El Nino's return could have positive impact.The climate phenomenon El Nino made an unexpected return this year, and its influence on world weather patterns could have an impact on the property/casualty insurance industry--including fewer hurricanes for the rest of the 2006 season. El Nino is a large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate phenomenon linked to a periodic warming in sea-surface temperatures across the central and east-central equatorial Pacific. Steve Smith, an atmospheric physicist and senior vice president of Carvill's ReAdvisory, said "a weak El Nino" formed about a month ago and appears to be affecting hurricane formation. The Colorado State University-based Tropical Meteorology Project The Tropical Meteorology Project is a research initiative at Colorado State University that studies weather patterns and systems in the tropics. It is best known for its annual predictions of the number of tropical storms and hurricanes expected to form each season in the North was even more blunt, lowering its tropical storm tropical storm n. A cyclonic storm having winds ranging from approximately 48 to 121 kilometers (30 to 75 miles) per hour. tropical storm forecast to below-average activity for the rest of the season and predicting no tropical cyclone tropical cyclone Severe atmospheric disturbance in tropical oceans. Tropical cyclones have very low atmospheric pressures in the calm, clear centre (the eye) of a circular structure of rain, cloud, and very high winds. activity in November, "largely due to the rapid emergence of an El Nino event during the latter part of this summer." Hurricane season Hurricane season refers to a period in a year when hurricanes usually form. For more information see: Tropical cyclone#Times of formation. For a lists of past seasons, see:
"A hurricane is kind of like a heat engine in the atmosphere," said Peter Dailey, lead meteorologist for catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide Corp. "It can be disrupted by mixing the atmosphere. When we have an El Nino event, it tends to increase the wind shear wind shear, a sudden, drastic change in wind direction or speed over a comparatively short distance. Most winds travel horizontally, as does most wind shear, but under certain conditions, including thunderstorms and strong frontal systems, wind shear will travel in a in the Caribbean." So far, there have been nine named storms this season, and not one hurricane has made U.S. landfall land·fall n. 1. The act or an instance of sighting or reaching land after a voyage or flight. 2. The land sighted or reached after a voyage or flight. . Robert Hartwig, senior vice president and chief economist of the Insurance Information Institute, said El Nino's influence on hurricane formation is "a beneficial impact." |
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