Tropical Storm Laura was a large but short-lived

tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

that developed over the north-central

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

in late September during the

2008 Atlantic hurricane season The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season was the most destructive Atlantic hurricane season since 2005, causing over 1,000 deaths and nearly $50 billion (2008 USD) in damage. It was an above-average season, featuring sixteen named storms, ...

. Laura's remnants later impacted the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The 12th named storm of the season, Laura formed out of a large

extratropical Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are low-pressure areas which, along with the anticyclones of high-pressure areas, drive the weather over much of the Earth. Extratropical cyclones are capable of p ...

area of low pressure In meteorology, a low-pressure area (LPA), low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. It is the opposite of a high-pressure area. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with inclem ...

located about west of the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

on September 29. Laura slowly developed tropical characteristics throughout the day as it moved over warmer waters. On the afternoon of September 30, Laura had acquired enough tropical characteristics to be designated a tropical storm. Shortly after being declared tropical, Laura began to undergo an

transition, which did not fully take place until the morning of October 1. Laura degenerated into a

post-tropical cyclone A post-tropical cyclone is a former tropical cyclone that no longer possesses enough tropical qualities to be considered a tropical cyclone. The word may refer to a former tropical cyclone undergoing extratropical transition or a tropical cyclone ...

later that morning, and the final advisory by the

National Hurricane Center The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is the division of the United States' NOAA/National Weather Service responsible for tracking and predicting tropical weather systems between the IERS Reference Meridian, Prime Meridian and the 140th meridian ...

was issued. The remnants of Laura contributed to heavy rainfall and power outages in the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

, the

, and

on October 5 to 8.

Meteorological history

On September 26, a very large

developed along a quasi-stationary

frontal system A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For ins ...

a few hundred miles west of the

. The low intensified into the equivalent of a

Category 1 hurricane Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy *Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) *Category (Kant) *Categories (Peirce) *Category (Vais ...

with winds of at 12:00

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

on September 27. Over the following days, the low began to lose its frontal features and began to transition into a

subtropical cyclone A subtropical cyclone is a weather system that has some characteristics of both tropical cyclone, tropical and extratropical cyclones. As early as the 1950s, meteorologists were uncertain whether they should be characterized as Tropical cyclone ...

as it traveled in a general westward direction. By September 29, the low had developed sufficient

convection Convection is single or Multiphase flow, multiphase fluid flow that occurs Spontaneous process, spontaneously through the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoy ...

and was declared Subtropical Storm Laura. Upon being upgraded, cold cloud tops began to wrap around the center of Laura and consolidate near the center of circulation. The convection organized around the center quickly and a

satellite pass An orbital pass (or simply pass) is the period in which a spacecraft is above the local horizon, and thus available for line-of-sight communication with a given ground station, receiver, or relay satellite, or for visual sighting. The beginning ...

over the storm revealed that it could be intensifying. A later satellite pass disregarded the possibility of intensification as the intensity was confirmed to be at . The overall structure of Laura remained subtropical but there were indications that it was acquiring tropical characteristics. During the afternoon, satellites revealed that Laura had developed a deep warm core, a characteristic of a tropical cyclone, but the wind field remained subtropical in nature. By the nighttime hours, the radius of the strongest winds contracted to , much smaller than what is typical of a subtropical cyclone. However, Laura was still under the influence of an

upper-level low A cold-core low, also known as an upper level low or cold-core cyclone, is a cyclone aloft which has an associated cold pool of air residing at high altitude within the Earth's troposphere, without a frontal structure. It is a low pressure syste ...

and cloud tops remained shallow. However, the cloud tops became colder overnight and Laura was on the verge of becoming a tropical cyclone by the morning of September 30, but strong interaction with the upper-level low meant it was still subtropical. Despite moving over colder waters, a water vapor satellite image determined that Laura had separated itself from the upper-level low, signifying it had developed into a tropical cyclone. Laura was re-classified as a tropical storm at a relatively high

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

, 40.6°N. Laura peaked as a tropical cyclone, attaining maximum 1-minute sustained winds of and a minimum

central pressure Atmospheric pressure, also known as air pressure or barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , which is equivalent to 1,013.2 ...

of . Not long after being declared tropical, early signs of an extratropical transition appeared. Cold air began to enter the storm on the west side and forecast models showed Laura becoming extratropical the next morning and non-tropical later the next day. Overnight, convection associated with Laura began to diminish and lose tropical characteristics, but still retained its status. Early on October 1, the

transition was fully apparent. Laura remained tropical but the cloud pattern was becoming frontal and there was little convection around the center of the system. With minimal shower and thunderstorm activity remaining around the center of Laura, the storm degenerated into a remnant-low pressure area on October 1 while still producing tropical storm-force winds. The next day, the remnant system transitioned into an extratropical cyclone and began to re-intensify as it rapidly tracked towards the north. Early on October 3, the system slowed down as it turned towards the east and strengthened into a

hurricane-force The Beaufort scale ( ) is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort wind force scale. It was devised in 1805 by Francis Beaufort a hydrographer in the Royal Navy. It w ...

cyclone, with winds of and a minimum central pressure of , reaching its extratropical peak. After accelerating towards the east, another large extratropical cyclone absorbed the remnants of Laura while located several hundred miles west of the

on October 4.

Impact

As a tropical cyclone, Laura never approached land, and no damages or fatalities occurred. Since the storm remained over open waters for most of its life, several ships and oil platforms recorded tropical storm-force winds. The highest recorded winds were at an oil platform with the call sign ''VEP717'' at 03:00 UTC on October 1. Winds were recorded up to . Despite the lack of impact, the storm's remnants were caught in an upper-level

jet stream Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow thermal wind, air currents in the Earth's Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere. The main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are westerly winds, flowing west to east around the gl ...

, and steered towards

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. There, they contributed to heavy rainfall across portions of

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

on October 5, causing localized accumulation of flood waters. As a result, Glebe Road near

Windermere Windermere (historically Winder Mere) is a ribbon lake in Cumbria, England, and part of the Lake District. It is the largest lake in England by length, area, and volume, but considerably smaller than the List of lakes and lochs of the United Ki ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

was closed in both directions, and along the

A65 road The A65 is a major road in England. It runs north west from Leeds in West Yorkshire via Kirkstall, Horsforth, Yeadon, Guiseley, Ilkley and Skipton, west of Settle, Ingleton and Kirkby Lonsdale before terminating at Kendal in Cumbria. Bypass ...

between Old Hutton and

Kirkby Lonsdale Kirkby Lonsdale () is a town and civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England, on the River Lune. Historically in Westmorland, it lies south-east of Kendal on the A65. The parish recorded a population of 1,771 in ...

, previously saturated soil, combined with overwhelmed

storm drains A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm) ...

resulted in localized flooding. Traffic on the

M6 Motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 motorway, M1 and the western end of t ...

was slowed due to poor driving conditions. One person had to be rescued from her car after driving into a flooded street. The UK

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

issued 76 flood watches and 21 severe flood warnings as a result of the rainfall. On October 8, the remnants of Laura reached the

. At the time, its rain bands began interacting with a

cold front A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface Trough (meteorology), trough of Low-pressure area, low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropica ...

associated with a well-developed low west of

, dropping up to of precipitation in the northwestern Netherlands. Consequently, streets and homes in the village of

Hippolytushoef Hippolytushoef, abbreviated locally as Hippo, is a town in the western Netherlands, located in the municipality of Hollands Kroon, North Holland, 14 km east of Den Helder. History The village was first mentioned in 1343 or 1344 as "van Ypo ...

were reportedly inundated. The large amounts of precipitation broke the daily and monthly rainfall records for October, which were previously set in 2006. Gradually passing through Norway, the remnants of the storm caused significant damage to

electric utilities An electric utility, or a power company, is a company in the electric power industry (often a public utility) that engages in electricity generation and Electricity retailing, distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. El ...

. As a result, more than 10,000 people lost power in southern parts of the country.

References

External links

*The NHC'
Advisory Archive for Laura
*The NHC's {{DEFAULTSORT:Laura 2008 Atlantic hurricane season Laura 2008 Tropical Storm Laura Laura

Meteorological history

Impact

See also

References

External links