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A home is battered by high winds caused by post Tropical Storm Fiona in Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and Labrador, Saturday. The home has since been lost at sea.
Another entry in the category of unprecedented weather extremes comes from the tropical Atlantic basin where, last week, Hurricane Fiona wrought devastation to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, still reeling from its assault by Hurricane Maria eerily precisely five years earlier.
Fiona dropped upwards of 30 inches of rain on the south shores of Puerto Rico before heading north into the Atlantic, where it systematically strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of more than 130 mph.
As Fiona was strengthening, a fairly strong autumn cold front hit the Midwest on the first full day of fall. That same cold front was part of a larger extratropical weather system over eastern North America that was heading eastward to a rendezvous with Fiona as she left the tropics.
Embedded within the extratropical storm was a feature known as a tropopause fold. Such features were first observed only in the mid-1950s and, for a long while thereafter, were thought to be very unusual features, bordering on curiosities. Subsequent work has shown that these folds are ubiquitous features of the mid-latitude flow and, in fact, account for the creation of some of the ingredients needed for the development of all extratropical weather systems.
The fold associated with the storm was unusually strong for this time of year. When it encroached on Fiona north of Bermuda, the combination led to a dramatic reinvigoration of Fiona, as an extratropical cyclone, that slammed into Nova Scotia on Saturday, recording the lowest sea-level pressure ever observed in Canada.
So, for two weeks in a row, the atmosphere has served up remarkable examples of the havoc that can result from vigorous interaction between the tropics and the extratropics.
A home is submerged in floodwaters caused by Hurricane Fiona in Cayey, Puerto Rico, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. According to authorities three people were inside the home and were reported to have been rescued. (AP Photo/Stephanie Rojas)
Nelson Cirino secures the windows of his home as the winds of Hurricane Fiona blow in Loiza, Puerto Rico, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
A home is submerged in floodwaters caused by Hurricane Fiona in Cayey, Puerto Rico, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. According to authorities three people were inside the home and were reported to have been rescued. (AP Photo/Stephanie Rojas)
A worker cuts an electricity pole that was downed by Hurricane Fiona as it blocks a road in Cayey, Puerto Rico, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Stephanie Rojas)
A man walks on a road flooded by Hurricane Fiona in Cayey, Puerto Rico, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Stephanie Rojas)
People clean a house flooded by the rains of Hurricane Fiona in Cayey, Puerto Rico, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Stephanie Rojas)
A river swollen with rain caused by Hurricane Fiona speeds through Cayey, Puerto Rico, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Stephanie Rojas)
A road is blocked by a mudslide caused by Hurricane Fiona in Cayey, Puerto Rico, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Stephanie Rojas)
Residents replace a home's roof that was torn off by Hurricane Fiona in the low-income neighborhood of Kosovo in Veron de Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Ricardo Hernandez)
Yesenia Martinez, left, and Dilcia Figaro pick up items scattered by Hurricane Fiona in the low-income neighborhood of Kosovo in Veron de Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Ricardo Hernandez)
A woman clears debris on her property flooded by Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
A man uses a machete to cut a tree that was felled by the wind from Hurricane Fiona in Loiza, Puerto Rico, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
People drive through a street flooded by Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
A vendor works amid the debris of his small business of umbrella rentals and food after they were felled by Hurricane Fiona on the beach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Ricardo Hernandez)
Broken umbrellas lay on the beach, felled by Hurricane Fiona in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Ricardo Hernandez)
Homes are flooded on Salinas Beach after the passing of Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
Homes are flooded on Salinas Beach after the passing of Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
A vehicle is submerged after Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Stephanie Rojas)
Playa Salinas is flooded after the passing of Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
"Weather Guys" Steve Ackerman and Jonathan Martin are professors in the University of Wisconsin-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
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