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Tropical cyclones WikiProject Newsletter #1
Number 1, June 4, 2006 The Hurricane Herald This is the monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to give a summary of the activities of the WikiProject over the past month and upcoming events over the next month. In addition monthly tropical cyclone activity will be summarized.

You have received this as you are a member of the WikiProject, please add your username in the appropriate section on the mailing list. If you do not add your name to that list, the WikiProject will assume you do not wish to receive future versions of The Hurricane Herald.

Storm of the month Typhoon Chanchu was the first typhoon and first super typhoon of the 2006 Pacific typhoon season. Forming on May 9 over the open western Pacific Ocean, Chanchu moved over the Philippines on the 11th. There, it dropped heavy rainfall, causing mudslides, crop damage, and 41 deaths. It moved into the South China Sea, where it rapidly strengthened to a super typhoon on May 14, one of only two super typhoons recorded in the sea. It turned to the north, weakened, and struck the Fujian province of China as a minimal typhoon on the 17th. The typhoon flooded 192 houses, while heavy rainfall caused deadly mudslides. In China, Chanchu caused at least 25 deaths and $480 million in damage (2006 USD). Elsewhere on its path, strong waves from the typhoon sank eleven Vietnamese ships, killing at least 44 people. In Taiwan, heavy rainfall killed two people, while in Japan, severe waves killed one person and injured another.

Other tropical cyclone activity
 * Tropical Storm Aletta existed in the eastern Pacific Ocean from May 25 to May 29, peaking as a 45 mph tropical storm.

New and improved articles
 * New storm articles include: Typhoon Joan (1970), Hurricane Bonnie (1986), Tropical Storm Matthew (2004), Storm of October 1804, Typhoon Chanchu (2006) and Cyclone Olaf.


 * New non-storm articles include: Tropical cyclone rainfall climatology, Dvorak technique and List of Bangladesh tropical cyclones.


 * New Featured articles: 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Mitch, Hurricane Irene (2005) and Hurricane Claudette (2003)


 * Articles which became A/GA class: Hurricane Katrina (A), Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans (A), Hurricane Felix (1995) (GA), Cyclone Percy (A), Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 (A), List of New Jersey hurricanes (A), Hurricane John (1994) (A), Tropical Storm Isabel (1985) (GA), Tropical Storm Odette (2003) (GA)

New articles and improvements wanted
 * An article is requested on subtropical ridge
 * The current collaboration of the fortnight is Hurricane Gilbert, please help improve this article.
 * Improvements are requested to Indianola Hurricane of 1886, Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Andrew.
 * The WikiProject is likely to submit Hurricane John (1994) and Hurricane Katrina to Featured Article Candidates in the near future, so please help improve them to featured standard.

Member of the month The May member of the month is Tito XD. The WikiProject awards this to him for his brilliant work in improving articles. Tito XD joined the WikiProject in October just after it had been founded. Since then he has contributed substantially to many articles, for example Hurricane Nora (1997), which is currently a Featured Article Candidate. He is also actively involved in the assessment of articles and so helps to improve many more articles.

Explanation of content

If you have a topic which is not directly related to any specific article but is relevant to the WikiProject bring it up on the Newsletters talk page, and it will probably be included in a future edition of The Hurricane Herald.

These two sections are decided by the community on the newsletter's talk page:
 * Storm of the month: This is determined by a straw poll on the page. While all storms will be mentioned on the newsletter, the selected storm will be described in more detail.
 * Member of the month: Nominations are made on the talk page, voting is by secret ballot; read the talk page for details. The winner receives the WikiProject's barnstar (when we make it).

Main Page content
 * 2005 Atlantic hurricane season appeared on the Main Page as Today's Featured Article on June 1.
 * Hurricane Floyd will appear on the Main Page as Today's Featured Article on June 17.
 * Entries from Dvorak technique, Typhoon Joan (1970), Typhoon Chanchu (2006), and Storm of October 1804 appeared on the Main Page in the Did you know column during May.
 * Entries from 5 other articles relating to tropical cyclones had appeared in the Did you know column earlier in 2006.

Storm article statistics

The assessment scale
 * The cyclone assessment scale is one of the bases of the new assessment scale for Version 1.0 of Wikipedia. It splits articles into several categories by quality, to identify which articles are "finished" and which ones still need to be improved.
 * The assessment scale by itself counts of several grades:
 * FA: reserved for articles that have been identified as featured content only.
 * A: this grade is given to articles that are considered ready for peer review. The way to get this grade assigned to an article is by asking other cyclone editors at the WikiProject's assessment page.
 * GA: reserved for articles that have passed a good article nomination.
 * B: these articles are "halfway there", and have most of the details of a complete article, yet it still has significant gaps in its coverage.
 * Start: articles that fall in this category have a decent amount of content, yet it is weak in many areas. Be bold and feel free to improve them!
 * Stub: these articles are mostly placeholders, and may in some cases be useless for the reader. It needs a lot of work to be brought to A-Class level.
 * The way to use these assessments is by adding a parameter to the WikiProject template on the articles talk page ( as an example). This feeds the article into a category which is read and parsed to create an assessment table, summary and log.

Tropical cyclones WikiProject Newsletter #2
Number 2, July 2, 2006 The Hurricane Herald This is the monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to give a summary, both of the activities of the WikiProject and global tropical cyclone activity. If you wish to change how you receive this newsletter, or no longer wish to receive it, please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list.

Storm of the month

Tropical Storm Alberto was the first tropical storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. Forming on June 10 over the western Caribbean Sea, the system moved northwestward as a disorganized tropical depression due to dry air and wind shear. It passed to the west of Cuba, bringing heavy rainfall to Cuba and Grand Cayman. The rainfall damaged 37 homes and destroyed 3 in Havana. It strengthened over the Gulf of Mexico and became a tropical storm on June 11. The center reformed to the northeast near its deep convection, and Alberto reached a peak intensity of 70 mph (110 km/h) before weakening and hitting the Florida Panhandle on June 13. Alberto brought heavy rainfall to the southeastern United States, peaking at 7.16 inches in Raleigh, North Carolina. The rainfall in Florida was beneficial in places as it alleviated drought conditions. The storm indirectly caused two deaths: A pilot who crashed near Tampa due to poor conditions and a boy who drowned in the flooding in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Other tropical cyclone activity
 * Tropical Depression Two-E briefly existed near the Mexican coast on June 3 to June 4 and brought heavy rainfall to Acapulco.
 * Tropical Storm Jelawat lasted from June 26 to June 29 in the South China Sea and made landfall on China. The storm caused flooding which killed at least seven people.
 * Tropical Storm Ewiniar formed on June 30 east of Palau. It is forecast to reach typhoon strength.

New and improved articles
 * New storm articles include: Tropical Storm Alberto (2006), Typhoon Patsy (1970), Tropical Storm Larry (2003), Cyclone Steve and Hurricane Danielle (1998).
 * New non-storm articles include: Subtropical ridge and List of named tropical cyclones.
 * New Featured articles: Hurricane Nora (1997), List of New Jersey hurricanes, Hurricane John (1994) and Hurricane Katrina.
 * Articles which became A/GA class include: Tropical Storm Allison (A), Eye (cyclone) (GA), Tropical Cyclone (GA), Project Stormfury (GA), Hurricane Lenny (GA), Hurricane Epsilon (2005) (GA), Hurricane Esther (1961) (GA), Tropical Storm Henri (2003) (GA) and Hurricane Camille (GA).

New articles and improvements wanted
 * New article: List of California tropical storms and List of New Jersey hurricanes are both featured lists, so why is there no List of Louisiana hurricanes or List of Cuban hurricanes?
 * The current collaboration of the fortnight is Hurricane Fifi, please help improve this article.
 * Please help to expand and improve the coverage of Tropical cyclones on Wikinews.
 * Improvements are requested to Hurricane Janet, Hurricane Erin (1995) and Pacific hurricane season articles.

Member of the month The June member of the month is Jdorje. The WikiProject awards this to him for his many contributions to the coverage of tropical cyclones on Wikipedia. Jdorje founded the WikiProject in October 2005 and established much of the categorizations the project depends on. His most significant contributions include the Featured article 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane and his track map generator with which he has created hundreds of track maps.

Main Page content
 * Hurricane Floyd appeared on the Main Page as Today's Featured Article on June 17.
 * Entries from 5 articles: Tropical Storm Larry (2003), Tropical Storm Henri (2003), Typhoon Kate (1970), Typhoon Patsy (1970) and List of named tropical cyclones appeared on the Main Page in the Did you know column during June.

Storm article statistics

WikiProject subpages

This is a brief description of some of the subpages of the WikiProject, explaining their purpose briefly, to find out more read the pages.
 * Assessments: Provides a series of guidelines to help with the assessment and improvement of articles. Discussion of how to improve specific articles is also held here and future nominations for FAC.
 * Merging: Discussion of articles which could be merged is held here. Generally for less significant topics, their articles are likely to be listed here unless very well written.
 * Article requests: A list of many possible subjects for articles, with comments on the worth of an article. If you have a topic which you think should have an article, list it here.
 * Collaboration: Discussion of the collaboration of the fortnight is held here. Nominate an article for WikiProject collaboration or comment on the existing nominations on this page.
 * Newsletter: The content of future editions of this newsletter and selection of Member of the month are discussed here.
 * Other topics not relating to a specific article are handled on the main WikiProject talk page.

Thanks to Hurricanehink to maintaining the stats table and producing the storm summaries. Nilfanion (talk)

Tropical cyclones WikiProject Newsletter #3
Number 3, August 6, 2006 The Hurricane Herald This is the monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to give a summary, both of the activities of the WikiProject and global tropical cyclone activity. If you wish to change how you receive this newsletter, or no longer wish to receive it, please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list. "Tropical Storm Lee was probably national news at the time, depending on where it went and what it did. Millions of people knew about it."

Storm of the month

Severe Tropical Storm Bilis was a damaging tropical storm that caused significant damage to areas of southeastern China, the Philippines and Taiwan. The fourth named storm of the 2006 Pacific typhoon season formed to the east of the Philippines on July 8 and moved towards Taiwan, strengthening as it did so. It reached its peak strength of 110 km/h (70 mph) on July 13, shortly before it made its first landfall on northern Taiwan. Bilis then made a second landfall in Fujian, China on July 14 after officials evaucated over 1 million residents from the areas in the storm's path. The remnant lasted for several days after landfall and brought heavy rain to inland China. The most significant damage occurred in Hunan, where heavy flooding and mudslides destroyed over 31,000 homes and killed 345. Despite never reaching typhoon strength, the storm was responsible for $2.5 billion in damage and at least 625 fatalities in total.

Other tropical cyclone activity

There were 10 other tropical cyclones worldwide in July, with activity in all 4 northern hemisphere basins.


 * In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Beryl made landfall on Nantucket on July 21 before bringing rain to Atlantic Canada.
 * In the East Pacific, Hurricane Bud was a Category 3 hurricane that formed on July 10 and dissipated on July 15.
 * Hurricane Carlotta twice became a minimal hurricane before degenerating into a remnant low on July 16.
 * Hurricane Daniel reached Category 4 strength and was predicted to make landfall in Hawaii before it dissipated on July 26.
 * Tropical Storm Emilia brought tropical storm-force winds to southern Baja California on July 26 and was forecast to become a hurricane but this did not occur.
 * Tropical Storm Fabio formed late on July 31 but did not last long in the face of strong shear.
 * In the West Pacific,Typhoon Ewiniar (Ester) formed on June 29 to the east of the Philippines, it reached Category 4 strength before making landfall in South Korea on July 10 as a tropical storm. It killed at least 36 people.
 * Typhoon Kaemi (Glenda) formed on July 2 and passed over Taiwan before dissipating over mainland China on July 26. It brought heavy rain to Taiwan and the Philippines and killed at least 32 people in China.
 * Typhoon Prapiroon (Henry) formed on July 28 but did not reach tropical storm strength until August.
 * In the North Indian Ocean, Tropical Storm 03B formed on June 30 near the east Indian coast before making landfall on the Orissa coast on July 2.

Main Page content
 * Entries from 3 articles: Tropical Storm Bilis (2006), National Weather Service bulletin for New Orleans region and List of South America tropical cyclones appeared on the Main Page in the Did you know column during July.

New articles and improvements wanted
 * New articles are wanted for Fiji Meteorological Service and Papua New Guinea National Weather Service.
 * While the individual storm articles are generally quite good, the project's core articles are quite poor. Please help improve tropical cyclone and its subpages.
 * Cyclone Tracy has recently had featured status removed, please help improve this article back up to FA standards again.

Member of the month The July member of the month is Hurricanehink. The WikiProject awards this to him for the superb quality of his work on articles. Hurricanehink joined the project in November and has significantly contributed to many of the project's Featured Articles including Tropical Storm Allison and Hurricane Mitch. In addition to his contributions Hurricanehink also works on the assessment and improvement of most articles within the project.

New and improved articles
 * New storm articles include: Typhoon Aere (2004), Cyclone Vance, Hurricane Karl (2004) and 1916 Texas Hurricane.
 * New non-storm articles include: List of Canadian hurricanes and National Weather Service bulletin for New Orleans region.
 * New Featured articles: Tropical Storm Allison, Hurricane Esther (1961), Hurricane Irene (1999). Also, List of South America tropical cyclones became a Featured list.
 * Articles which became A/GA class include: Tropical Storm Henri (2003) (A), Typhoon Vamei (GA), Cyclone Rosita (GA), Tropical Storm Harvey (2005) (GA) and Storm of October 1804 (GA).

Storm article statistics

Useful sources of tropical cyclone information

The following organizations provide helpful information for writing about tropical cyclones, both past and present.
 * National Hurricane Center - Official forecasts for the Atlantic and East Pacific and a massive archive starting in 1958.
 * Central Pacific Hurricane Center - Official forecasts for the Central Pacific and summaries of past storms.
 * Joint Typhoon Warning Center - Unoffical forecasts for storms in the West Pacific and other regions. Has an archive of storm reports back to 1959.
 * Japan Meteorological Agency - Official forecasts for the West Pacific.
 * Naval Research Laboratory - A great source for satellite imagery of tropical cyclones.
 * Hydrometeorological Prediction Center - Forecasts of weakening tropical cyclones in the United States and information and maps of rainfall in the US.
 * National Climatic Data Center - Lots of information is available here, including satellite imagery. The Storm events archive is very useful for information on storms in the US and its territories.

In his April Tropical Cyclone Summary, Gary Padgett stated that he will extensively reference Wikipedia in his future summaries. I have communicated with him and he has stated that he is "very much interested in cooperating" with us. He has also provided me with a copy of Jack Beven's weekly summaries (covering 1991-1996). If you want a copy of them, email me.--Nilfanion (talk)

Tropical cyclones WikiProject Newsletter #4
Number 4, September 3, 2006 The Hurricane Herald This is the monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to give a summary, both of the activities of the WikiProject and global tropical cyclone activity. If you wish to change how you receive this newsletter, or no longer wish to receive it, please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list. The WikiProject now has its own IRC channel. "Katrina is important to BS but BS is not important to the story of Katrina."

Storm of the month Typhoon Saomai (known as Typhoon Juan to PAGASA) claimed at least 441 lives and caused over $1.5 billion in damage. After forming on August 4 near Chuuk, the storm brought heavy rain and strong winds to the Marianas, the Philippines, Taiwan and southeastern China. It started to intensify, and reached its official peak with winds of 95 knots (175 km/h, 110 mph) on August 9. The JTWC reported that it peaked as a Category 5 super typhoon the same day, a strength Chinese forecasters described as the most powerful to hit China in 50 years. Saomai maintained that strength until landfall on August 10 and dissipated inland the next day.

Other tropical cyclone activity

There were 16 other tropical cyclones during August, in the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
 * In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Chris moved to the north of Puerto Rico before dissipating on August 5 near Cuba.
 * Tropical Storm Debby formed near the Cape Verde islands on August 21 but had no effects on land.
 * Hurricane Ernesto formed in the Caribbean on August 24 and affected Haiti and Cuba, before making landfalls in Florida and South Carolina. It killed at least 5 people.
 * In the east Pacific, Tropical Storm Fabio dissipated on August 3 well away from land.
 * Tropical Storm Gilma formed on August 1 and lasted for two days before dissipating.
 * Hurricane Hector reached its peak as a Category 2 hurricane on August 18 well away from land.
 * Hurricane Ileana became the second major hurricane of the east Pacific season when it reached Category 3 intensity on August 23.
 * Hurricane John formed near to Mexico on August 28 and to the northwest near the coast. It prompted a series of warnings from Michoacán to Baja California Sur, where it made landfall in September.
 * Hurricane Kristy was briefly a hurricane on August 31, but its proximity to Hurricane John caused it to weaken soon after.
 * Hurricane Ioke became the most intense Central Pacific hurricane on record on August 26 with a minimum pressure of 920 mbar. After crossing the dateline and becoming Typhoon Ioke it passed just to the north of Wake Island at Category 4 strength.
 * Typhoon Prapiroon (Henry) reached its peak as a minimal typhoon in the South China Sea. It killed 77 people when it made landfall in China.
 * Severe Tropical Storm Maria formed on August 4 and threatened Japanese coast.
 * Severe Tropical Storm Bopha (Inday) passed over Taiwan as a tropical storm on August 9.
 * Tropical Storm Wukong passed over Kyūshū on August 18.
 * Tropical Storm Sonamu (Katring) was a minimal storm that was absorbed by Wukong on August 20.
 * Tropical Depression 13W formed near Hainan on August 23 and soon made landfall in Guandong.

Main Page content
 * Hurricane Mitch appeared on the Main Page as Today's Featured Article on August 16.
 * Entries from List of Delaware hurricanes, Fiji Meteorological Service, Tropical Storm Helene (2000), Atlantic hurricane reanalysis and Hurricane Kyle (2002) appeared on the Main Page in the Did you know column during August.
 * Hurricane Katrina appeared on the Main Page in the On this Day column on August 29.

New articles and improvements wanted
 * Landfall (meteorology) and Rapid deepening should be expanded.
 * Direct hit (meteorology) and Cyclogenesis should be created.
 * 2006 storm articles should be updated in light of the Tropical Cyclone Reports.

Member of the month The August member of the month is Nilfanion. The WikiProject awards this to him for his contributions in many diverse sections of the project. Nilfanion joined the Wikiproject in April and provides track maps for the project and has produced a featured picture. He has developed the tropical cyclone Commons Category scheme in the process. In addition he has produced a number of quality articles and is active in assessment.

New and improved articles
 * New storm articles include Cyclone Thelma, Typhoon Ewiniar (2006), Tropical Storm Otto (2004), Cyclone Heta (2003), Hurricane John (2006), Hurricane Kyle (2002), Hurricane Ioke and Hurricane Ernesto (2006).
 * New non-storm articles include List of Delaware hurricanes, Fiji Meteorological Service and Atlantic hurricane reanalysis.
 * New featured articles, lists and pictures: 2003 Pacific hurricane season, List of Delaware hurricanes and Global tropical cyclone tracks.

Storm article statistics

Tropical cyclone imagery

When uploading an image of a tropical cyclone please
 * 1) Download the highest resolution image possible to your computer, not a thumbnail.
 * 2) If the image is free, upload it to Commons. In general, only upload to en.wikipedia if it is a Fair Use image. Wherever you upload, follow the instructions.
 * 3) Preferably, include a link to the source image, not just the source site.
 * 4) If you upload to Commons, add relevant Categories to the image, see the Commons category scheme. Make sure at least one category you add is the storm's category.

The following is a good image description: 

