Volume XLVII, Issue 48, September 4, 2021
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The Hurricane Herald: 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics Special Edition!

The Hurricane Herald is the semi-regular newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The newsletter aims to provide in summary the recent activities and developments of the WikiProject, in addition to global tropical cyclone activity. The Hurricane Herald has been running since its first edition ran on June 4, 2006. If you wish to receive or discontinue your subscription to this newsletter, please visit the mailing list. This issue of The Hurricane Herald covers all project-related events from May 1–September 3, 2021. This edition's editors and authors are LightandDark2000, MarioJump83, HurricaneParrot, CodingCyclone, CycloneFootball71, HurricaneCovid, HurricaneEdgar, Jason Rees, and Destroyeraa (the MoTM for this issue). Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve the newsletter and other cyclone-related articles. Past editions can be viewed here.

WikiProject Tropical Cyclones: News & Developments

  • A CCI case was filed concerning WPTC.
  • The second round of the Cyclone Cup ended earlier than expected on June 13. Jason Rees was eliminated with 0 points. CodingCyclone was in the lead for this round with 105 points for getting Timeline of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season to FL, along with completing a couple reviews and helping Tropical Storm Fay (2020) get to GA. She was followed by MarioJump83 with 80 points for getting Cyclone Owen and Cyclone Kelvin to GA, and LightandDark2000 with 40 points for ITN recognitions and various reviews. HurricaneCovid also managed with 10 points for creating April 2021 nor'easter. The third round ended on September 1. HurricaneCovid was eliminated with 0 points. LightandDark2000 took first place this round with 130 points, from getting two GAs, two DYK nominations, and various reviews. He was followed by CodingCyclone at 50 points, for getting one GA and conducting a couple of reviews. MarioJump came in third, with 10 points.
  • WPTC and WPSVR were merged into WikiProject Weather as subprojects in early July, following a series of discussions. Please see the WPTC talk page and Archive 47 of the WPTC talk page for more details. The merger should be fully completed by the end of the year, after WikiProject Meteorlogy is merged into WP Weather.
  • A new, user-friendly track map generator for WPTC was created by CodingCactus and CodingCyclone. After a few weeks of work, the track map generator is essentially completed and ready for use. A downloadable software version was developed and released shortly afterward, which can be found here. The online version of the new track map generator can be found here. There is currently an RfC on the WPTC talk page on whether it can be used to upload tracks on Commons.

New articles since the last newsletter include:

New GA's include:

Member of the month (Editor's Pick) – Nova Crystallis and Supportstorm

In this edition of Hurricane Herald, I (MarioJump83, one of the Hurricane Herald editors) am going to award Nova Crystallis and Supportstorm with my pick. Both of them are second-generation of WPTC members who joined Wikipedia in 2011 and 2014, respectively. Their most notable work were off-wiki: Nova Crystallis created the WPTC Discord server in August 2018, an idea of Hurricane Noah's, and has since then administered the server to this day, including several server cleanups on the occasions of server disruptions. Supportstorm, meanwhile, is one of the most prolific track creator in all of WPTC, which led some WPTC members (Janm 7 in particular) to ask him for tracks, and as of now, he's actively converting track images from JPG into PNG versions, including the creation of tropical cyclones by year tracks. However, their on-wiki work deserve appreciation as well, since Nova Crystallis has created numerous GA-class WPAC pre-1980 typhoon articles pre-1980, in addition to actively creating GAs for WikiProject U.S. Roads, while Supportstorm takes their time to add their tracks into the articles once they're done and was once assisted in the creation of 1960s North Indian Ocean cyclone season articles back in 2013.

2018 Featured Topic Update
Featured Articles promoted (May 1–September 3)
Good Articles promoted (May 1–September 3)
Current Candidates
New Articles (Only B-Class and below, May 1–September 3)
Recent updates

As we entered the summer and the start of the Northern Hemisphere tropical cyclone seasons, several users wrote new articles for the FT project and brought several to GA status.

We are recruiting

If you are interested in writing new articles, promoting articles to GA, or helping with the FAC review process for the Global 2018 FT project, please reach out to Hurricane Noah, LightandDark2000, or any other member of the 2018 FT task force.

WikiProject To-Do


Here are some tasks you can do:

Current assessment table

As of this issue, there are 159 featured articles and 72 featured lists. There are 3 A-class articles, and 1164 good articles. There are only 157 B-class articles, perhaps because because most articles of that quality already passed a GA review. There are 620 C-class articles, 837 start-class articles, and 177 stub-class articles, with 985 lists, and 0 current articles. These figures mean that slightly more than half of the project is rated a GA or better. Typhoon Warren was the 1000th GA in the project.

About the assessment scale →

Project Goals & Progress

The following is the current progress on the four milestone goals set by the WikiProject as of this publishing. They can be found, updated, at the main WikiProject page.

Storms of the month over the last year
Month Storm
August 2021 Hurricane Ida
July 2021 Typhoon In-fa
June 2021 Tropical Storm Claudette (2021)
May 2021 Cyclone Tauktae
April 2021 Cyclone Seroja
March 2021 Cyclone Niran
February 2021 Cyclone Guambe
January 2021 Cyclone Eloise
Storm of the Year 2020 Hurricane Eta
December 2020 Cyclone Yasa
November 2020 Hurricane Iota
October 2020 Typhoon Goni (2020)
September 2020 Cyclone Ianos
August 2020 Hurricane Laura

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for May, June, July, and August

SoTM for May: Cyclone Tauktae

Tauktae originated from a tropical disturbance, which was first monitored by the India Meteorological Department on May 13. The disturbance drifted eastward and organized into a deep depression by May 14. The storm soon took a northward turn, continuing to gradually intensify, and the system strengthened into a cyclonic storm and was named Tauktae later that same day. Tauktae continued intensifying into May 15, reaching severe cyclonic storm status later that day. Tauktae began to parallel the coast of the Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, before rapidly intensifying into a very severe cyclonic storm, early on May 16. Early on May 17, Tauktae intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm, reaching its peak intensity soon afterward. Later that same day, Tauktae underwent an eyewall replacement cycle and weakened, before restrengthening as it neared the coast of Gujarat, making landfall soon afterward. After making landfall, Tauktae gradually weakened as it turned northeastward, moving further inland. On May 19, Tauktae weakened into a well-marked low-pressure area. Tauktae brought heavy rainfall and flash floods to areas along the coast of Kerala and on Lakshadweep. There were reports of heavy rain in the states of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra as well. Tauktae resulted in at least 169 deaths in India, and left another 81 people missing. There were also 5 deaths reported in Pakistan. The storm displaced over 200,000 people in Gujarat. The cyclone also caused widespread infrastructure and agricultural damage to the western coast of India.

SoTM for June: Tropical Storm Claudette (2021)

Claudette originated from a broad trough of low pressure over the Bay of Campeche on June 12, which moved erratically over the region for the next several days. Moving northward with little development due to unfavorable upper-level winds and land interaction, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) initiated advisories on it as a Potential Tropical Cyclone late on June 17, due to its imminent threat to land. The disturbance finally organized into Tropical Storm Claudette at 09:00 UTC on June 19 as it was over southeast Louisiana. Claudette weakened to a depression as it turned east-northeastward before moving through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Baroclinic forcing then caused Claudette to reintensify into a tropical storm over North Carolina early on June 21 before it accelerated into the Atlantic Ocean later that day. Soon afterward, it degenerated into a low-pressure trough on the same day, before being absorbed into another extratropical cyclone on the next day.

Claudette produced gusty winds, flash flooding, and tornadoes across much of the Southeastern United States. Claudette overall caused minor impacts along the Gulf of Campeche’s coastline due to the system stalling in the region as an Invest and a Potential Tropical Cyclone. Impacts were most severe in Alabama and Mississippi, where heavy rains caused flash flooding. Several tornadoes in the states also caused severe damage, including an EF2 tornado that damaged a school and destroyed parts of a mobile home park in East Brewton, Alabama, injuring 20 people. At least 14 people died in Alabama due to the storm. Total economic losses across the United States exceeded $350 million.

SoTM for July: Typhoon In-fa

In-fa was first noted by the JTWC as an area of low pressure, located east of the Philippines on July 14. Favorable conditions helped the storm to intensify, becoming a tropical depression, two days later and a tropical storm on July 17, being assigned the name In-fa by the Japan Meteorological Agency. Located in a weak steering environment, the system struggled to organize under dry air and moderate wind shear before organizing further. It continued to move mostly westward, strengthening into a typhoon and deepening quickly. The storm struggled to organize itself significantly due to continuous dry air intrusions and its frequent motion changes. On July 21, it reached its peak intensity, with maximum 1-minute sustained winds of 175 km/h (110 mph), and 10-minute sustained winds of 150 km/h (90 mph) on the system. Nevertheless, the system reached its minimum barometric pressure of 950 hPa (28.05 inHg), three days later, after passing through the Ryukyu Islands. As it entered the East China Sea, marginal conditions started to take their toll on the system, with In-fa weakening steadily and slowly, until it made its consecutive landfalls over Putuo District of Zhoushan and Pinghu on July 25 and 26, respectively, as a tropical storm. For the next couple of days, the storm slowly moved inland while gradually weakening, before turning northward on July 29. Later that day, In-fa weakened into a remnant low over northern China. The remnants continued their northward trek for another couple of days, before dissipating near North Korea on July 31.

Typhoon In-fa exacerbated and played a part in starting the 2021 Henan floods, a flooding event that killed at least 302 people and dealt upwards of 82 billion yuan (US$12.7 billion) in damage, while leaving at least 50 people missing. The typhoon itself killed 6 people and caused at least $2 billion in damages.

  • North Atlantic – The NHC started issuing tropical weather outlooks on May 15, before the Atlantic's first system, Tropical Storm Ana, formed on May 22. This continued the trend of systems forming, before the official start of the season on June 1, for the seventh year in a row. During June, three tropical cyclones developed in the basin: Tropical Storms Bill, Claudette, and Danny. Bill remained off the East Coast of the United States and had limited impacts. Claudette was designated as Potential Tropical Cyclone Three and organized into a tropical storm at landfall. The system subsequently moved through the Southeastern United States. Danny was a short-lived tropical storm that made landfall in South Carolina, before dissipating on the next day. On July 1, Hurricane Elsa developed east of the Lesser Antilles and rapidly intensified into a Category 1 hurricane in the Caribbean; however, due to the storm's rapid forward motion and wind shear, Elsa weakened back into a tropical storm. It passed just north of Jamaica and made landfall on Cuba, before emerging into the Gulf of Mexico. Elsa briefly regained Category 1 hurricane intensity, before weakening back into a tropical storm and making landfall on Florida on July 8. The storm moved up the East Coast of the US, becoming extratropical on July 9 and dissipating on July 14. In August, six tropical cyclones developed: Tropical Storm Fred, Hurricanes Grace, Henri, and Ida, Tropical Storms Kate and Julian (Kate was named later), and Hurricane Larry. Fred developed on August 11. The system impacted Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba, before degenerating back into a tropical wave on August 14. On August 15, Fred regenerated into a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico, before making landfall on the Florida Panhandle on August 16. The storm weakened into a remnant low on August 18, while moving through the Eastern United States, before dissipating on August 20. Hurricane Grace developed on August 13. The system took a westward track and affected much of the Caribbean, before strengthening into a Category 1 hurricane and making landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula on August 19. Afterward, Grace rapidly intensified in the Gulf of Mexico, before making landfall on Veracruz as a Category 3 major hurricane. Grace rapidly weakened afterward, degenerating into a remnant disturbance on August 21. Grace's remnants would later cross into the East Pacific and redevelop into Tropical Storm Marty. Henri developed to the east of Bermuda on August 16. The system made a slow counterclockwise loop off the East Coast of the US, before turning northward and developing into a Category 1 hurricane on August 21. On the next day, Henri weakened back into a tropical storm and made landfall on Rhode Island, before proceeding to make a slow westward loop over New England for a day, causing widespread flooding across the region. Henri subsequently turned eastward and weakened into a remnant low, before dissipating on August 24. On August 26, Hurricane Ida developed in the Caribbean. The system intensified into a Category 1 hurricane on August 27, before making landfall on western Cuba and emerging into the Gulf of Mexico. Subsequently, Ida began to undergo rapid intensification, as it moved northeastward. Ida peaked as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on August 29, with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 929 millibars (27.4 inHg), making landfall in Louisiana at a similar intensity, becoming one of the most powerful hurricanes recorded making landfall on the state. Ida became extratropical on September 1, subsequently causing historic flooding and a tornado outbreak in the Northeastern United States. On September 3, Ida stalled in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, before being absorbed into a developing low on the next day. The current death toll is at 71, and the damage total is estimated to exceed $50 billion (2021 USD), making Ida the sixth-costliest tropical cyclone on record. On August 28, Tropical Storm Kate developed over the Tropical Atlantic and proceeded to move northward. On the next day, Julian developed and tracked in a similar direction. On August 31, Hurricane Larry developed over the Tropical Atlantic, becoming a Category 3 major hurricane on September 2.
  • East Pacific – The East Pacific hurricane season officially started on May 15. The NHC issued its first advisory of the year on the first tropical system, Tropical Storm Andres, on May 9. Andres broke the record for the earliest named storm formation on record, beating 2017's Tropical Storm Adrian by about a day. Tropical Storm Blanca developed near the end of that month and remained offshore. Tropical Storm Carlos originated as a tropical disturbance near southern Mexico on June 2, though the system failed to coalesce into a tropical cyclone until June 12. The second half of the month saw the formation of Tropical Storm Dolores and Hurricane Enrique. Dolores made landfall in southwestern Mexico as a high-end tropical storm, while Enrique paralleled the southwestern coast of Mexico, before dissipating over the southern Baja California Peninsula. July saw the development of four systems: Hurricane Felicia, Tropical Storm Guillermo, Hurricane Hilda, and Tropical Storm Jimena. Felicia developed into a powerful Category 4 annular hurricane, and peaked with maximum sustained winds of 125 kn (145 mph; 230 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 947 mbar (27.96 inHg). Guillermo and Hilda both remained offshore, with very little impacts. Jimena developed on August 30, and remained at sea. In August, five tropical cyclones developed in the basin, including: Tropical Storms Ignacio and Kevin, Hurricane Linda, Tropical Storm Marty, and Hurricane Nora. Both Ignacio and Kevin remained offshore and had minimal impacts. Hurricane Linda developed into a Category 4 hurricane and was a long-lived annular hurricane, peaking with maximum sustained winds of 115 kn (130 mph; 215 km/h) and minimum pressure of 950 mb (28.05 inHg). Linda gradually weakened as it moved westward, entering the Central Pacific on August 20 and becoming post-tropical shortly afterward. On August 21, the remnants of Hurricane Grace from the North Atlantic entered the basin, before regenerating into Tropical Storm Marty on August 23. Marty dissipated shortly afterward. On August 25, Nora developed to the south of Mexico. The storm eventually developed into a hurricane on August 28 and paralleled the western coast of Mexico.
  • Central Pacific – The Central Pacific hurricane season officially started on June 1. Hurricane Linda's post-tropical remnant entered the basin on August 20. On August 23, Linda's remnants struck Hawaii as a tropical storm-force low, before the remnants were last noted on the next day.
  • West Pacific – On May 11, Tropical Depression 02W (Crising) to the southeast of the Philippines, marking the formation of the third system in the basin. Crising moved across the southern Philippines, before dissipating. This was followed by another unnamed tropical depression and Tropical Storm Choi-wan later that month; the latter affected the Philippines and Taiwan. In June, three systems developed: Tropical Storm Koguma, Typhoon Champi, and another unnamed tropical depression. Koguma affected Hainan and northern Vietnam, while Champi passed to the east of Japan. Activity picked up in July, with 12 tropical cyclones developing, including: Tropical Depressions 07W (Emong) and 08W, Typhoon In-fa, Severe Tropical Storm Cempaka (known in China as "Typhoon Cempaka"), Tropical Storm Nepartak, and four other unnamed tropical depressions. Emong passed near southern Taiwan, before making landfall in China. 08W tracked through the Philippines, Hainan, and northern Vietnam, during its lifetime. Typhoon In-fa struck China in late July and slowly moved inland, exacerbating the already-devastating 2021 Henan floods. Cempaka slowly moved ashore in southern China and made a counterclockwise loop through southern China and the Gulf of Tonkin, before dissipating; Cempaka was classified as a typhoon at its peak intensity by both the China Meteorological Agency (CMA) and the JTWC. Napartak exhibited subtropical characteristics for most of its lifetime and made landfall in northern Japan. Activity continued into August, with six more tropical cyclones developing. These included an unnamed tropical depression, Tropical Depression 12W, and Tropical Storms Tropical Storm Lupit, Nida, Mirinae, and Omais. 12W developed on August 1; the system eventually dissipated on August 6, near southern Japan. Lupit affected a large swath of areas, from southern China, to Taiwan, to Japan, before eventually dissipating. Nida developed to the east of Japan and remained offshore, before becoming extratropical on August 8. The storm's remnants accelerated northeastward, eventually making landfall on Alaska on August 10. Mirinae developed to the east of Taiwan, and tracked close to the east coast of Japan, before becoming extratropical on August 10. The storm's remnants accelerated eastward across the Pacific, making landfall in western Canada on August 15. Omais developed near the International Date Line on August 10, and the system tracked westward. Omais became extratropical on August 24, but its remnants went on to affect South Korea, northern Japan, and part of the Russian Far East, before dissipating. Despite the burst of storm formation in July and August, activity in the West Pacific has been below-average, as of this writing.
  • North Indian Ocean – The first cyclone of the year, Cyclone Tauktae, formed on May 14, and intensified into an Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm on the IMD scale, and a Category 4-equivalent tropical cyclone on the SSHWS scale. Tauktae made landfall in Gujarat on May 17, before dissipating two days later. The second cyclone of the season, Cyclone Yaas, formed on May 23, and made landfall along the Odisha coast on May 26, before dissipating on May 28.
  • South-West Indian Ocean – On May 15, the South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season officially ended for the region around Mauritius and Seychelles.
  • Australian region – On May 31, a tropical low, the last system of the season, formed to the west-northwest of the Cocos Islands. The tropical low continued moving southeastward, before it was last noted on June 3, bringing the 2020–21 tropical cyclone year to a close.
  • South Atlantic tropical cyclone – On June 29, Subtropical Storm Roani developed to the southeast of Brazil, just outside of the Brazilian Navy's area of responsiblity; as such, the storm went unnamed at the time. On the next day, the system entered the Brazilian Navy's area of responsibility and was assigned the name Raoni. The storm soon peaked as a powerful subtropical cyclone, with a minimum central pressure of 986 millibars (29.1 inHg) and maximum 1-minute sustained winds of 50 mph (85 km/h), according to the Brazilian Navy, making Roani the most powerful tropical or subtropical cyclone in the South Atlantic since Hurricane Catarina in 2004. Roani took a northeastward track while gradually weakening, before degenerating into a remnant low on July 2. Roani's extratropical precursor brought powerful gusts and heavy rain to parts of Brazil. From June 24 to July 2, Raoni contributed to an unusually-strong cold wave across portions of South America, setting record low temperatures and bringing rare snowfall to parts of the region.

Member of the month (edition) – Destroyeraa

Destroyeraa joined Wikipedia as an IP editor in 2018. His edits back then were sparse, mostly involving correcting typos and grammar articles in articles that he read. In 2019, he began editing more often, and he started editing articles on weather, especially those on storms in the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season. Although he contributed to those articles, his edits appeared to go unnoticed. On January 17, 2020 (January 18, UTC time), Destroyeraa created his user account on Wikipedia. In May of that year, he joined WPTC, though no one welcomed him for a month. Around this time, he co-created his first article, Tropical Storm Bertha (2020). He also began contributing larger amounts of contents to articles, in addition to creating new ones. In July 2020, Destroyeraa created an article for Hurricane Dolores (2015), which became his first GA later that month. By this time, he had become a regular WPTC editor and a key contributor, often updating the articles for various storms, such as Hurricane Isaias. As time went on, Destroyeraa contributed more content and built up his accomplishments. In October, he got Dolores's article posted to the Did You Know? section on the Main Page, and he got more articles promoted to GA status as well. He also started engaging in anti-vandalism activities, combatting multiple vandals and even some LTAs. However, he was blocked for a week for engaging in sockpuppetry.

Nevertheless, after his block, Destroyeraa resumed contributing to various articles, and he also helped out with the workings of WPTC. In January 2021, Destroyeraa created the Cyclone Cup, a fun competition based on the WikiCup for WikiProject Weather users to participate in, in order to help encourage more article creation and the improvement of article quality. However, by March 2021, his school work caught up with him, and he was forced to take a WikiBreak for the next few months. In early April, Destroyeraa made the decision to retire from Wikipedia, due to a recent spate of drama and negative behavior on WPTC; however, after some off-wiki persuasion, he was persuaded to change his mind. In June 2021, Destroyeraa officially returned to WPTC. While he was a lot more inactive, largely due to summer assignments and real-life activities, he still contributed to Wikipedia from time to time. As of the publication of this newsletter, Destroyeraa has created 24 articles and brought five articles to GA status. He has become one of the most accomplished WPTC users who joined post-2020, and he plans on continuing his work in the future. We wish him the best of luck in his future on Wikipedia and in his studies at school, and we hope to continue seeing him around here.

New WikiProject Members since the last newsletter

More information can be found here. This list lists members who have joined/rejoined the WikiProject since the release of the last issue. Sorted chronologically.
  1. Sleepinthestars (talk · contribs)
  2. SR.1111111 (talk · contribs)
  3. BiddybudBoy (talk · contribs)
  4. CycloneEditor (talk · contribs)
  5. TheGreatSpring (talk · contribs) (Has since gone inactive)
  6. Kayree kh (talk · contribs)
  7. Destroyeraa (talk · contribs) (Rejoined)
  8. SolarisPenguin (talk · contribs)
  9. SsSsSølarRadia -75 (talk · contribs)
  10. Nakosi (talk · contribs)
  11. Kritphon (talk · contribs)
  12. FreeWikiFrog (talk · contribs)
  13. Drdpw (talk · contribs)
  14. André L P Souza (talk · contribs)
  15. HurricaneIcy (talk · contribs) (Rejoined)
  16. Kellis7 (talk · contribs)
  17. ElenaCyclone (talk · contribs)

To our new members: welcome to the project, and happy editing! Feel free to check the to-do list at the bottom right of the newsletter for things that you might want to work on. To our veteran members: thank you for your edits and your tireless contributions!

Thank you, TropicalAnalystwx13, MarioJump83, DachshundLover82, and Cyclone Toby

TropicalAnalystwx13 left Wikipedia in September 2020 without notice. He was one of the most prominent content contributors within the past decade, and he also welcomed some of the other users when they joined. Within the past few months, MarioJump83 went into semi-retirement, and both DachshundLover82 (previously known as Robloxsupersuperhappyface) and Cyclone Toby decided to fully retire from Wikipedia. These users made their decisions after suffering from a lack of interest in editing, a variety of real-life issues (including health issues for DachshundLover82), and also a lack of time. MarioJump83 was an invaluable editor who had made many edits and written multiple aritcles and GAs, and they also brought new users to WPTC, in addition to mentoring Chicdat. DachshundLover82 and Cyclone Toby were both seasoned article writers, having authored multiple articles and even promoting some articles to GA status. Each of these users were MoTM picks in recent issues of The Hurricane Herald. We wish them the best in life and hope to see them again someday.

Featured Content

From May 1 to September 3, a featured list, a featured article, and a featured topic were promoted:

From the Main Page: Documents WikiProject related materials that have appeared on the main page from May 1–September 3, 2021 in chronological order.

Today's Featured Article/List
Did you know...?

There is an article currently nominated for featured article status:

Article of the Month: 2018 Pacific hurricane season

The 2018 Pacific hurricane season was one of the most active Pacific hurricane seasons on record, producing the highest accumulated cyclone energy value on record in the basin. The season saw 26 tropical cyclones, 23 named storms – the fourth-highest value recorded, tied with 1982, 13 hurricanes, and 10 major hurricanes, in addition to one unofficial subtropical storm. The season also featured eight landfalls, six of which occurred in Mexico. The season officially began on May 15 in the Eastern Pacific, and on June 1 in the Central Pacific; they both ended on November 30. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Pacific basin. However, tropical cyclone formation is possible at any time of the year, as illustrated when the first tropical depression formed on May 10, five days prior to the official start of the season.

The accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) index for the 2018 Pacific hurricane season was around 316 units. Broadly speaking, ACE is a measure of the power of a tropical or subtropical storm multiplied by the length of time it existed. Therefore, a stronger storm with a longer duration contributes more to the seasonal total than several short-lived, weaker storms combined. 2018 had the highest total ACE of any Pacific hurricane season on record, having surpassed the 1992 Pacific hurricane season.

Tropical Cyclone Anniversary: August 29, 2005 – Hurricane Katrina

On Monday, August 29, 2005, at 6:10 a.m. CDT (11:10 UTC), Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Buras-Triumph, Louisiana, before making another landfall near the Louisiana–Mississippi border, a few hours later. The storm made landfall as a powerful high-end Category 3 hurricane, with maximum 1-minute sustained winds of 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) and a central pressure of 920 millibars (27 inches of mercury). The storm had weakened from its peak as a Category 5 hurricane, due to an eyewall replacement cycle. Katrina caused the levee system in New Orleans to fail, flooding the city, and causing enormous amounts of destruction. The floods also ended up killing many residents of the city. In all, Katrina killed 1,836 people and caused an estimated $125 billion (2005 USD) in damages, making the storm the costliest hurricane on record in the United States and also worldwide (tied with Hurricane Harvey, without factoring in inflation), and also making the storm one of the deadliest hurricanes to strike the United States in the 21st century.

My Experience on Wikipedia, by LightandDark2000

I joined Wikipedia as an IP editor on May 1, 2009 (May 2, if you go by UTC time). Although a couple of users encouraged me to make an account early on, I decided to continue editing articles from my IPs for the next few years. I just felt that I wasn't ready for a user account yet. In 2010–11, I experienced hounding from another user on some TV show articles, which made me withdraw from those articles for a while and briefly consider quitting Wikipedia. I registered my user account in May 2012, but I spent another year on Wikipedia as an IP editor, before fully transitioning over to my account in the summer of 2013. I also created my first articles in 2012. I pretty much grew used to using my account and decided to stick with it. :) In March 2014, I received an invitation to join WPTC, which I obviously accepted. I had considered myself a member of WPTC since 2012, but I didn't really know about WikiProjects, much less how to join them (otherwise, I would've joined much earlier). Since 2010, I had regularly contributed to articles. While I didn't have a solid grasp of how to cite sources at the time, I managed to contribute a good a mount of content, in addition to cleaning up spelling and grammar errors. As time went on, my article-writing skills improved, and so did my knowledge of Wikipedia policies. I will admit: I did have difficulty at times, and my temper got me into trouble from time to time. However, these mistakes made me more determined to better myself, and avoid the same missteps in the future. I also engaged in anti-vandalism activities quite often, which brought me into conflict with IPhonehurricane95 and his copycap, Lightning Sabre, whom can be considered the two most vicious LTAs that WPTC has had to deal with. In late 2014–early 2017, I largely moved out of WPTC into MILHIST, due to my interest in the recent conflicts involving the terrorist organization ISIL in the Middle East. I contributed a lot to those articles, though I still contributed to tropical cyclone and other weather articles from time to time. I had made some friends on-wiki by this point, including Master of Time and EkoGraf. In early April 2016, a small number of users were fed up with some of my edits and decided to launch a witchhunt in order to get me topic banned (or even completely banned, for some). While the case was eventually dropped, it was very disturbing to me and made me consider permanently retiring from Wikipedia. In August 2016, the combination of college work and stress led me to take a 3-month WikiBreak. I pulled a full exit and considered never coming back.

However, I enjoyed contributing to Wikipedia too much (hehe), and during my winter break, I returned and resumed editing. In 2017, my editing activity gradually ramped up, and in September 2017, I returned to WPTC, following the devastating landfall of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. During my time in MILHIST, my citation skills had greatly improved. Once again, I regularly contributed to tropical cyclone articles, as well as articles on other storms and natural disasters, which I greatly enjoyed. I also observed the peak of the hyperactive 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, including the devastating landfalls of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. However, as I had noted before in some previous Op-Eds and elsewhere, I noticed that WPTC had stagnated, and had serious manpower issues. As we remained a rather small WikiProject for a while, it grew a little depressing at times. In December 2017, a combination of poor habits and overworking myself took its toll on my health and I suffered a severe burnout, and I was forced to leave Wikipedia until late January 2018 (a mistake I intend never to repeat). In 2017 through 2019, WPTC's membership slowly grew in size, a few of whom became very accomplished article-writers over time, and I met Hurricane Noah and others. I eventually acquired a number of user rights in order to help with my work on Wikipedia, including Pending Changes Reviewer, Rollbacker, and Page Mover. I continued tracking tropical cyclones and regularly contributing to those articles through the summer of 2019. However, in September 2019, I took an extended series of WikiBreaks through mid-2020, due to college work and real-life activities.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic went global, and lockdowns ensued. During this time, WPTC began seeing an explosion of new editors, though I remained inactive on-wiki for another several months and missed out the first part of this growth (much to my regret). In July 2020, I finally returned to Wikipedia, during the appearance of Comet NEOWISE and the impending landfall of Hurricane Isaias. Through the remainder of the year, I gradually increased my contributions, though I had to cut back on my editing activity until December, due to college. During this period, I met some of our new WPTC members, including Destroyeraa, HurricaneCovid, CodingCyclone, CycloneFootball71, and AC5230, and I made new friends, growing extremely close to some of them. I became more involved in WPTC's work, and I also helped out some of my fellow users when they needed it. In January 2021, I joined Destroyeraa's Cyclone Cup, a competition he made based on Wikipedia's WikiCup. In the past several months, I've witnessed and experienced several tumultuous episodes on WPTC, but I toughed them out. I continued contributing to various articles during this time, and I also got my first GA, Tropical Storm Rolf, with assistance from Destroyeraa. (Yeah, I didn't have the confidence to attempt a GA before then, even though I probably had the skills to do so since 2017.) In the summer of 2021, my activities began to wane once again, as I turned my attention more towards real-life activities, taking a break, and preparing for the upcoming school year. As of this writing, I am currently in college classes once again. I probably won't remain a regular editor for more than a year (since I will be searching for employment by then) and I will likely be forced into permanent Semi-Retirement then, but truly I appreciate my time here. I've created at least 26 articles and I have 3 GAs, and I'm looking forward to more content creation in the near future.

In closing, I'd like to thank my fellow editors for everything. When I first joined, I was unaware of the existence of this WikiProject (much less WikiProjects in general). I've had a rough start, but I've grown a lot during my time here, both as a writer and as a person. (I have to say, my time editing on Wikipedia really improved my writing and typing skills, which really helped me in school.) I've also made some good friends here. WPTC was also kind enough of a WikiProject for me to feel comfortable retreating to during times of trouble. I've experienced a lot here during my 12 years on Wikipedia, and looking back on it, it was worthwhile. Thank you all for everything, ~ LightandDark2000 🌀 (talk)

My experience on Wikipedia, by codingcyclone

I first joined Wikipedia on May 15, 2020. It's been over a year since then, and I've definitely learned a lot and will continue to learn more about contributing here. When I first joined, I never thought that I would be where I am today. To those who have given me advice and support, and been all around lovely people throughout my journey here (you know who you are), to name a few, hehe, your generosity means a lot to me. You have seen me at my best and at my worst, and you've been there for me through it all. You're all very sweet. codingcyclone advisories/damages 05:59, 26 June 2021 (UTC)Reply[reply]

To start off, my wikistory isn't all that interesting, and I'm not as experienced or accomplished as the other members of WPTC, but I've been wanting to write an opinion piece, so here we go. I made my first edit the day I joined. I didn't understand the concept of WP:BOLD, so my first few edits were to talk pages to discuss what to do. I also did not know how to sign my posts. LOL. I was a bit naïve, and in retrospect, I did some stuff prematurely. Luckily, I never did anything that was too damaging to the encyclopedia at this stage. At this point, my 'better' edits were mainly typo correcting, and copyediting. My activity was sparse due to IRL stuff from May to September 2020, but by October 2020, I had found out about Twinkle, and was making more edits, mostly to revert vandalism. This led to a minor dispute with an IP after I reverted their edit, which, to me, looked like blanking. I was wrong in classifying it as vandalism, and I violated WP:DEADHORSE when replying a month later. I do think that both the IP and I were wrong in some respects, but they were certainly more experienced than me, and I was definitely mistaken in trying to continue the argument. I continued to fix typos and revert vandalism, until I saw all the neglected tropical cyclone season timelines on Wikipedia, and I started to fix them. I created Timeline of the 2013 North Indian Ocean cyclone season (very incomplete still, I'll get to it soon™) and brought Timeline of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season to FLC (still needs a bit of work, though), leading to its promotion and my first little bronze star. I did my first GAR and helped out with the GANs of Tropical Storm Fay (2020) and Hurricane Paulette. I also helped start off 2021's Atlantic and Eastern Pacific timelines, and actually guided a new editor a bit. As of this edition's release, I'm helping the 2018 FT with timelines for the Southern Hemisphere. My activity is starting to lessen, since I'm going to be kind of busy IRL and I'm trying to manage my life more efficiently and other personal stuff, but I won't forget about Wikipedia. I'll always be here, fixing the timelines up.

Semi-retirement, by MarioJump83

Hi! MarioJump83 here. You know by this point that I'm semi-retired, and you can see the farewell message above by fellow members. I won't give much clarification on why I have semi-retired in this newsletter, but I'm not fully gone just yet.

As I am making this piece, I have removed the DachshundLover82 farewell message which I made by myself as they are strongly reconsidering retirement and became much more active recently, as well as changing some of my farewell message, but as you can tell from these, retirement isn't a sure thing. You can still edit anywhere at any time.

I've got plans to work on Wikipedia in my semi-retirement like Cyclone Cup stuff and Spoken Wikipedia but here's a catch with a little bit of clarification (that's why I said "I won't give much" - that means I still give some clarification eventually): I feel much more restricted than I have ever was since I got my laptop on September 2020 (which led to the peak of my activity next month). I tried to sleep by day and night, but my sleep attempts keep getting disturbed thus leading to lack of sleep. And many more I won't tell for now - there's a lot more than this, but it is more private. I'll can give more about why I semi-retired, but only on WPTC IRC or contact me directly on Discord (you can search SMB99thx on WPTC Discord).

By the way, this will be my final OP on Hurricane Herald, but probably not the final edit on Hurricane Herald yet. Thanks for giving me support, though, for helping me cope through mental stresses for all this time, which my family didn't give much thought about it, if not truly helping at all, since they are all about their business, AND as well as trying to get me regain interest on Wikipedia, but I don't feel like I'm going to come back on full speed this year. Not sure about next year, though.

Tropical cyclone infobox images, by LightandDark2000

In 2016–2018, WPTC experienced a serious of vicious edit wars involving the main infobox image on numerous tropical cyclone articles, the most vicious of which was the Hurricane Ophelia (2017) image war. Most of them were visible satellite images Vs. Infrared satellite (IR) images that were slightly closer to the peak. This series of edit wars affected numerous articles, and they continued until the edit-warriors either stopped with their attempts at changing images or ended up getting blocked (most of those blocked were IPs who continued the edit wars). In August 2020–August 2021, a new series of edit-wars erupted over tropical cyclone infobox images once again. The largest of these newer wars was one that involved Hurricane Delta's infobox image. While many of those conflicts involved the same issue of visible satellite image Vs. IR images seen in the 2016–2018 edit wars, the newer wars also included competing visible satellite images that editors thought looked better than the original, for one reason or another. I have seen these edit wars affect multiple articles (though not as many as the older wars from a few years ago), but after all this warring, multiple WPTC users have grown fed up with it, including me. After various discussions on- and off-wiki, as a project, we have successfully moved more towards discussions first instead of edit-warring, though image-warring still crops up occasionally. First of all, I will say this to those who have participated in the image wars, and those who are inclined to do so in the future: knock it off. Consider this your only warning: If you have image-warred and you have been told to stop, if you do it again, there will be consequences. It does not matter who "started it" or who was "wrong". Edit-warring, especially image wars, are completely unacceptable. Not only are they unacceptable, but they are extremely stupid. WPTC has a set of image policies that dictate what kinds of images should be used in the infoboxes of tropical cyclone articles. While there is some wiggle room for interpretation, these guidelines should be followed regarding the infobox images. You can see the linked page for the image policies themselves, but I will list the most important points here:

  • Quality First: Low-quality images are completely unacceptable for use in tropical cyclone infoboxes. If another image is of significantly higher quality than an older one, the older one should be replaced.
  • Use the most iconic image whenever possible: The most well-known or famous image of a storm should be used, if it exists. Even if it is not the peak intensity image. An image of the storm at its peak intensity is usually the most iconic image; however, this isn't always the case. The image used should always be the best option for representing the storm. If there is no "most iconic image" in existence, then the most representative visible satellite image should be used.
  • Visible satellite images beat non-visible satellite images: Visible satellite images should be used whenever possible. As long as a high-quality visible satellite image exists for a storm and accurately represents it, it should be used over all the other options. And as stated above, this image should be the most representative one of the storm. If there are no high-quality visible satellite images available, or if all of the existing visible satellite images fail to accurately portray the storm, then a high-quality Infrared satellite image may be used instead. And if an IR image is used, it should be colored in.
  • Colored images are preferred to non-colored ones: After considering all of points previously listed, a good colored image should be used, if possible. If there is no colored visible satellite image available, then a greyscale image can be used instead. Edited color images made to resemble visible satellite images are acceptable for use, but those should be used with caution, and they should be well-done.
  • Discuss First, Don't War: If you want to change an image that has been maintained for a long time on an article, or if you want to change the image for a storm that has a history of edit-warring, please discuss it on the talk page first. DO NOT edit war. A refusal to abide by Wikipedia's policy will have consequences, and these can include topic bans, blocks, or other types of sanctions.

Please consider these guidelines in the future regarding tropical cyclone images and any changes made to them. Editing on Wikipedia should not be stressful or filled with conflict. Instead, editing should be productive, and even enjoyable. We should all keep a level head and take a mature approach in all matters. Hopefully, together, we can make these image wars a thing of the past. ~ LightandDark2000 🌀 (talk)

Comments[edit]

Nominations for MoTM

Destroyeraa (talk · contribs)

I am proud to nominate Destroyeraa as the Member of the Month for this issue of The Hurricane Herald. Destroyeraa is one of the finest editors I have ever come across on WPTC and on Wikipedia, in general. He is an excellent article writer, having created over 20 tropical cyclone articles and having promoted 5 articles to GA status, all in his first year as a registered user! He is also a great anti-vandal user, having taken down many vandals and LTAs, and he has helped me out on a number of occasions. Yeah, he has screwed up in the past, but none of us are perfect; most importantly, he learned from his mistakes. Before his WikiBreak, he was one of the most active users on WPTC and a key individual in the revival of the WikiProject and in its other activities. He is also one of the nicest users I know, and many of us have come to see him as a friend. He has reached out to us when we were in need, and honestly, I haven't seen him do anything that would make me question my trust in him. I don't think that his recent retirement should be a disqualifying factor; in any case, he has since decided to return after his school year ends in late June. Please vote below. LightandDark2000 🌀 (talk) 02:02, 1 May 2021 (UTC)Reply[reply]

August Storm of the month: Ida?[edit]

Can we all agree that Hurricane Ida is the storm of the month? LOL!ChessEric (talk · contribs) 00:28, 1 September 2021 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@ChessEric, I do definitely agree that Ida is the SOTM, however I believe that it is going to be held off until next newsletter, so that there is space to include it. 🌀CycloneFootball71🏈 |sandbox 03:39, 1 September 2021 (UTC)Reply[reply]
@CycloneFootball71: Oh. Okay. LOL!ChessEric (talk · contribs) 19:20, 1 September 2021 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Lol :) 🌀CycloneFootball71🏈 |sandbox 19:23, 1 September 2021 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Update?[edit]

It has been almost 6 months since the last newsletter. Any updates? Vida0007 (talk) 16:42, 26 February 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

*sweats* Chlod (say hi!) 10:35, 13 April 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]
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