwest

Figure 1. Graph of Pressure and Wind Observations from the Koeln Express from1800 UTC 10 February through 1000 UTC 12 February 2002. The two horizontal

lines represent the 34- and 50-kt wind speeds.


Marine Weather ReviewTropical Atlantic and Tropical East Pacific AreasJanuary through April 2002Daniel P. Brown andHugh D. Cobb, IIITropical Analysis and Forecast Branch,Tropical Prediction CenterMiami, Florida


Gulf and by 0600 UTC 12 Februarywinds finally decreased below galeforce over the entire Gulf of Mexico.This event also produced strong galesover the Gulf of Tehuantepec. It issuspected that the event reached stormforce over the Gulf of Tehuantepec,however no verification of stormforce winds was received.

The second storm event began earlyon 22nd February as a cold frontentered the northwest Gulf. The frontmoved rapidly southeastward as a1036 mb high over the Rockies builtsouthward. The winds quicklyincreased to gale force behind thefront. At both 1100 and 1200 UTCbuoy 42002 reported northerly windsof 36 kt with gusts to 44 kt. Seaheights increased from less than 1 m(2-3 ft) to 3.5 m (11 ft) in 3 hours.Again, the strongest winds occurredover the southwest Gulf of Mexicoalong the eastern slopes of the SierraMadre Mountains. An 1137 UTCQuikscat pass detected 40- to 50-ktwinds from 21N to 25N west of 95W.At 1145 UTC, Veracruz reportednortherly winds of 18 kt. By 1318UTC the winds at Veracruz increasedvery dramatically to 50-kt with guststo 60 kt. At 1609 UTC, Veracruzobserved sustained winds of 60 ktwith occasionally gusts estimated toan incredible 100 kt (Figure 2).Visibilities dropped to 1 statue mile inblowing sand, which is precisely whythese events are referred to as a“chocolate gale.” Just offshore, theLykes Explorer (WGLA) near 20.5N96W experienced northwest winds of44 kt and combined seas of 5 m (16ft) at 1800 UTC. By 1200 UTC 23February, high pressure becameestablished over the western Gulfalong the coast of Texas and Mexico.At this time, the strong northerlywinds decreased below gale force.

This event also produced storm forcewinds over the Gulf of Tehuantepecas indicated by a Quikscat pass at2338 UTC 23 February.

Significant Weather of thePeriod

Tropical Cyclones:

None.

Other Significant Events ofthe Period

The January to April time periodtypically brings several strong coldoutbreaks that produce gale forcewinds over the Gulf of Mexico andwestern Atlantic. Besides the twosouthwest Gulf of Mexico stormevents featured above, five additionalgale events occurred over the westernGulf of Mexico during the period. Acouple of these events produced gales

over the western Atlantic, while twostorm centers north of the TPCforecast area briefly produced galesover the eastern Atlantic south of31N.

Several Gulf of Tehuantepec galeevents occurred in the eastern Pacific.

Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulfof Mexico

Gulf of Mexico and West AtlanticGales 2-7 January: During the firstweek of January, two separate lowsdeveloped over the Gulf of Mexicoand produced gale conditions overportions of the Gulf and west Atlantic.The first low developed early on 1January, along a stationary front overthe southwest Gulf of Mexico. Thelow moved northeastward into thecentral Gulf and strengthened into agale center by 0000 UTC 2 January.Gale force winds occurred over the

Figure 2. Graph of Pressure and Wind Observations from Veracruz, Mexico from0600 UTC throuh 1900 UTC 22 February 2002. An estimated peak gust of 100 kt

was indicated at 1600 UTC.




north and west semicircles of thesystem. Buoy 42002 near 26N 93.5Wreported northerly winds of 33 kt withgusts to 40 kt, and seas of 4 to 4.5 m(14 ft) around 0600 UTC 2 January.The ship Pequot (ELTF6) over thecentral Gulf of Mexico encountered35 kt winds at 0600 UTC. Later onthe 2nd, the gale moved east-northeastward across the eastern Gulfof Mexico and central Florida. Thesystem brought widespread rain tomuch of Florida and produced a weaktornado in Homestead (just south ofMiami). At 0000 UTC 3 January, thegale was centered over the westAtlantic near 31N 79W. By this time,gale conditions ended over most ofthe Gulf of Mexico; however, asstrong high pressure becameestablished over the Gulf, strongnorthwest winds continued. Along thecoast of Mexico, these winds reachedgale force, and the Koeln Expressreported hourly observations of 35 to43 kt near Veracruz between 0500 and1600 UTC. The gales finally endedover the entire Gulf by 0000 UTC 4January.

Early on 4 January, the gale centerstrengthened into a storm off theNorth Carolina coast.

At this time, strong west to northwestgale force winds extended south to27N west of 65W over the westAtlantic. A 1048 UTC Quikscat passdetected 35 to 40 kt winds. At 1200UTC the Arctic Ocean (C6T2062)observed 37-kt winds near 30N 75W.The gale force winds spread eastwardas the storm center moved northeastof Bermuda later on 4th January.Early on the 5th, the ship KotaPerwira (DEEU) encountered 41-ktwinds and combined seas of 5 to 7.5m (17 to 25 ft) near 30N 56W.

Shortly after 1200 UTC 5 January, thestorm center moved farther north, andwinds decreased below gale forcesouth of 31N.

The second low developed along thecoast of Texas on the 5th. It trackedfarther north than the previous low,and at 0000 UTC 6 January wascentered along the coast of southeastLouisiana. Shortly thereafter, severalbuoys in the northeast Gulf reportedgale force winds. At 0200 UTC, buoy42040 near 29N 88W recordedsoutheast winds of 36 kt, with gusts to46 kt, and sea heights near 5 m (16ft). Buoy 42039 near 29N 86Wobserved southeast winds of 37 ktwith gusts to 44 kt at 0600 UTC. Atthe same time, the Chevron SouthAmerica (ZCAA2) also encountered36 kt winds over the northeast Gulf.After the associated cold front movedacross the eastern Gulf, strongsouthwest to west winds continued.Sea heights continue to rise at buoy42039 and eventually peaked at 5.6m(18 ft) at 1600 UTC. By 1800 UTC,the low was centered over easternSouth Carolina with the trailing coldfront across south Florida to westernCuba. At this time, winds decreasedbelow gale force over the Gulf ofMexico but increased to gale forceover the western Atlantic. At 1800UTC, drifting buoy 41645 near 30N78W reported south winds of 40 kt,while buoy 41010 (near 29N 78.5W)observed south winds of 32 kt, withgusts to 41 kt and seas to 4.6 m (15ft) just east of the front. At 0600 UTC7 January, the low was located alongthe coast of New England, with thetrailing cold front through 31N 73Wto central Cuba. At this time, windsdecreased below gale force over theAtlantic south of 31N.

East Atlantic Cold Front 23-24January: A strong cold frontassociated with a storm center wellnorth of 31N produced a brief periodof gale force winds over the easternsection of the TPC forecast area. At1800 UTC 23 January, the frontextended through 31N 42W to 25N65W. At 2143 UTC, Quikscat passindicated gale force winds north of28N between 35W and 48W. Twoships, the Douce France (FNRS) andthe Pavel Vavilov (UCKG),encountered northwest winds of 40 ktnear 30N 45W at 0000 UTC 24January. The event ended by 1200UTC as the front reached from 27N35W to 22N 55W.

Southwest Gulf of Mexico Gale 25-26 January: The next in a series ofstrong Gulf of Mexico cold frontsmoved off the coast of Texas justbefore 0000 UTC 25 January. Astrong 1041-mb high, located over thecentral plains began buildingsouthward over the Gulf behind thefront. As the front moved quicklysouthward across the western Gulf,winds increased to gale force shortlyafter 0600 UTC. Quikscat data from1153 UTC detected an area of 30- to35-kt northerly winds south of 25Nwest of 95W. Two ships over thesouthwest gulf, the Empire State(KKFW) and the SIWN (nameunknown), observed north tonorthwest winds of 37 kt at 0000UTC 26 January. The high pressurenorth of the area weakened andmoved eastward across the southeastUnited States, and by 1200 UTC aQuikscat pass indicated that galeforce winds had ended.

Southwest Gulf of Mexico Gale 1-2February: Another gale eventoccurred on 1-2 February over the


southwest Gulf of Mexico. A strongcold front moved off the coast ofTexas around 0000 UTC 1 February.By 1200 UTC February 1, the frontextend from the western Floridapanhandle to the southwest Bay ofCampeche. Northwest of the front, a1036-mb high centered over Coloradobegan building southeastward.Northerly gale force winds beganblowing along the coast of Mexicosouth of 25N west of 94W. At 1200UTC Tampico, Mexico observed 35-kt northerly winds. Quikscat data at0035 UTC 2 February detected galeforce winds over the southwest Bay ofCampeche. By 1200 UTC 2 February,the pressure gradient had weakenedalong the coast of Mexico, and windshad decreased below gale force.

Atlantic Cold Front 5-6 February:A combination of a storm centerlocated well off theNew England coastand an associatedcold front over thewest Atlanticproduced an area ofgale force windsacross the northernportion of the TPCforecast waters. At0000 UTC 5February, westerlygale force windsbegan north of 28Nwest of 60W. Theship ChoyangZenith (DACP)experienced 40 ktwinds near 31N 75Wearly on the 5th. Thearea of gales spreadeastward, and a 1031UTC Quikscat passdetected west to

northwest winds of 35 to 45 kt northof 27N between 57W and 73W. Theships Galveston Bay (WPKD) andSWIN confirmed the Quikscat windsby observing 35- to 40-kt windsbetween 0600 and 1200 UTC 5February. Early on the 6th, a highpressure ridge built across the westernAtlantic from the South Carolinacoast east to 28N 60W. By 0600UTC 6 February, the winds haddecreased below gale force south of31N.

Atlantic Gale 20-21 February: Agale center located well north of 31Nproduced a brief period gale forcewinds north of 29N between 55W and60W. On the afternoon of 20February, the gale center movedsoutheast and was located near 37N55W. Two ships near 30N 58W, theEndeavor (WAUW) and the

Endurance (WAUU) encounteredgale force winds and seas of 5.5 to 7m (18 to 23 ft) at 1800 UTC that day.On 21 February, the gale centerweakened as it continued to movesoutheastward. Winds decreasedbelow gale force by 0600 UTC.However, large swells of 4 to 6 m (14to 20 ft) continued across portions ofthe central Atlantic for the next fewdays.

West Atlantic Gale and Storm 24-26February: At 0000 UTC 23 February,a low formed along the strong coldfront mentioned in Section I over thesoutheast Gulf of Mexico. As the lowdeepened and moved northeastwardacross south Florida, winds increasedover the eastern Gulf and westernAtlantic. By 0000 UTC 24 February,the low became a gale center off theeast coast of Florida near 29N 78W


Figure 3. Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch surface analysis at 0000 UTC 24 February. Solidlines are isobars at 4-mb intervals with intermediate isobars as dashed lines.


(Figure 3). At this time buoy 41010,located 120 nmi east of CapeCanaveral Florida, reported sustainednortherly winds of 35 kt with gusts to46 kt. Sea heights at the buoy rose toa maximum of 5 to 5.5m (16 ft)around 0600 UTC. The gale centermoved northeastward, and a Quikscatpass at 1045 UTC placed the centernear 30N 75W. The Quikscat dataindicated 35 to 40 kt winds within240 nmi of the center, mainly over thewestern semicircle.The SealandHawaii (KIRF) experienced 40 ktwinds at 1800 UTC near 29N 71W.By 0000 UTC 25 February, the galebecame a storm near 32N 70E. AQuikscat pass from shortly before0000 UTC clearly detected both thestorm force winds and the circulationcenter (Figure 4), and the storm forcewinds remained north of 31N.However, as the storm moved slowly

eastward on the 25th, it continued toproduced gale force winds north of28N between 65W and 72W. Thestorm weakened to a gale by 0000UTC 26 February, and by 1200 UTC26 February winds decreased belowgale force. The low continued toweaken and drift southward, finallydissipating near 27N 57W on 27February.

Gulf of Mexico Gales 26-27February and 2-4 March: The lasttwo western Gulf gale events of the2002 winter season occurred in lateFebruary and early March. The firstevent began as a cold front moved offthe Texas coast shortly before 0600UTC 26 February. The front wasfollowed by a strong 1045-mb highlocated over the northern Rockies.Winds over the western Gulf quicklyincreased behind the front. Both

western Gulf buoys (42002 and42020) observed northerly windsaround 30 kt, with gusts to 38 kt forseveral hours beginning just after1200 UTC. Sea heights at buoy 42002peaked at 4.5 m (15 ft) around 0200UTC 27 February. During this event,winds were once again the strongestover the extreme southwest Gulf ofMexico. Quikscat data from 2355UTC detected 30 to 35 kt winds overthe southwest Gulf. By 1200 UTC 27February, the high pressure centermoved over eastern Texas andweakened to 1035 mb. By this time,winds over the western Gulf ofMexico had decreased below galeforce.

The last strong gale-producing coldfront of the winter season moved offthe Texas coast around 1500 UTC 2March. Once again the windsincreased very quickly behind thefront. At 1800 UTC, buoy 42020reported northerly winds of 34 kt,with gusts to 42 kt. At 0000 UTC 3March, the front extended from NewOrleans, Louisiana to just south ofTampico, Mexico. At that time, theDusseldorf Express (S6IG) in theextreme northwest Gulf experiencednorthwest winds of 35 kt. At 1200UTC, the ship Celebration (H3GQ)observed 34 kt winds near 27N91.5W. Around the same time, buoy42002 reported 34 kt winds, withgusts to 42 kt. The buoy laterrecorded a maximum wave height of5.5 m (18 ft) at 1600 UTC. By 0000UTC 4 March, the cold front extendedfrom central Florida to the YucatanPeninsula. At that time windsdecreased below gale force, but windsremained northerly at 25 to 30 kt overthe eastern Gulf of Mexico until earlyon 5 March.

Central Atlantic Gale 3-4 March:


Figure 4. Quikscat data at 2306 UTC, 24 February, 2002.(Image courtesy of National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service)


Beginning on 2 March, a tightpressure gradient formed between astrong high pressure ridge over thewest Atlantic and a weak stationaryfront that extended across the centralAtlantic from 31N 43W to 20N 55W.The tight pressure gradient produced alarge area of strong northeast windsnorthwest of the front to 65W. By1200 UTC 3 March, the pressuregradient became strong enough toproduce gales over the area north of25N west of the front to 60W.Several ships in the area, includingthe Chiquita Belgie (C6KD7), theKielgracht (PFJI), and the Patroit(KGBQ), encountered 34 to 37 ktwinds between 1200 UTC 3 Marchand 0000 UTC 4 March. The shipsobserved combined seas of 4 to 6 m(13 to 20 ft). By 1800 UTC 4 March,the stationary front dissipated, whilethe ridge over the western Atlanticretreated northeastward. At that time,winds decreased below gale force.

East Atlantic Gale 20-21 March: Astorm center which moved rapidlyeast-northeastward across the centraland east Atlantic between 32N and36N produced gale force winds overthe northeast portion of the TPCforecast area. The gales began around1200 UTC 20 March over the areanorth of 28N east of 48W. At 0000UTC 21 March, the 980-mb stormwas centered near 36N 39W. At thattime, the ship Thorkil Maersk(MSJX8) observed southwest windsof 33 kt near 30N 35W. Quikscat datafrom 0824 UTC 21 March confirmedthe gale force winds by detecting alarge area of 35 to 40 kt west tonorthwest winds. On 21 March, thestorm moved farther north-northeastward away from the TPCforecast area. Gales force winds endedsouth of 31N around 1200 UTC.

Large northerly swells of 4 to 6 m (12to 18 ft) continued for another coupledays over the eastern portion of theTPC forecast area north of 20N eastof 60W.

Eastern Pacific

The eastern North Pacific wasaffected by twelve Gulf ofTehuantepec gale and storm events,and one gale event that resulted fromstrong trade winds. The twelve eventsin the January to April 2002 periodfar exceeded the number of events in2000 (6) and 2001 (8). Two of theevents reached storm intensity.

The overall synoptic pattern in theJanuary-April period featured a broad,long wave trough over the westernand central United States, withfrequent surges of polar and arctic airinto the Great Plains. These surgeswere accompanied by stronganticyclones with central pressuresexceeding 1040 mb over the southernRockies. These anticyclonesmaintained central pressures of 1035mb or greater into Texas and resultedin significant pressure surges over thewestern Gulf of Mexico and theIsthmus of Tehuantepec.

Gulf of Tehuantepec: The first twoGulf of Tehuantepec events of 2002occurred close together in the firstweek of January. The first eventbegan at 0000 UTC 3 January andended 1800 UTC 4 January. The shipCabo Creus (ZCBQ8) reported north-northeast winds of 40 kt and seas of 3m (10 ft) at 0000 UTC 3 Januarywhile located near 15N 95W. AQuikscat pass at 1200 UTC 4 Januaryindicated northerly winds of 30 to 35kt.

The second event began at 0600 UTC

6 January and was rather prolonged innature, extending into 9 January andending around 1200 UTC. The PolarChile (ELTN6) reported east-northeast winds of 35 kt and seas of4.5 m (15 ft) at 1800 UTC 6 Januarywhile located near 14.5N 96W. Inaddition, four Quikscat passesconfirmed gale force winds over thecourse of this event. Thirty-five to 40-kt northerly winds were noted on the0054 UTC 9 January pass.

The third Gulf of Tehuantepec galeevent was a marginal event. The eventbegan around 0000 UTC 16 Januaryand lasted only 18 hours. A 1212 UTC16 January Quikscat pass indicated anarea of 30 kt winds.just under galeforce.

The fourth event commenced 10 dayslater around 0000 UTC 26 Januaryand lasted until 1200 UTC 27 January.The ship PBBU (name unknown)located near 14N 95.5W reportednorth-northeast winds of 37 kt andseas of 5.5 m (18 ft) at 0000 UTC 26January. Six hours later, the same shipreported northerly winds of 30 kt andseas of 4 m (13 ft) while located near13.5N 94.5W. A 2354 UTC 25January Quikscat pass indicated windsof 35 kt in the Gulf of Tehuantepec.

A total of six Gulf of Tehuantepecgale events were noted during themonth of February, more than thecombined total of events for Februaryin the years 2000 and 2001. The firstevent in February began near 0000UTC 2 February and ended at 1800UTC 3 February. Quikscat passes at0000 UTC and 1143 UTC 2 Februaryindicated 40 kt northerly winds. Thenext event followed a week later,commencing at 0000 UTC 8 Februaryand lasting roughly 36 hours. A 1230




UTC 8 February Quikscat passindicated 35- to 40- kt winds in theGulf of Tehuantepec.

The seventh gale event of the periodbegan at 0600 UTC 11 February andlasted until 1800 UTC 12 February. A1222 UTC 12 February Quikscat passindicated 35 kt northerly winds. Thiswas the first of three events whichoccurred at an interval of 6 days.

The strongest Gulf of Tehuantepecwind event for February, and one oftwo storm events of the period, beganat 0000 UTC 23 February and lasteduntil 1200 UTC 24 February. Theprecursor signature, a much strongerthan normal pressure surge along theSierra Madre in Mexico on 22February, resulted in 80- to 100-ktwind gusts at Veracruz (See sectionSouthwest Gulf of Mexico StormEvents February, 2002).

At 1800 UTC 23 February, the ship

Sunbelt Dixie (D5BU) reportednorth-northeast winds of 40 kt whilelocated near 14.5N 95W. Later, a2338 UTC Quikscat pass (Figure 5)indicated 40- to 50-kt winds in theGulf of Tehuantepec.

The last gale event for the monthbegan at 0600 UTC 27 February andlasted a little over 30 hours. NoQuikscat data was available to verifygale force winds; however, the shipMaersk Wind (S6TY) observed 25-ktwinds at both 0600 and 1200 UTC 28February, well south of the Gulf ofTehuantepec. Therefore, it is assumedthat gale force winds did occur overthe Gulf.

A late season arctic air mass sweptinto the Gulf of Mexico on 3 Marchand ushered in the first Gulf ofTehuantepec wind event for March,and the second storm event for theperiod. The event began at 0600 UTC4 March and ended around 1200 UTC

6 March. A 1216 UTC 4 MarchQuikscat pass (Figure 6) indicated 40-to 50-kt winds in the Gulf ofTehuantepec.

The final gale event of the seasonbegan at 0600 UTC 21 March andended at 0000 UTC 24 March. Thiswas the second of two prolonged galeevents, lasting nearly 66 hours. A2347 UTC 22 March Quikscat passindicated northerly winds of 35 to 40kt in the Gulf of Tehuantepec.

Strong Trade Winds Event 16-19January: A strong anticyclonedeveloped over the central PacificOcean between 35N and 40N along140W, with a central pressure near1040 mb, at 0000 UTC 16 January.Further south, a surface trough waslocated along 135W between 10N and20N.

The strong pressure gradient betweenthese features resulted in gale force



winds beginning 2230 UTC 16January in an area extending from20N to 28N, between 130W and140W. The area of gales lasted over60 hours, finally ending around 1630UTC 19 January. A 1008-mb surfacelow was indicated along the troughfor a 12-hour period beginning 1200UTC 17 January near 17N 135W.

The surface anticyclone graduallymoved westward and weakened along150W by 1200 UTC 19 January,allowing the surface winds to weakenbelow gale force.

There were several ship reports ofgale force winds during this event.Two ships reported gale force windsat 0000 UTC 17 January.

The ship Chevron Nagasaki

(C6FD8) located near 26N 140Wreported east-northeast winds of 36 kt,with seas of 4 m (13 ft).

The ship Ocean Spirit (ELKI8)reported east-northeast winds of 35 ktand seas of 4 m (13 ft) while locatednear 26.5N 133W.

The ship Direct Eagle (9VRA)reported gale force winds for an 18-hour period between 1800 UTC 18January and 1200 UTC 19 Januarywhile traversing the pacific along 21-22N between 140W and 135W. Seasaveraged 5 m (16 ft).

Reference

American Meteorological Society(AMS), “Glossary of Meteorology,Second Edition,” 2000.

Figure 5. (above) Quikscat data at 2338 UTC, 23 February, 2002. Note 50kt wind barbs in the Gulf of Tehauntepec.(Image courtesy of National Environmental

Satellite, Data and Information Service)

Figure 6. Quikscat data at 1216 UTC, 4 March, 2002. Note 50-kt windbarbs in the Gulf of Tehauntepec.

(Image courtesy of National Environmental Satellite, Data, and InformationService)


In the Ontario Region of the VOSprogram, there are approximately80 participating vessels in the

Canadian VOS Program, and theIndividual Observer Award ispresented to the top 20 observers eachyear. In 2001, the top observerperformed 1,198 voluntaryobservations.

The award changes from year to year.Each year the PMO office comes upwith something unique. The award for2001 is a hardcover book onCanadian Service ships, Coast Guard,etc. Inside each book is a personalizednameplate from the Government ofCanada recognizing the voluntarywork done by the observers. Theobservers look forward to the awardeach year and compete for the honourof receiving one, which in turn helpsthe VOS program because it meansthat there will be more observationsreported.

The observers are never told inadvance what the award will be forthe year, so there is always someanticipation generated among theships’ crews.

If one were to look at the number ofshipwrecks on the Great Lakeshistorically, the importance of these

voluntary observations becomes selfevident. The Great Lakes can and dowhip up some deadly storms,especially in the fall, so I like to handout last year’s award in mid to latesummer, in order to encourage theobservers to do even moreobservations for the next award. Thatis the reason we like to make theaward something substantial,something of value.

Over half the winners are “regulars,”meaning they win an award almostevery year. They spur each other on todo more observations, which in turnmakes marine forecasting mucheasier.

It’s a simple formula: more coverageand observations translates into moreaccurate forecasts.

Everybody wins.

Environment Canada

Roland Kleer PMO Ontario presenting the Individual ObserverAward for the Ontario VOS region for the year 2000 to

Quartermaster Steve O’Connel on the Canadian Ship Griffon.

EnvironmentCanada

Canadian VOS Program Special AwardRoland Kleer, PMO Canadian VOS Program


Coastal Forecast News

Alaskan Awards

Pamela Taylor shows off the AlaskaAward for the period Jan - Apr

2002. By September 2002, The CSXAnchorage had 776 observations,which surpassed its 2001 total of

729.

Captain Sam Nelson of theDrew Foss received anOutstanding Monthly

Performance Award while atthe port of Anchorage,

Alaska on April 3, 2002. TheDrew Foss took 149

observations during the first3 months of 2002.



Alaska Marine Meterologist Aimee Devarispresenting a Special Company Award to Art

Jacobsen who is the Manager of Alaska MarineOperations for Crowley Marine Services, Inc.

Crowley has been a big supporter of the AlaskaRegion shipboard weather observation program.Three of their tugs made the Alaska Top 10 Listfor 2001: the Guardian had 810 observations, the

Seneca 656 observations, and the Warrior had 615.The Crowley fleet of tugs, by far, take the most

weather observations in Alaska waters comparedto any other company.

1st Mate Jeff Coryell ofthe Crowley Tug Navigatorreceived an OutstandingPeformance Award forJune 2002, in which the

Navigator took 100observations.

CSX Kodiak Captain, Barry Costanzi,received an Outstanding PerformanceAward while at Anchorage, Alaska on

May 21, 2002. During the periodJanuary through April 2002, their

total of 290 observations put them in5th place and well ahead of their pace

of 2001.



The crew of the Manfred Nystrom left to right:Chief Mate George Nielsen, 2nd Mate CharleyHobbs, and Able Bodied Seaman Rick Reinesreceived an Outstanding Performance Award

while at the Port of Anchorage on July 12, 2002.They had 104 observations for April 2002, which

was the 2nd highest total in Alaska.

Pictured left to right - Pacific Pride Captain PetePowlicki, 1st Mate Scott Jacobsen and Tankerman

Scott Cooper received an Outstanding PerformanceAward in Anchorage, Alaska on July 11, 2002.

The Pacific Pride was ranked among theTop 15 vessels in Alaska waters with 76

observations taken in June 2002.

Pictured left to right: Master Lanny Hansen,Chief Mate Charles Tessaro, and 2nd Mate NeilSandvik of the Seneca received an Outstanding

Performance Award while in the Port ofAnchorage on July 18, 2002. The Seneca had thehighest total of observations in Alaskan waters

for June 2002 with 161.



Chief Mate Tim Knudsen and1st Mate Amber Best of the

Paragon received anOutstanding PerformanceAward while in the Port of

Anchorage, AK on July 8th.The Paragon was among the

Top 15 boats in Alaskan watersfor taking ship observations for

the month of May.

3rd Mate Fred Koster of the CSX Tacoma(right) received an Outstanding PerformanceAward while in the port of Anchorage Alaska

on April 16th, 2002 for being in the top 12ships in Alaskan waters for the first 3 months

of 2002, with 136 observations. Below, hereceived an Outstanding Performance Award

for being in the Top 10 of the most activeships in Alaskan waters for the first 4 months

of 2002.


VOS New Recruits

National Weather Service VOS Program New Recruits From 01 May to 31 October 2002


VOS Awards

VOS Program Awards

NOAA Ship Albatross IV crewmembersleft to right: CDR Peter Celone, LCDR

Phil Cruccis, LTJG John Crofts, and 2ndOfficer Steve Wagner received the 2001VOS Outstanding Performance Award.

3rd Mate Pamela Taylor of the CSX Anchoragereceived a National VOS award for 2001 while in

Anchorage, Alaska on May 14, 2002. The CSXAnchorage had 729 observations in 2001, which was

the third highest total in Alakan waters. For the periodJan - Apr 2002, the CSX Anchorage was in 1st place inthe Alaska rankings with 418 observations. They are

well ahead of their excellent pace of 2001.

The SS Badger received a 2002 VOS award. Pictured leftto right: 1st Mate Mike Miller, CAPT Dean Hobbs, 3rdMate Mike Steward, CAPT Kevin Fitch, and 2nd Mate

Allan Chrenka. This was the first year for the Badger, andthey took 420 observations. Good work considering they

don’t sail mid October - mid May. The SS Badger is a carferry that sails from Manitowoc, WI to Ludington, MI.


VOS Awards

The M/V Chesapeake Bay was presentedwith a VOS award by Mr. Peter Gibino

in Norfolk in late February. Picturedfrom left to right: CAPT Seth Harris,

Master, 2nd Officer Jan W. Waalewyn,3rd Officer Michael F. Lyons, ChiefOfficer Bryan C. Byrne, and Radio

Officer John L. Shettles, III.

The NOAA ship Delaware IIreceived a 2001 VOS

Outstanding PerformanceAward. Pictured left to

right: ENS BryanWagonseller, LTJG Nick

Chrobak, and ENS WilliamWhitmore.

The Lykes Discover received a 2001VOS Outstanding Performance

Award. Pictured left to right: ChiefMate Harold Held, CAPT Scott Putty,Chief Mate Robert P. Strobel, Jr., and

PMO Chris Fakes.


VOS Awards

Pictured on the left is Chief Mate SteveIllige and on the right is CAPT JohnEmmel of the Crowley Tug Guardian.

They received their NWS VOS Award for2001 on May 17, 2002 while in the Port ofAnchorage, Alaska. The Guardian had the2nd highest total observations in Alaskan

waters for 2001 with 810.

The Captain and crew ofthe M/V Indiana received

a 2000 VOS Award.Pictured left to right: 2ndMate Jon Watson, CAPT

James VanDongen, 1stMate Mark Fraley, and3rd Mate Dan Franklin.

PMO Chris Fakes, centerpresents a VOS Award to CAPTWes Winters (left) and 2nd MateDoug Vines (right) of the Sealand

Integrity.


VOS Awards

Chief Mate Jeff Cowan receivedthe 2001 VOS Superior

Performance Award onboardthe President Kennedy.

Pictured left to right: Chief Mate GeraldParlon and CAPT Eric Francen of theSealand Commitment received the 2001VOS Outstanding Performance Award.

PMO Chris Fakes presented a2001 VOS Outstanding Awardto Master Pete Mitchell (left)and Master James Brennan(right) of the Sealand Pride.


VOS Awards

Pictured left to right: Chief Mate Charles Tessaroand 2nd Mate Roger Peterson received a National

VOS Award for 2001 while at the Port ofAnchorage, Alaska on May 24, 2002. This is the

2nd year in a row that the Crowley Tug Seneca haswon this prestigious National Award.

The CSX Spirit received a2001 VOS Superior

Performance Award. Fromleft to right: 2nd Mate

Warren Bragg, CAPT ErikWilliamson, and 3rd Mate

Gary Lightner.

The Crew of the Susan W. Hannahreceived a year 2000 VOS Award.Pictured left to right: 2nd mate

John King, CAPT Clark King, and1st Mate Rich Deichelbor.


VOS Cooperative Ship Report

VOS Cooperative Ship Report January 1, to November 21, 2002The values under the monthly columns represent the number of weather reports received at NCDC. The current month plus the previous 3-4month’s numbers reflect real-time observations plus the delayed mode observations as they are received and entered.

Jozef Kowalewski, the Gdynia, Poland PortMeteorological Officer, retired from serviceon August 1, 2001.

Jozef Kowalewski began his officialgovernment career 45 years ago when, upongraduating from Gdansk University, hebegan working with the Institute ofMeteorology and Water Management (PIM)in Gdynia.

In September 1957, in connection withcelebrations of the International GeophysicalYear when mandatory observations wereintroduced on some selected Polish ships, heassumed the duties as PMO in Gdynia.

After introducing the voluntary scheme ofobservations (VOS) program, the number ofparticipating vessels was grew steadily untilit included almost all of polish merchantshipping.

Thanks to Kowalewski’s commitment andcompassion for the duties of PMO, 428 of544 vessels that were encouraged by him tojoin the program responded positively.

During the 45 years of his activity as PMO,4450 log books were collected with over762000 observations stored, 90% of whichwere verified as being sent to appropriateWMO centers

Kowalewski used to conduct about 200inspections yearly, making over 11000 visitsaccomplished in the period from 1957 to2002.

During the course of the routine checking ofinstruments, and providing instructions andconsulting, Kowalewski never missed theopportunity to discuss his shared interest ofweather and meteorological phenomena withcrew members.

Jozef Kowalewski prepared successive

revised issues of meteorologicallog books and code books forshipping, adequate for changes inWMO standards. He createdindispensible documentation forintroducing BATHY and TESACcodes for the Polish fleet. He alsotook part in thepreparation ofprinting instruction manuals for theTURBO 1 program.

Not one for sitting still,Kowalewski performed PMOduties while also serving as ChiefSpecialist of MaritimeMeteorology in the MeteorologicalInstitute in Gdynia.

Many a time he commandedresearch expeditions within theBaltic area. He also visited the“exotic” port calls of Antarctica,Iceland, Senegal, and Argentina.

In 1974, Kowalewski participatedin a research voyage to the Atlanticequator zone - GARP program. In1976 he spent one month on boardthe research vessel of the Gdynia MaritimeAcademy participating in an educationalvoyage to Iceland.

It was not the first time that he cooperatedwith Scientific Institutes contributing toestablishing stronger ties betweeneducational sources and the PolishMeteorological Service.

At the turn of 1977/1978, he took part in aresearch expedition with students toAntarctica and spent three months onArctowski, the Polish polar station.

From 1978 to 1988, Kowalewski wasengaged in a special meteorological researchprogram on the Baltic sea, sailing frequently

on board Polish ferry vessels servicing theroute between Gdansk and Helsinki.

In the period from 1958 to 1998, JozefKowalewski spent over 2000 days at sea,totally fulfilling a teenager’s dream of seaadventures and satisfying his deep interest inmeteorology.

Presently, though already retired,Kowalewski is still active as PMO. He visitsvessels lying in Polish ports as he used to dopreviously, waiting for the successor whowill continue his work.

We wish Jozef and his wife Bronilawa fairwinds and following seas.

PMO - Gdynia Port Meteorological Officer, Jozef Kowalewski,Retires after 45 Years of Service




Meteorological Services

Meteorological Services-ObservationsU.S. Port MeteorologicalOfficers

Headquarters

David McShaneVoluntary Observing Ship Technical LeaderNational Data Buoy CenterBuilding 1100, Room 353AStennis Space Center, MS 39529-6000Tel: 228-688-1768Fax: 228-688-3153E-mail:[email protected]

Robert A. LukeVoluntary Observing Ship Program LeaderNational Data Buoy CenterBuilding 1100, Room 353DStennis Space Center, MS 39529-6000Tel: 228-688-1457Fax: 228-688-3153E-mail: [email protected]

Atlantic Ports

Robert Drummond, PMONational Weather Service, NOAA2550 Eisenhower Blvd, Suite 312P.O. Box 165504 Port Everglades, FL 33316Tel: 954-463-4271 Fax: 954-462-8963E-mail: [email protected]

Lawrence Cain, PMONational Weather Service, NOAA13701 Fang RoadJacksonville, FL 32218-7933Tel: 904-741-5186Fax: 904-741-0078E-mail: [email protected] Gibino, PMO, NorfolkNational Weather Service, NOAA4034-B G. Washington HighwayYorktown, VA 23692-2724Tel: 757-877-1692 Fax: 757-877-9561E-mail: [email protected]

James Saunders, PMONational Weather Service, NOAAMaritime Center I, Suite 2872200 Broening HighwayBaltimore, MD 21224-6623Tel: 410-633-4709 Fax: 410-633-4713E-mail: [email protected]

Tim Kenefick, PMO, New York/New JerseyNational Weather Service, NOAA110 Lower Main Street, Suite 201South Amboy, NJ 08879-1367Tel: 732-316-5409Fax: 732-316-7643E-mail: [email protected]

Great Lakes Ports

Amy Seeley, PMONational Weather Service, NOAA333 West University Dr.Romeoville, IL 60446-1804Tel: 815-834-0600 Ext. 269Fax: 815-834-0645E-mail: [email protected]

George Smith, PMONational Weather Service, NOAAHopkins International AirportCleveland, OH 44135Tel: 216-265-2374Fax: 216-265-2371E-mail: [email protected]

Gulf of Mexico Ports

John Warrelmann, PMONational Weather Service, NOAANew Orleans International AirportBox 20026New Orleans, LA 70141Tel: 504-589-4839E-mail: [email protected]

Chris Fakes, PMONational Weather Service, NOAAHouston Area Weather Office1620 Gill RoadDickinson, TX 77539-3409Tel: 281-534-2640 Ext. 277Fax: 281-337-3798E-mail: [email protected]

Pacific Ports

Derek LeeLoyOcean Services Program CoordinatorNational Weather Service Pacific Region HQGrosvenor Center, Mauka Tower737 Bishop Street, Suite 2200Honolulu, HI 96813-3201Tel: 808-532-6439Fax: 808-532-5569E-mail: [email protected] Webster, PMO

National Weather Service, NOAA501 West Ocean Blvd., Room 4480Long Beach, CA 90802-4213Tel: 562-980-4090 Fax: 562-980-4089E-mail: [email protected]

Robert Novak, PMONational Weather Service, NOAA1301 Clay Street, Suite 1190NOakland, CA 94612-5217Tel: 510-637-2960Fax: 510-637-2961E-mail: [email protected]

Patrick Brandow, PMONational Weather Service, NOAA7600 Sand Point Way, N.E.BIN C15700Seattle, WA 98115-6349Tel: 206-526-6100 Fax: 206-526-4571 or 6094E-mail: [email protected]

Richard CourtneyNational Weather Service, NOAA600 Sandy Hook Street, Suite 1Kodiak, AK 99615-6814Tel: 907-487-2102 Fax: 907-487-9730E-mail: [email protected]

Debra Russell, OICNational Weather Service, NOAABox 427Valdez, AK 99686-0427Tel: 907-835-4505Fax: 907-835-4598E-mail: [email protected]

Larry HubbleNational Weather Service Alaska Region222 West 7th Avenue #23Anchorage, AK 99513-7575Tel: 907-271-5135Fax: 907-271-3711E-mail: [email protected]

SEAS Field Representatives

GOOS Center ManagerSteve Cook8604 La Jolla Shores DriveLa Jolla, CA 92037-1508Tel: 858-546-7103Fax: 619-546-7185E-mail: [email protected]


Meteorological Services

GOOS StaffJohn Steger, LCDRAOML/GOOS Center4301 Rickenbacker CausewayMiami, FL 33149-1026Tel: 305-361-4356Fax: 305-361-4366E-mail: [email protected]

Northeast Atlantic SEAS Rep.Jim FarringtonSEAS Logistics/AMC439 West York StreetNorfolk, VA 23510Tel: 757-441-3062Fax: 757-441-6495E-mail: [email protected]

Pacific Northwest SEAS Rep.Bob DeckerSEAS Logistics/PMC7600 Sand Point Way, NE, Bin C15700Seattle, WA 98115-0700Tel: 206-526-4280Fax: 206-526-4281E-mail: [email protected]

Southwest Pacific SEAS Rep.Carrie WolfeSouthern California Marine Institute820 S. Seaside AvenueSan Pedro, Ca 90731-7330Tel: 310-519-3181Fax: 310-519-1054E-mail: [email protected]

Southeast Atlantic SEAS Rep.Ann-Marie WilburnAOML/GOSO Center4301 Rickenbacker CausewayMiami, FL 33149-1026Tel: 305-361-4336Fax: 305-361-4366E-mail: [email protected]

Global Drifter ProgramCraig EnglerAOML/PHOD4301 Rickenbacker CausewayMiami, FL 33149-1026Tel: 305-361-4439Fax: 305-361-4366E-mail: [email protected]

NIMA Fleet Liaisons

Joe Schruender, East Coast Fleet LiaisonChristopher G. Janus, West Coast Fleet LiaisonATTN: GIMM (MS D-44)4600 Sangamore RoadBethesda, MD 20816-5003Tel: 301-227-3120Fax: 301-227-4211E-mail: [email protected]

[email protected]

U.S. Coast Guard AMVER Center

Richard T. KenneyAMVER Maritime Relations OfficerUnited States Coast GuardBattery Park BuildingNew York, NY 10004Tel: 212-668-7764Fax: 212-668-7684E-mail: [email protected]

Other Port MeteorologicalOfficers

Australia

Head OfficeMarine Observations UnitBureau of Meteorology150 Lonsdale Street, 7th FloorMelbourne, VIC 3000Tel: +613 9669 4651 Fax: +613 9669 4168E-mail: [email protected]

MelbourneMichael J. Hills, Port Meteorological AgentVictoria Regional OfficeBureau of Meteorology150 Lonsdale Street, 26th FloorMelbourne, VIC 3000Tel: +613 9669 4982Fax: +613 9663 4957E-mail: [email protected]

FremantleMalcolm Young, Port Meteorological AgentMalMet Services Pty LtdUnit 3/76 Gardner StreetCOMO WA 6152Tel: +618 9474 1974Fax: +618 9260 8475E-mail: [email protected]

SydneyCaptain Einion E. (Taffy) Rowlands, PMANSW Regional OfficeBureau of Meteorology, Level 15300 Elizabeth StreetSydney NSW 2000Tel:+612 9296 1547Fax: +612 9296 1648E-mail: [email protected]

Canada

Randy Sheppard, PMOMeteorological Service of Canada16th Floor, 45 Aldernay DriveDartmouth, Nova Scotia B2Y 2N6Tel: 902-426-6703E-mail: [email protected]

Jack Cossar, PMOMeteorological Service of Canada6 Bruce StreetSt. John’s, Newfoundland A1N 4T3Tel: 709-722-4798Fax: 709-722-5097E-mail: [email protected]

Michael Riley, PMOMeteorological Service of Canada700-1200 West 73rd AvenueVancouver, British Columbia V6P 6H9Tel: 604-664-9136Fax: 604-664-9195E-mail: [email protected]

Ron Fordyce, Supt. Marine Data UnitRick Shukster, PMORoland Kleer, PMOMeteorological Service of CanadaPort Meteorological Office100 East Port Blvd.Hamilton, Ontario L8H 7S4Tel: 905-312-0900Fax: 905-312-0730E-mail: [email protected]

[email protected]@ec.gc.ca

Richard Dupuis, PMOMeteorological Service of Canada100 Alexis Nihon Blvd., 3rd FloorVille St. Laurent, Quebec H4M 2N8

China

YU ZhaoguoShanghai Meteorological Bureau166 Puxi RoadShanghai, China

Denmark

Commander Lutz O. R. NiegschPMO, Danish Meteorological Inst.Lyngbyvej 100, DK-2100Copenhagen, DenmarkTel: +45 39157500 Fax: +45 39157300

United Kingdom

HeadquartersCapt. E. J. O’SullivanMarine Observations Manager, Met. OfficeObservations Supply - Marine NetworksBeaufort ParkEasthampstead, WokinghamBerkshire RG40 3DNTel: +44-1344 85-5723Fax: +44-1344 85-5873Email: [email protected]


Meteoroligical Services

Bristol ChannelCaptain A Maytham MM, FRMetS, PGCEMet OfficePort Met Officer - Bristol ChannelTitan House Rm 107Cardiff Bay Business CentreLewis RoadCardiff. CF24 5BSTel: +44 (0) 29 2045 1323Fax:+44 (0) 29 2045 1326E-mail: [email protected]

East EnglandCaptain John Steel, PMOCustoms Building, Albert DockHull HU1 2DPTel: +44 01482 320158Fax: +44 01482 328957

Northeast EnglandCaptain Gordon Young, PMOAble House, Billingham Reach Ind. EstateBillingham, Cleveland TS23 lPXTel: +44 0642 560993 Fax:+44 0642 562170

Northwest EnglandColin B. Attfield, PMORoom 331, Royal Liver BuildingLiverpool L3 1JHTel:+44 0151 236 6565 Fax: +44 0151 227 4762

Scotland and Northern IrelandCaptain Peter J. Barratt, PMONavy Buildings, Eldon StreetGreenock, Strathclyde PA16 7SLTel: +44 01475 724700 Fax: +44 01475 892879

Southeast EnglandCaptain Harry H. Gale, PMOTrident House, 21 Berth, Tilbury DockTilbury, Essex RM18 7HLTel: +44 01385 859970 Fax: +44 01375 859972

Southwest EnglandCaptain James M. Roe, PMO8 Viceroy House, Mountbatten Business CentreMillbrook Road EastSouthampton SO15 lHYTel: +44 023 8022 0632 Fax: +44 023 8033 7341

France

Yann Prigent, PMOStation Mét., Noveau SemaphoreQuai des Abeilles, Le HavreTel: +33 35422106 Fax: +33 35413119P. CoulonStation Météorologiquede Marseille-Port12 rue Sainte Cassien13002 MarseilleTel: +33 91914651 Ext. 336

Germany

Volker Weidner, PMODeutscher WetterdienstMet. HafendienstPostfach 70 04 2122004 HamburgTel: 040 3190 8826

Volker Weidner, PMOPeter Gollnow, PMOHorst von Bargen, PMODeutscher WetterdienstJenfelder Allee 70a22043 HamburgTel: +49 40 66901411Fax: +49 40 66901496E-mail: [email protected]

Henning Hesse, PMODeutscher WetterdienstAn de Neuen Schleuse27570 BremerhavenTel: +49 471 7004018Fax: +49 471 7004017E-mail: [email protected]

Ulrich Ranke, PMODeutscher WetterdienstFlughafendamm 4528199 BremenTel: +49 421 5372163Fax: +49 421 5372166E-mail: [email protected]

Christel Heidner, OMPChristine Bergs, PMODeutscher WetterdienstSeestr. 15a18119 RostockTel: +49 381 5438830Fax: +49 381 5438863E-mail: [email protected]

Greece

George E. Kassimidis, PMOPort Office, PiraeusTel: +301 921116 Fax: +3019628952

Hong Kong

C. F. Wong, PMOHong Kong Observatory134A Nathan RoadKowloon, Hong KongTel: +852 2926 3113 Fax: +852 2311 9448E-mail: [email protected]

Israel

Hani Arbel, PMOHaifa PortTel: 972 4 8664427

Aharon Ofir, PMOMarine DepartmentAshdod PortTel: 972 8 8524956

Japan

HeadquartersKanno YoshiakiMarine Div., Climate and Marine Dept.Japan Meteorological Agency1-3-4 Otemachi, Chiyoda-kuTokyo, 100-8122 JapanFax: +03-3211-6908Email: [email protected]

Utsunomiya Tadayoshi, PMOKobe Marine Observatory1-4-3, Wakinohamakaigan-Dori, Chuo-ku Kobe,651-0073 JapanFax: +078-222-8946

Yazawa Yasushi, PMONagoya Local Meteorological Observatory2-18, Hiyoricho, Chigusa-kuNagoya, 464-0039 JapanFax: +052-762-1242

Uwabe Willy, PMOYokohama Local Met. Observatory99 Yamate-cho, Naka-kuYokohama, 231-0862 JapanFax: +045-622-3520



Kenya

Ali J. Mafimbo, PMOPO Box 98512Mombasa, KenyaTel: +254 1125685 Fax: +254 11433440

Malaysia

NG Kim LaiAssistant Meteorological OfficerMalaysian Meteorological ServiceJalan Sultan, 46667 PetalingSelangor, Malaysia

Mauritius

Mr. S RagoonadenMeteorological ServicesSt. Paul Road, Vacoas, MauritiusTel: +230 6861031 Fax: +230 6861033

Netherlands

Jan Schaap, PMOKNMI, Afd. WM/OWPort Meteorological OfficePostbus 2013730 AE De Bilt, NetherlandsTel: +3130-2206391Fax: +3130-2210849E-mail: [email protected]

New Zealand

Julie Fletcher, MMOMetService New Zealand Ltd.P.O. Box 722Wellington, New ZealandTel: +644 4700789Fax: +644 4700772

Norway

Tor Inge Mathiesen, PMONorwegian Meteorological InstituteAllegaten 70, N-5007 Bergen, NorwayTel: +475 55236600 Fax: +475 55236703

Poland

Jozef Kowalewski,PMOInstitute of Meteorology and Water Mgt.Maritime Branchul.Waszyngtona 42, 81-342 Gdynia PolandTel: +4858 6205221 Fax: +4858 6207101E-mail: kowalews@stratus/imgw.gdynia.pl

Saudi Arabia

Mahmud Rajkhan, PMONational Met. Environment CentreEddahTel:+ 9662 6834444 Ext. 325

Singapore

Edmund Lee Mun San, PMOMeteorological Service, PO Box 8Singapore Changi AirportSingapore 9181Tel: +65 5457198 Fax: +65 5457192

South Africa

C. Sydney Marais, PMOc/o Weather OfficeCapt Town International Airport 7525Tel: + 2721-934-0450 Ext. 213 Fax: +2721-934-3296

Gus McKay, PMOMeteorological OfficeDurban International Airpot 4029Tel: +2731-422960 Fax: +2731-426830

Mnikeli NdabambiAssistant Director, Meteorological TrainingSouth African Weather BureauTel: +2712-309-3090Fax: +2712-323-4518E-mail: [email protected]

Sweden

Morgan ZinderlandSMHIS-601 76 Norrköping, SwedenTel: 516-924-0499 (0227)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCENational Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationNational Data Buoy CenterBuilding 1100, Room 353DStennis Space Center, MS 39529-6000Attn: Mariners Weather Log

Address Correction Requested SpecialOFFICIAL BUSINESS Standard RatePENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE $300

In this Issue:

Report on the Explosion aboard the fishing vessel Galaxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

New PMO in Valdez, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Marine Weather Reporting at Maine Maritime Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Shipwreck: Maurice Degagnes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Gdynia PMO Retires after 45 Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99

mariners weather log - vos.noaa.gov

Documents