First hurricane ever hits Brazil 31 March 04

Debate is currently raging in tropical meteorology circles over whether the powerful storm – named Catarina – which hit Brazil last weekend qualifies as a ‘true’ hurricane. If so, this will have been an unprecedented event: hurricanes are unknown in the south Atlantic (unlike the north, where they frequently hit the Caribbean and US east coast) because the seas there are normally too cold, and there’s too much ‘wind shear’ at high levels. I’ve just had an email on the subject from Hugh Willougby, one of my High Tide interviewees, who now works at the International Hurricane Research Center in Miami, Florida. “For me the spiral bands, nice circular cloud mass with an eye in the center [see satellite pic], eastward track and sudden collapse at landfall argue strongly that Catarina was a hurricane, probably reaching Saffir/Simpson category 2,” he writes, continuing: “The answer to the question ‘did global warming have a role’ is a resounding ‘perhaps’.” Hurricane Catarina was the third unusual tropical storm-like system to form this year, and this “does point to something different”. I’ll keep you posted as I hear more.