Winston has killed at least 21 people and caused great damage in Fiji. Here are the roles played by El Niño, climate change, and other factors in the evolution of this fierce — and very strange – storm.
An image captured by the Himawari-8 satellite shows Tropical Cyclone Winston at 15:40 a.m. UTC (10:40 a.m. EST in the U.S.) on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. At this time, the storm was making a transition from a Category 4 to a Category 2 tropical cyclone. In this nighttime "geocolor" image, white colors are indicative of ice in the higher parts of clouds; reddish colors show lower-level liquid water in clouds; city lights are shown in yellow. Click on the image to open it in a new tab, then click again to enlarge. If you look closely, you can make out landmasses, such Grand Terre, the main island of New Caledonia, and Fiji as well. (Raw image: NOAA/RAMMB/CIRA)
| See update at the end of this post concerning Winston's ranking among tropical cyclones |
Winston was born as a tropical storm a little east of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, way back on February 10th. Little did we know then just how strange — and strong — this storm would become, thanks to multiple influences, including climate change. This is the story of Winston's birth and evolution, and the factors that helped turn it into one of Earth's fiercest storm's on record. With initial winds of about 40 miles per hour, Winston cruised south and gathered strength quickly, becoming a Category 3 cyclone by the 12th. Curving to the northeast, the storm waned for a bit.
