Goofy Gordon Going Wrong Way; Storm Heads for Europe

August 17, 2012

The most recent bulletin from the National Hurricane Center in Miami focuses on highly unusual Tropical Storm Gordon. It’s not unusual as a tropical storm, except for one detail – Gordon is heading directly east towards Spain and Portugal, rather than following the normal pattern for Atlantic storms of heading west towards the Caribbean Sea and the U.S.

The NHC’s report at 5:00 a.m. AST located Gordon’s center in the mid-Atlantic, far from any land. The storm is “moving toward the east near 18 mph, 30 km/h, and this general motion is expected to continue for the next couple of days. On the forecast track Gordon should be approaching the Azores late Sunday,” the report said.

Gordon has weakened slightly with maximum sustained winds now around 65 mph, 100 km/h with higher gusts. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 60 miles, 95 km, from the center.

However, the NHC warned that “Gordon could still become a hurricane over the weekend before moving over cooler waters.”

Source: National Hurricane Center

Topics Windstorm Europe

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