Hurricane Season | The Conservation Report

Hurricane Earl is currently a category-four storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Both North Carolina and Virginia declare states of emergencies and evacuations have been ordered (track Hurricane Earl here). Via ABC News:

Earlier, both North Carolina and Virginia have declared states of emergency.

Coastal residents from the Carolinas as far north as Cape Cod are on high alert for Earl, which returned to Category 4 strength this afternoon, packing maximum sustained winds of 135 mph. Earl had been downgraded to Category 3. Officials said they expect “fluctuations” in the storm’s force in the coming days.

No matter the label, Earl is expected to pack a wallop. The National Hurricane Center warned that Earl could send water rising 3 to 5 feet along coastal areas.

With Earl tracking northwest, North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue declared a state of emergency today, and officials have ordered mandatory evacuations in parts of the state. The storm could hit the North Carolina coastline by late Thursday.

The storm, 400 miles wide, is still forecast to skirt the eastern coastline, but state officials worry it could change its mind.

Video credit: ABC News

NASA Satellite Captures Hurricane Earl on September 1, 2010 [HD Video]:

Video credit: NASA/GSFC/GOES/NOAA

Image credit: NOAA’s National Weather Service National Hurricane Center

The infrared satellite shows the “textbook structure of a major hurricane“:

Image credit: Weather.com

Here’s an astronaut’s eye view of Hurricane Earl from Space via NASA (taken August 31, 2010):

Image credit: NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

NASA Satellite Captures Hurricane Earl on September 1, 2010:

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/GOES/NOAA

On the Net:

2010 Hurricane Season Tracking Map

Hurricane Bill is currently a category four hurricane. You can track Hurricane Bill here. More from Bloomberg:

Hurricane Bill, already deemed a major storm, intensified over the Atlantic today and is forecast to plow toward Canada after passing between Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast.

Bill packed maximum sustained winds of 135 miles (217 kilometers) per hour, up from 125 mph earlier today, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at about 11 a.m. Miami time. That makes Bill a Category 4 hurricane on the five- step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, where a Category 3 storm, with winds of at least 111 mph, is considered major.

A weather front moving east across the U.S. will probably keep Bill away from the country’s eastern seaboard, said Jim Rouiller, a senior energy meteorologist at Planalytics Inc. in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

“This is a very dangerous Category 4,” Rouiller said by telephone. “The East Coast is lucky.”

The first hurricane of the 2009 Atlantic season, Bill was centered about 380 miles east-northeast of the Caribbean’s Leeward Islands and heading west-northwest at 18 mph, with a gradual turn to the northwest forecast over the next two days. It was about 1,080 miles south-southeast of Bermuda.

The U.S. center’s five-day forecast shows Bill passing between Bermuda and the Carolinas as a major hurricane this weekend, before hitting Nova Scotia while still at hurricane strength on Aug. 24.