The image above showed the Atlantic Ocean "Heat Anomaly" in 2005 which spawned Hurricane Katrina. Below is another such "Anomaly" this year -- DOOM!
Hurricane Katrina was a devastating and deadly Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $190 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area.
Below is a high-resolution satellite image of Katrina taken at its peak intensity. Click the image twice to enlarge to full size in a new window:
Prior to Katrina developing, Scientists noticed what they called 'Heat Anomaly" in the Atlantic Ocean, in the precise region where hurricanes form. For some reason, there was a lot more heat in the ocean that year. That heat had measurable effects. This is what the "Heat Anomaly" looked like in 2005:
Katrina was the twelfth tropical cyclone, the fifth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States, gauged by barometric pressure.
Katrina began on August 23, 2005, with the merger of a tropical wave and the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten. Early the following day, the depression intensified into a tropical storm and headed generally westward toward Florida.
On August 25, two hours before making landfall at Hallandale Beach, it strengthened into a hurricane. After briefly weakening to tropical storm strength over southern Florida, Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and rapidly intensified.
The storm strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before weakening to a high-end Category 3 hurricane at its second landfall on August 29 over southeast Louisiana and Mississippi.
Given the facts above, and that the ferocious development of Katrina in 2005 took place and grew to such frightening intensity because of the "Heat Anomaly" in the Atlantic that year, take a look at the "Heat Anomaly" THIS year:
Here are the two Anomalies side-by-side for comparison:
Oh boy!
