Weather Watch: Atlantic Hurricane season looms

This is my favourite time of the year weather-wise... not only are we heading into Spring which is warmer, sunnier and usually a bit spicy with the spring equinox bringing gales and thunderstorms, but it's also the start of the hurricane season which most years is incredibly fascinating to watch.

Today we see two severe storms in the Pacific Ocean - one on either side. One is Hurricane Felicia, the other is Typhoon Morakot. See our news story on these two tropical storms here.

Felicia is on track to bring some rough weather to Hawaii but is unlikely to make a direct hit. Forecasters at weather.com predict it will most likely fall apart quite dramatically but may still bring severe waves. In my office we have a TV screen that we've hooked up to the computer and we can display the latest satellite loops of these storms. It's amazing how quickly people become addicted to watching the storms progress...people, who just a day ago couldn't have cared less, are now watching and asking about these storms. But watching these magnificent monsters spiral along is quite amazing - and is something we rarely see down our way.

The other storm is Typhoon Morakot, today heading towards Taiwan and is likely to make a direct or very near hit - possibly as a category 4 storm (1 down from the strongest). This could be quite devastating and I certainly hope it veers away to the north early.

I was showing Malcolm Jordon, from Radio Sport, the latest satellite images yesterday of this huge typhoon bearing down on Taiwan. When you see the size of the storm (1600kms wide - and NZ is only 1400kms long) and you see it barrelling towards a small island like Taiwan you suddenly get this horrible feeling in your stomach - nature is out of control and there's not a thing anyone can do to stop it. (except Bill Gates maybe).

But my real interest lies in the Atlantic Hurricane season. This is the one that creates monsters than can impact land - such as Katrina and Andrew. It also gets the best coverage news-wise. Forecasting companies like Weather.com and AccuWeather.com have incredibly accurate coverage which far beats anything we see in New Zealand (apart from WeatherWatch.co.nz of course!). They have frequent updates, amazing graphics and in-depth reports.

Throughout the Atlantic Hurricane season I'll use our contacts in America to bring you the best weather blogs and news updates possible - and we'll focus on storms that are heading towards land rather than just out in the ocean.

So what's happening so far in the Atlantic? Well...nothing actually. In fact it's been incredibly quiet. June and July often are quiet and it's not uncommon to have no named storms when August rolls around. However no hurricane season on record has had the first named storm after August. So that's a fairly strong guarantee that an Atlantic tropical storm is just around the corner...and in fact some forecasters are picking August 10 with a low forming off the African coast and heading westwards. They travel for several days sometimes before turning in to a storm.

Finally - we're running a new poll today: Which TV Weather do you prefer to watch? Click here to cast your vote.

Enjoy a mostly calm, sunny, weekend - just some strong winds possible in the Far North and deep south on Sunday.

Philip Duncan

Photo: Hurricane Felicia is continuing to gain strength far out in the Pacific. Photo / AP