"Super Typhoon" To Affect Philippines

Typhoon Megi is going to make landfall in northern parts of the Philippines tonight. Sustained winds have been as high as 180 mph with gusts up to 200 mph! In addition, maximum wave height is 37 feet. This is a powerful system that will cause a lot of destruction.

Hurricane Paula Update Wednesday

Unusually tiny Hurricane Paula continues to drift northward in the Caribbean between the Yucatan Peninsula and western Cuba. It maintains its Category 2 strength as of mid-day Wednesday with 100 mph sustained winds, but hurricane force winds extend out a mere 15 miles from the center of the storm! This is not typical for any hurricane. Even the tropical storm force winds extend out only 60 miles. So this compact, but intense, hurricane will be able to produce wind damage and heavy rainfall (3"-6") over a relatively small area of the Caribbean. Paula is expected to turn east in the coming days and track over Cuba and weaken. However, there is still some potential the outermost edges of the storm could brush the Florida Keys with rain and minimal wind. There is a Tropical Storm Watch for the Keys in case this northern track occurs, which some model data indicates could happen.

Hurricane Paula: 9th of Season

Early this Tuesday morning Paula reached hurricane strength with 75 mph sustained winds, just at category one on the scale. This is the ninth hurricane of the 2010 season. Paula is drifting northward over good surface warm waters of the western Caribbean, and the center of the storm should remain just east of the Yucatan over the next couple of days, allowing it to maintain its strength at least through mid-week.

After that, though, you can see Paula is expected to begin weakening as it encounters more shear and potentially interacts with western Cuba. The track, however, is still highly uncertain by the end of this week, when Paula could track toward southern Florida.

In any case, it does not appear that Paula or its remnants will have any impact on Virginia's weather in the future.