Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean:

Tropical storm Marco

Table of contents:

Introduction
Marco:
• Arise of Marco
• Wind history
• Rainfall
Appendix
Sources

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Introduction:
In this survey I am going to tell you something more about tropical storm Marco. Marco was
a very short storm. He lived for only 2 days, but he formed himself very quickly.
This season was an extraordinary season. There where a couple of short tropical storms, like
Marco. But this season was not only strong, with a high ACE count (see my psychic side of a
hurricane summary) it set some records, as the longest living hurricane ever seen on the
Atlantic Ocean(Bertha) and the 3rd costliest hurricane (Ike) and the biggest hurricane ever
seen on the Atlantic Ocean (Gustav). Marco was a very special tropical storm. Marco was the
smallest tropical storm ever measured in the Atlantic Ocean!

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Arise:
Marco formed himself out of a low pressure area just off the coast of Yucatan Peninsula at the
end of September. A few days later a tropical wave arrived in the area and Marco could
develop. When he moved over Yucatan Peninsula, the development slowed down, but the
convection increased and a new tropical depression formed itself in the southern of Bay of
Campeche. When a hurricane flight was measuring the wind speed in Marco and the intensity
of the tropical depression, the National Hurricane Center had to upgrade Marco into a tropical
storm. Because of his size, they didn’t expect that Marco to be a tropical storm.

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Wind history:

Date/Time Latitude Longitude Pressure Wind speed Category

(north) (west) (mbar) (knots)
Tropical
06 / 0000 18.5 91.7 1006 25
Depression
Tropical
06 / 0600 18.6 92.7 1005 30
Depression
Tropical
06 / 1200 18.9 93.7 1002 40
Storm
Tropical
06 / 1800 19.4 94.5 999 50
Storm
Tropical
07 / 0000 19.7 95.2 998 55
Storm
Tropical
07 / 0600 19.8 95.9 998 55
Storm
Tropical
07 / 1200 19.9 96.5 998 55
Storm
Tropical
07 / 1800 19.9 96.9 1007 30
Depression
08 / 0000 Dissipated

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Rainfall:
Tropical storm Marco was expected to become
a hurricane before hitting land, but luckily he
didn’t . But for the area where Marco was
heading, a hurricane watch was given. That
means that the conditions are fine for a
tropical storm to become a hurricane before
hitting land. As we see here in the picture on
the right, there are blue/purple spots. These
represent the heavy rainfall. There was an
expectation that Marco could bring rivers to
overflow, and that the total amount of the
rainfall was 4 inches. That is 10.2 cm of
rainfall.

After that Marco hit land in Mexico, there were reports that some rivers overflowed because
of the amount of rainfall. As you see in the picture here below, the dark spots represent the
amounts of rainfall. You see that the small circle has a lot of rain. While it was hitting
Mexico, it soon disappeared, because the ingredients to make a lot of rain weren’t available
over land.

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Appendix:
This summary shows that the smallest tropical storm ever measured, can have a great impact.
Marco didn’t have real devastating landfall, but for a small tropical storm Marco made a very
clear example of the fact that a tropical storm doesn’t have to be 20-50 kilometres wide, but
that a 10 kilometres wide storm can be a tropical storm as well. Marco has helped the
technology a little bit further, by his size.

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Sources:

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?subset=CAmerica_2_03.2008280.aqua.2km
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Marco_2008_track.png
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/281764main_AIRS_Marco_lg.jpg
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/281290main_TD13_20081006_HI.jpg
http://symonsez.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/marco1007ir0315z.jpg