Ex-Typhoon Nuri Bombs to 924 mb in Bering Sea

What was once Category 5 Super Typhoon Nuri bombed into one of the strongest extratropical storms ever observed in the Pacific Ocean, reaching 924 mb at 06 UTC Saturday morning--a pressure rarely achieved by an extratropical storm. The only two Pacific storms I am aware of that compare are the October 25 - 26, 1977 storm near Dutch Harbor, Alaska that set Alaska's all-time low pressure record (925 mb), and a storm from December 24, 1975 that hit 926 mb near 49°N 158°W. Wunderground's weather historian Christopher C. Burt has all the details in his latest post. Thanks go to wunderblogger Steve Gregory for supplying the images below.


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Figure 1. MODIS satellite image of the mighty extratropical storm Ex-Typhoon Nuri became in the Bering Sea on November 8, 2014. Image credit: NASA.


Figure 2. Surface analysis for 06 UTC Saturday (1 am EST) November 8, 2014 from the GFS model. Note the large area of storm-force winds greater than 50 knots (57.5 mph, red colors) near the 933 mb low. The low was analyzed as being much deeper (924 mb) by NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center.


Figure 3. Analysis of Geopotential Heights in decameters (black lines), temperature in Centigrade (white lines), and winds in knots (colors) at 500 mb (roughly 19,000 feet altitude) for 06 UTC Saturday (1 am EST) November 8, 2014 from the GFS model. Note the strong jet stream winds in excess of 110 knots (126 mph, pink colors) just south of the low pressure system over the Bering Sea.


Figure 4. Analysis of Geopotential Heights in decameters (black lines), and winds in knots (colors) at 200 mb (roughly 40,000 feet altitude) for 06 UTC Saturday (1 am EST) November 8, 2014 from the GFS model. Note the very strong jet stream winds in excess of 140 knots (161 mph, white colors) just south of the low pressure system over the Bering Sea. A pilot report of winds of 170 knots (196 mph) at 200 mb altitude was recorded near this time.

Jeff Masters