July 15, 2008
1830z
UNISYS water vapor satellite
Storm Bertha began on July 3, 2008. It was spawned out of the water vapor of western Africa. It was a storm that quickly went from Cat 1 to a Cat 3 in a matter of six hours on July 7th. The 'traverse' of this storm was more traditional, but, its activity is completely unique. The velocity of the storm as a Cat 3 moved it 'into position' where it took up residence for eight days between LONGITUDE 58.1, oscillating to the nearer shore longitude of 64.10. During this time it existed primarily as a Cat 1 oscillating to a Tropical Storm and then returning to Cat 1, but, now returning to TS velocities.
During that eight days, even though its velocity diminished to a tropical storm status, the pressure within the storm never returned to over 1000 millibars. It ranged from a low of 948 to a high of 995.
The position of the storm is interesting. It matches other entries on this blog whereby 'long sustained' vortexes were noted. Literally, what is occurring with "Bertha" is a shunting of heat into the oceans while the Arctic Ocean melts. "Bertha" is a 'help' to the heating troposphere and in an Earth plentiful with water vapor the storm would probably never dissipate. With the absence of the Arctic Ocean ice (which took tens of thousand of years to establish and only a century to destroy) we would see a 'permanent' vortex shunting heat into the ocean.However, that won't happen here. There isn't enough water vapor at the Earth's surface to support such a benevolent phenomena. If there was plentiful water vapor there would be many Berthas in the ocean and not just one.
While there has been other hurricanes that have lasted up to two weeks historically, none have this dynamics. Most of the sustained hurricanes lasting such a long time have become deadly storms with minimal Cat 3 velocities. This 'sustained' hurricane is very, very different and outside the definition of 'usual' in any way.
The two images below illustrate clearly a storm deprived of water vapor as it traversed Earth's ocean on a northward movement. Here again, without the support of Equatorial water vapor the storm weakened. The picture of July 15th shows a 'thirsty' storm while the picture of July 7th shows a 'well sustained' storm.
The high pressure that exists from Hawaii to the eastern seaboard of North America is supported by Bertha. The storm literally has removed water vapor and shunted heat from the troposphere into the ocean allowing a 'drying' of the entire area of interest and virtually calming winds. California has a respit, but, it won't last.
The storm that continues to be Bertha is a symptom of a very hot Earth under the blanket of carbon dioxide generated by the burning of fossil fuels.
July 15, 2008 (NASA link - click here)
July 7, 2008 (NASA link - click here)
