Would You Believe . . . A December Hurricane?
By James Donahue
Dec. 1, 2005
Folks on the Florida Keys celebrated the official end of the 2005 hurricane season Wednesday even
as the 26th tropical storm of the season was cranking up on the Atlantic.
Because they have long run out of names, this storm is Epsilon, from the Greek Alphabet. And it
is breaking all the rules set by past hurricane seasons.
This storm developed about 1,500 miles east of Bermuda and about 1,500 miles west-southwest of the
Azores, which puts it in an area where it isn’t threatening anybody . . . at least for a while.
But the storm is intensifying and moving. But rather than move westward, as most Atlantic storms
do, this one is moving east-northeast at a speed of about 12 miles an hour.
And its maximum sustained winds today are near 65 miles an hour, which means it could become a hurricane
if it gets any stronger.
Weather watchers predict that Epsilon will not directly affect Bermuda, although the storm will
produce large ocean swells and heavy surf and rough wave conditions for a few days.
That should take the fun out of a few of those winter pleasure cruises folks make to Bermuda, if
any ships are caught unaware.
And world leaders meeting this week in Montreal to talk about curtailing global warming should take
a close look at this freak December storm. It means the Atlantic is still warm enough to generate tropical storms, something
unheard of in recorded weather history.
The sense of urgency is being felt by most leaders. The only holdout, as we understand it, is the
United States, where the Bush Administration is totally sold out to big business interests. They refuse to pay the price of
cleaning up emissions from their smoke stacks.
