Tropical Cyclone Report Hurricane Maria

• Main Author: Michael J. Brennan
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.363.5071; http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL142011_Maria.pdf

Maria formed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and brought tropical storm conditions to portions of the Lesser Antilles. Maria then became a category 1 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) as it recurved through the northwestern Atlantic before it made landfall in Newfoundland as a strong tropical storm. a. Synoptic History Maria originated from a tropical wave that moved across the west coast of Africa on 2 September. The wave moved westward well to the south of the Cape Verde islands on 3-4 September with little in the way of organized deep convection. Thunderstorm activity increased markedly early on 5 September but remained displaced to the west of the broad surface circulation due to strong easterly vertical wind shear. On 6 September, the low-level center became better defined and deep convection increased further and a tropical depression formed by 1800 UTC that day, centered about 700 n mi west-southwest of the southern Cape Verde Islands. The cyclone moved quickly west-northwestward at 15 to 20 kt and reached tropical storm intensity 6 h later, while centered about 790 n mi west-southwest of the southern Cape Verde Islands. The “best track ” chart of Maria’s path is given in Fig. 1, with the wind and pressure