11-27-20 A Hurricane Season Like No Other Before

Nearing Midnight: A Hurricane Season Like No Other – Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ At the end of each year, I often do a composite of all the prophecy-related events. The 2020 hurricane season has been so active, I think it is needful that I do a special Nearing Midnight article on this subject. We have broken so many records, it’s hard to know where to begin. We currently have the most number of hurricanes in any season. Subtropical storm Theta in the northeast Atlantic was the 29th, breaking the previous record of 28 set in 2005. With the formation of Iota, we have had 30 storms. After 170 years of record-keeping, it’s no small accomplishment to witness the busiest Atlantic hurricane season. The average number of hurricanes in a season is 12 storms. Hurricanes are named in alphabetical order, restarting with A at the beginning of every year. If more storms occur than the alphabet allows, meteorologists move on to the Greek alphabet. The WMO’s hurricane name list consists of 21 alphabetic names. The Greek alphabet has 24 letters, meaning a storm season would have to observe an unprecedented 45 named storms in a single year. The WMO has no policy or procedure in place should the Greek name list be exhausted. Hurricane Iota just rammed into Nicaragua with Category 5 winds of 155 MPH. It is the strongest hurricane in the month of November. It also marked the first time that two hurricanes have formed in the Atlantic in any November. An old man being interview in Nicaragua, as Iota began making landfall, said he had experienced 6 tropical storms in his lifetime. Two of them have occurred this year. This makes five consecutive years with Category 5 storms, which is itself also a record. The state of Louisiana has been a punching bag for tropical storms. Zeta hit the state at the end of October, becoming a record fifth named storm to make landfall in the state this season. Hurricane Laura tied a record for the strongest storm to hit Louisiana. The 2020 hurricane season tied 1995 for the most rapidly intensifying storms. Maximum sustained winds in Iota increased by 70 mph in 24 hours. That doubles the criterion for the rapid intensification of a tropical cyclone, which is a wind speed increase of 35 mph or more in 24 hours or less. We still have two more weeks before the Atlantic hurricane season ends. Such activity has focused attention on climate change, which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive storms. Sea surface temperatures were consistently 2 to 3 degrees above normal through the summer months, and these anomalies increased to 3 to 5 degrees during September, especially around the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and off the coast of Africa, where many storms start to develop. Wind shear was extremely low through the summer months, and this allows tropical storms to intensify and maintain tropical circulations rather than being torn apart by opposing winds in the different layers of the atmosphere. A pulse of enhanced rainfall, known as the Madden-Julian Oscillation, moves eastwards around the equator. When it is located over West Africa, it causes more rainfall and thunderstorms, which can give birth to tropical storms over the eastern Atlantic. La Niña, a change in Pacific Ocean temperatures with cooler water being pushed eastwards across the equatorial Pacific, has also been more influential. It can affect global weather patterns, and one of the effects is an increased number and strength of Atlantic tropical cyclones, especially late in the season. The 2017 hurricane season broke a similar number of records. I was stunned by the number of records that Hurricane Irma set. It was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record. At the time, it was considered the most powerful hurricane on record in the open Atlantic region, outside of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, until it was surpassed by Hurricane Dorian two years later. No storm in recorded history has sustained winds of 185 mph for as long as Irma: a record-breaking 37 hours. The previous record was 24 hours, during Super Typhoon Haiyan in the northwest Pacific in 2013. Irma is tied with the 1932 hurricane in Cuba as the longest time (3.25 days) spent as a Category 5 hurricane. Hurricanes Irma and Jose mark the first time in recorded history that there were two hurricanes with winds of at least 150 miles per hour in the Atlantic at the same time. When I looked at the historical record for all recorded hurricanes, there were times when a decade could pass without any major storm event. To have a year like 2020, that just goes off the scale, is a strong indication that Bible prophecy is the reason why we set so many records. Because we seem to be at the limits of what nature can produce and what mankind can endure, I think we must be very close to the tribulation hour. “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25).