Tropical Cyclone Cook strengthened on Sunday as it neared New Caledonia.\u00a0 At 8:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday the center of Tropical Cyclone Cook was located at latitude 20.3\u00b0S and longitude 165.8\u00b0E which put it about 150 miles (240 km) north-northwest of Noumea, New Caledonia.\u00a0 Cook was moving toward the south-southwest at 11 m.p.h. (18 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 100 m.p.h. (160 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 120 m.p.h. (195 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 969 mb.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Cook intensified on Sunday as the organization of the core improved.\u00a0 A circular eye developed inside a ring of strong thunderstorms.\u00a0 The fastest winds were occurring in the ring of storms around the eye.\u00a0 A number of other bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the core of Tropical Cyclone Cook.\u00a0 Thunderstorms close to the center of circulation were generating upper level divergence which was pumping out mass to the southeast of the tropical cyclone.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out about 180 miles (290 km) from the center of circulation.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Cook moved through an environment favorable for tropical cyclones on Sunday.\u00a0 It moved over water where the Sea Surface Temperature was near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 An upper level ridge east of Cook produced northerly winds which were blowing toward the tropical cyclone, but the wind shear was not great enough to inhibit intensification.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Cook should maintain its intensity until it makes landfall in New Caledonia.\u00a0 Cook will begin to weaken after the center begins to interact with land.<\/p>\n
A subtropical ridge east of Cook is steering the tropical cyclone toward the south-southwest.\u00a0 A southerly motion is expected to bring the center of Tropical Cyclone Cook to New Caledonia on Monday.\u00a0 The center of Tropical Cyclone Cook is likely to make landfall between Houailou and Thio on the central coast of New Caledonia.<\/p>\n
The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) for Tropical Cyclone Cook is 16.5.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) is 16.8 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) is 33.3.\u00a0 The indices indicates that Tropical Cyclone Cook is capable of causing serious regional wind damage.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Cook will also produce heavy rain and a chance for flash floods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Cyclone Cook strengthened on Sunday as it neared New Caledonia.\u00a0 At 8:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday the center of Tropical Cyclone Cook was located at latitude 20.3\u00b0S and longitude 165.8\u00b0E which put it about 150 miles (240 km) north-northwest of Noumea, New Caledonia.\u00a0 Cook was moving toward the south-southwest at 11 m.p.h. (18 km\/h).\u00a0 […]<\/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":[344,650,88,345,655,90],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3819"}],"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=3819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3820,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3819\/revisions\/3820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}