Tropical Cyclone Harold approached Fiji on Tuesday morning.\u00a0 At 5:00 a.m. EDT on Tuesday the center of Tropical Cyclone Harold was located at latitude 17.4\u00b0S and longitude 173.4\u00b0E which put it about 270 miles (435 km) west of Nadi, Fiji.\u00a0 Harold was moving toward the east-southeast at 17 m.p.h. (28 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 125 m.p.h. (200 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 155 m.p.h. (250 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 943 mb.<\/p>\n
Although the maximum sustained wind speed in Tropical Cyclone Harold decreased, the area of stronger winds increased.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane\/typhoon force extended out 70 miles (110 km) from the center of Harold.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 200 miles (320 km) from the center of circulation.\u00a0 The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) for Tropical Cyclone Harold was 23.6.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) was 22.1 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) was 45.7.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Harold was capable of causing major damage.<\/p>\n
The circulation around Tropical Cyclone Harold increased in size on Tuesday.\u00a0 The previous small eye was no longer visible on satellite imagery, but the most recent images suggested that a larger eye could be developing that the center of circulation.\u00a0 The newly forming eye was surround by a ring of strong thunderstorms and the strongest winds were occurring in that ring of storms.\u00a0 Bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the center of Harold.\u00a0 Storms near the center were generating upper level divergence which was pumping mass away from the tropical cyclone.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Harold will move through an environment favorable for intensification during the next 12 to 24 hours.\u00a0 Harold will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 30\u00b0C.\u00a0 It will move under the southwestern part of an upper level ridge over the South Pacific Ocean.\u00a0 The ridge will produce northwesterly winds which will blow toward the top of the circulation.\u00a0 Those winds will cause some vertical wind shear, but they will not be strong enough to prevent intensification.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Harold could strengthen during the next 12 to 24 hours.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Harold will move around the southwestern part of a high pressure system over the South Pacific Ocean.\u00a0 The high will steer Harold toward the east-southeast during the next several days.\u00a0 On its anticipated track Tropical Cyclone Harold could reach Fiji within 12 hours.\u00a0 Harold will be capable of causing major wind damage.\u00a0 It will drop heavy rain and flash floods are likely.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Harold could reach Tonga within 36 hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Cyclone Harold approached Fiji on Tuesday morning.\u00a0 At 5:00 a.m. EDT on Tuesday the center of Tropical Cyclone Harold was located at latitude 17.4\u00b0S and longitude 173.4\u00b0E which put it about 270 miles (435 km) west of Nadi, Fiji.\u00a0 Harold was moving toward the east-southeast at 17 m.p.h. (28 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind […]<\/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":[1981,89,1980,1880,1490,307,1979],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9402"}],"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=9402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9403,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9402\/revisions\/9403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}