Ascension : Met Office - Weather Report
Submitted by The Islander (Met Office) 28.10.2010 (Article Archived on 11.11.2010)

Hurricane Richard hit Belize last weekend bringing strong winds and torrential rain to the country.

Statistics for the week ending Monday 25-Oct-10 

	Max (Celsius)	Min (Celsius)	Rainfall (mm)
AIRHEAD	28.9	22.1	0.1
TRAVELLERS	29.1	19.3	4.3
RESIDENCY	24.3	16.1	4.7
GEORGETOWN	29.3	22.1	0.0
ST. HELENA	20.4	14.0	4.2
FALKLANDS	16.4	3.7	0.6
UK (Brize Norton)	14.3	-1.1	13.0

Past week’s Weather

UK: Quite a cold week in the UK with winds often coming from the North and most places falling below freezing at some point.

Falklands: A very windy week in the Falklands with winds regularly reaching gale force at the start of the week, with MPA recording a maximum gust of 62 KT on Wednesday.

Ascension: A mainly dry and warm week with good sunny periods and a few isolated showers. Maximum temperatures this week have been approximately 1°C above the long term average for October.

St. Helena: The week started quite cloudy with sunny spells but mainly dry. However, it turned increasingly dull and showery by the weekend.

Tropical Storm Season Remains Active

Hurricane Richard hit Belize last weekend bringing strong winds and torrential rain to the country. Particularly affected was the nation’s largest city, Belize City where over a quarter, about 100000, of the population live. Fortunately Hurricane Richard was only a category 1 hurricane (the weakest on the Saffir-Simpson scale) and so far there have been no reported deaths. However, major flooding occurred and substantial damage was done to buildings, as much of the city is made up of a large number of wooden houses with tin roofs that are vulnerable to strong winds. As of Monday, Richard had weakened to a tropical depression and moved northwest over Guatemala and Mexico.

So far this year there have been 17 named tropical storms in the North Atlantic which already makes it the 5^th most active season on record. The North Atlantic Hurricane season officially ends in November, but storms do occasionally continue into December.

Elsewhere in the world: Cyclone Giri has developed into a severe cyclone in the Bay of Bengal. It has made landfall in Myanmar near the Bangladeshi border and battered the region with 140 mph winds and heavy rain. Super Typhoon Megi which hit the Philippines last week, has since weakened slightly and has now made landfall in southern China.

Compiled by Wayne Bow

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Met Office Ascension Island base