Cyclone Pam has made the world’s news.
I’ve been watching it for several days at the Earth Wind Map and Windyty.
Above is the current—Saturday 0800 Chicago time—Earth Wind Map.
Here is the Windyty view.
And this is Windyty’s projection for tomorrow morning.
The Bay of islands forecast is for rain and gale force, but not hurricane force winds.
Cyclones, being heat machines, weaken as they move out of the tropics and over cooler water.
Pam did reach Category Five near Vanuatu and has been called the most powerful storm in the South Pacific for thirty years. I do not know if that is accurate or hyperbole.
She has done great damage, including to these boats in Port Vila, Vanuatu’s capital.
Vanuatu—then the New Hebrides—was where I reached land after being adrift when CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE was swamped. I first went ashore at Emae Island, thirty or forty miles north of Port Vila, and was then flown in a small plane to the hospital there.
I remember Port Vila as being a good harbor, well protected from all but the west. Still it is not a place I would keep a boat during the cyclone season.
I’m glad I’m not flying to New Zealand tomorrow.
