Hurricane Lorenzo reached category 5, the maximum, before being downgraded. It is now heading towards Europe. And it has already entered the history books.
With winds of over 300 kilometres per hour, Hurricane Lorenzo – which on the night of 28–29 September reached category 5 out of 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale (before being downgraded) – is the most powerful ever observed in the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean. The tropical wave originating from Africa on 12 September rapidly organised itself, first forming a depression and then, three days later, a tropical storm. Lorenzo then became a hurricane to the south-west of the Cape Verde archipelago.
And it is now heading north-east, towards the European continent. The trajectory remains uncertain, but it cannot be ruled out that the phenomenon may partly strike the north-western tip of France, Ireland and the United Kingdom. "This is something exceptional – wrote the French Observatory of Tornadoes and Severe Storms – as category 5 was reached at a latitude of 25 degrees north and 45 degrees west. Never had such a powerful hurricane been observed in this portion of the Atlantic Ocean."
Over the coming days, the cyclone is expected to pass over the Azores. At that point it should be classified as category 2. Even so, torrential rain and waves of up to 15 metres are forecast. The possible impact with Ireland is expected towards the end of the week, by which time it will have been downgraded to a storm. As reported by the specialist website 3Bmeteo, the hurricane is moving at a speed of 10 km/h, while the pressure at its centre is rising.
Meteorologists, however, have not yet indicated with any certainty what path the extreme phenomenon will take: forecasts vary from day to day. 3Bmeteo notes that "the transition to an extratropical cyclone will cause it to take on a highly energetic hybrid vortex.
According to forecasts, uncertainty aside, Lorenzo should move towards Great Britain and come close to Ireland on Friday. This scenario, however, will need to be revised precisely when it changes its characteristics."
