Tropical Cyclone Ula is bringing strong winds, heavy rain and high surf to the extreme southeastern islands of Fiji.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST on Saturday the center of Tropical Cyclone Ula was located at latitude 19.4\u00b0S and longitude 178.0\u00b0W which put it about 265 miles ( 430 km) east-southeast of Suva, Fiji.\u00a0 Ula was moving toward the southwest at 9 m.p.h. (15 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 105 m.p.h. (170 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 125 m.p.h. (205 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 961 mb.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Ula was the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.<\/p>\n
The inner core structure of Tropical Cyclone Ula changed on Saturday and it may have gone through an eyewall replacement cycle.\u00a0 Ula started the day with a small pinhole eye, but recent visible satellite imagery indicates that it has a larger, symmetrical eye.\u00a0 Even though the inner core structure has changed, Tropical Cyclone Ula maintained its intensity.\u00a0 The structure of Ula is still symmetrical, but most of the stronger thunderstorms are south and west of the center of circulation.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Ula remains in an environment that is favorable for intensification.\u00a0 It is over water where the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) is near 28\u00b0C.\u00a0 The upper level winds are light and there is not much vertical wind shear.\u00a0 The favorable environment could allow Ula to maintain its intensity for another 12 to 24 hours.\u00a0 After that time the tropical cyclone will move into an area where the SSTs are cooler and the upper level winds are stronger.\u00a0 Cooler water and more vertical wind shear will cause Tropical Cyclone Ula to weaken.<\/p>\n
A subtropical ridge is steering Tropical Cyclone Ula toward the southwest.\u00a0 Ula is nearing the western end of the ridge and it is likely to turn more toward the south in a day or two.\u00a0 The center of Tropical Cyclone Ula is near Vatoa, Ogea Levu and Ogea Driki.\u00a0 It is bringing strong winds, heavy rain and large waves to those islands.\u00a0 It will move near Ono-i-lau, Tuvana-i-colo and Tuvana-i-ro during the next few hours and conditions will get worse on those islands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Cyclone Ula is bringing strong winds, heavy rain and high surf to the extreme southeastern islands of Fiji.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST on Saturday the center of Tropical Cyclone Ula was located at latitude 19.4\u00b0S and longitude 178.0\u00b0W which put it about 265 miles ( 430 km) east-southeast of Suva, Fiji.\u00a0 Ula was moving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,2],"tags":[299,89,301,300,307,298],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2071,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070\/revisions\/2071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}