Windspeed

And of course the one we've been watching for: The trough/phase dynamics at play, leading to a potential outbreak on Easter Sunday. This might be a doozy:

Possible severe on Wed evening into Thurs AM?

Incredible recovery by Extreme TC Harold from land interaction over Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. This is a textbook study right here before our eyes. I've never seen anything like this previous.

Extreme TC Harold has made landfall over the southern periphery of the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. Fortunately this region is not as populated as the northeastern region of that large island. Whoever is there is likely getting rocked however. Nice presentation through landfall. The eyewall was strong even if old cloud debris from the ERC was still clearing out within the new eye. Will be interesting to see how much land interaction influences weakening. I suspect there will be some weakening as Harold continues ESE.

FWIW, I've read data ingestion for the major models is being affected by a lack of global flights. I do not know how accurate this is or, if an issue, how wacky mid-to-long range modeling will become as we go forward the next month.

Cyclone Harold is rapidly intensifying and will likely make a direct landfall in Vanuatu as a powerful upper category cyclone in the coming days. Which island that will be still remains in question but there may be multiple landfalls based on the general forecast path.

Seasonal forecasts are beginning to make their way out from respected scientists in the field to media and news outlets. The majority of specialists are predicting a hurricane season with above-normal activity. ENSO looks to be swinging neutral to perhaps even a La Niña by July-September. Western Atlantic subtropical and tropical SSTs are running above average overall with some particularly noticeable 2-3°+C deviations in the GOM and W. Caribbean. Could 2020 be hyperactive? AMO and NAO may present both favorable patterns for not only hurricanes in the MDR, but potential land threats to the W. Caribbean and GOM as well this season. Bermuda-Azores ridging may also dominate the SER/WAR steering pattern during Cape Verde season. This might be a year where we even see a few long-trackers reach Central America.

I agree, Carver. I think this Summer is probably leaning hot and dry for interior SE CONUS. Nino 3-4 is still about average to slightly above near surface but there is sub 22-24° isotherm progressing upward and Nino 1-2 is already running 24° near surface. A moderate La Niña looks in play at this point, and orientation of the Azores-Bermuda ridge axis may very well torch us July-September. NMME guidance suggests a strong La Niña presence into Winter. Still, high and dry isn't an absolute certainty. You never know how much low-level tropical feed can downplay/offset potential drought. Yes, WATL 500dm heights are critical to overall pattern but it doesn't take too much displacement to swing dry hot vs humid hot with plenty of afternoon/evening convective showers. OTOH, hints that the Atlantic MDR may run quite bit above normal by July. The deep MDR, especially the 50°W to the Verdes is running above average. Are we looking at a hyperactive NATL tropical season? I am starting to think so. Again, how strong do Western ATL heights remain in place through late September? Will there be enough blocking in place to keep everything south of the region? This may be a bad year for Mexico and W Caribbean impacts. But something may sneak up here to alleviate our dry conditions as well. That is to say, I wouldn't count out some early tropical season respite (June-July) from the GOM with a few stalled-out variety tropical lows. August-September might truly be the dog days of Summer this year however.

Plenty of incredible damage videos and images, but this particular photo of the damage path looking east towards Cookeville is disturbing. Any number of deaths is awful and I am certainly not downplaying this tragedy for those suffering, only just to say that considering the time of night and the track/damage path, it is perhaps a miracle the numbers aren't much higher. Please consider finding a legitimate donation fund setup to help those in need.

Some crazy survival stories coming out of this long-lived tornado. I do wish news agencies would stop referring to the event as an "outbreak" however. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nashville-tornado-putnam-county-death-toll-rises-today-2020-04-03/

And here we go...

Pushing 7.8 ADT! 165 kt monster...

Halong's development and structure very reminiscent of Mikael in the GOM last year. Probably SS Cat 5 right now. ADT up to 7.3 / 150 kts now. This beast is cranking...

Well the micro-vortex is the tiny eye we observed with Hagibis. Really this phenomenon is no different than your average microcane or small hurricane eyewall in general, it just takes a very low shear environment + very high maximum potential intensity w/ high TCHP to get something like a Hagibis or Wilma; and even still, the aformentioned type of micro-vortex may still not occur. Otherwise, outer banding influences in the formative stages usually starves off or dissipates a smaller vortex before MPI can be achieved. Usually the intensification phase of the entire tropical cyclone's broader core cuts off or diverts outer low level convergence rather quickly away from a tiny interior vortex, if it happens to exist, while a larger eye or concentric band takes over. This is usually prior to the system even becoming a hurricane or typhoon. It's just a really chaotic and unpredictable process, at least until the main eyeband or core has consolidated, to know how large or small the dominate vort will be. In short, there really isn't a way to model the chaotic nature of such a phenomenon. It is rather part luck on how small and aligned an MCS-induced mid-level vort is in conjunction to the low level vort underneath. If that can resolve and the MPI is sky high, a small vort can become dominant and remain that way through rapid intensification all the way into the sub-900s hPa. But it's really a crapshoot to know the probability of such occurring. Sometimes the original vort max is just larger and remains that way.

Radar confirms that Super Typhoon Hagibis did not actually make landfall on Anatahan Island. The southern periphery of the island got scraped by the core, but the worst conditions of the inner boundary of the eyewall missed just offshore. Again, good example how satellite imagery can be deceiving as it looked like a direct hit in the posts above. Angle of sensor, parallax and lat/long postion of eye is important.

Rare is a better term. I mentioned some others above: Pam, Patricia, Wilma, Gilbert and Allen all had similar structures. There have been a number of others that developed a super intense >5nm micro-vortex eyewall within a much larger banded concentric envelope. Still, it's not something we see with regards to such extreme sub 890 hpa estimated intensities on a yearly basis. Think perhaps once every 5-10 years globally within the satellite era.

Incredible inner micro-vortex....