From your userbox additions today edit

I noticed the box User:Jamie_C/Poll. I'm not offended by it, chiefly because I couldn't care less about soccer, but it may offend someone else because of its wording so don't be surprised if it gets changed. What I really wanted to point out is that your sig has an image in it, contrary to WP:SIG#Images. Could you remove it please? BigNate37(T) 16:27, 17 August 2006 (UTC)Reply

What you can do with the flag if you like, is something like this from User:Consumed Crustacean's userpage. BigNate37(T) 16:30, 17 August 2006 (UTC)Reply

Welcome! edit

Welcome!
File:World map.gif

Hi, and welcome to the Countries WikiProject! As you may have guessed, we're a group of editors working to improve Wikipedia's coverage of counties.


There are a variety of interesting things to do within the project; you're free to participate however much—or little—you like:

  • Starting some new articles? See some model pages such as Cambodia!
  • Want to know how good our articles are? The assessment department is working on rating the quality of every country article in Wikipedia.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask another fellow member, and we'll be happy to help you. Again, welcome! We look forward to seeing you around! Shy1520 10:42, 22 August 2006 (UTC)Reply

Tropical cyclones WikiProject Newsletter #4 edit

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 nearing its landfall in China

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.

New articles and improvements wanted

Member of the month

 
Cyclone barnstar

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.

Storm article statistics

Grade Jun Jul Aug Sep
  FA 10 13 16 15
  A 7 6 6 7
  GA 5 18 24 28
B 82 79 77 79
Start 168 180 191 200
Stub 10 8 8 8
Total 282 303 322 337
percentage
Less than B
63.1 62.0 61.8 61.7

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:

{{Information

|Description=Visible image of Hurricane Ernesto on 2006-08-27 at peak strength just south of Haiti as seen by GOES-12.
|Source=Original image located here.
|Date=2006-08-27
|Author=The Naval Research Laboratory
|Permission={{PD-USGov-Military-Navy}}

}}
[[Category:Hurricane Ernesto (2006)]] [[Category:NRL images of tropical cyclones|Ernesto (2006)]]

Help fight systematic bias edit

Dear Jamie,

I would like to draw your attention to the discussion currently ongoing at Talk:Popsicle. If you are interested in helping to counter systematic bias towards North America, and instead establish Wikipedia as an international website, then please feel welcome to contribute with your opinions. Thank you. EuroSong talk 19:42, 5 September 2006 (UTC)Reply

WikiProject Heraldry and vexillology edit

Since you are interested in flags and emblems I would like to inform you that the WikiProject Heraldry and vexillology has just been created. Why not take a look? I hope you can join. Inge 20:44, 11 September 2006 (UTC)Reply

T Miurus/Congo Puffer edit

Hi nice entries but do you think it is best to have the name by the latin name or just Congo pufferfish? I personally think it is more reader friendly if this is the name and the latin redirected and mentioned in intro. Ernst Stavro Blofeld 11:01, 16 September 2006 (UTC)Reply

E.g Great White Shark would not be an entry name Carcharodon carcharias.

Tropical cyclones WikiProject Newsletter #5 edit

Number 5, October 1, 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 has its own IRC channel.

"TD's should be bolded, as they are the impetus of every storm, weak or strong."

Storm of the month

 
Hurricane Ioke at peak strength

Hurricane Ioke is the most intense hurricane on record in the Central Pacific. After forming on August 19 to the south of Hawaii, Ioke moved to the northwest and hit Johnston Atoll as a Category 2 hurricane. It strengthened further as it moved to the west, reaching Category 5 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale three times, twice in the Central Pacific and once in the Western Pacific. After the storm entered the Western Pacific it directly hit Wake Island. The storm finally became extratropical on September 7 but its extratropical remnants affected Alaska. Overall damage from Hurricane Ioke was light.

Other tropical cyclone activity

  • 4 hurricanes formed in the Atlantic: Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Gordon, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Isaac. Florence affected Bermuda and Newfoundland, and Gordon had effects in the Azores and Europe. Isaac is currently forecast to affect Newfoundland as an extratropical storm.
  • The east Pacific saw three hurricanes and a tropical storm develop. Hurricane John and Hurricane Lane were both major hurricanes which hit Mexico, whilst Hurricane Kristy and Tropical Storm Miriam stayed clear of land. In addition, two tropical depressions formed in the Central Pacific.
  • There were 4 typhoons in west Pacific during September. Typhoon Shanshan, Typhoon Yagi and Typhoon Xangsane formed in the west Pacific and Typhoon Ioke entered the basin from the east. Shanshan killed at least 9 people in Japan and Typhoon Xangsane, which is still active, killed at least 72 in the Philippines.
  • Two tropical cyclones formed in the North Indian Ocean during September. Severe Cyclonic Storm Mukda formed in the Arabian Sea but did not affect land and Tropical Cyclone 05B formed in the Bay of Bengal before making landfall in India. However, the deadliest tropical system of September was a depression in the Bay of Bengal that killed more than 170 people in Bangladesh.

Main Page content

New articles and improvements wanted

Storm article statistics

Grade Jul Aug Sep Oct
  FA 13 16 15 15
  A 6 6 7 6
  GA 18 24 28 33
B 79 77 79 84
Start 180 191 200 201
Stub 8 8 8 13
Total 303 322 337 352
percentage
Less than B
62.0 61.8 61.7 60.8

Member of the month

 
Cyclone barnstar

The September member of the month is Thegreatdr, David Roth. David Roth is a meteorologist at the wpc, who as part of his work there is producing Tropical Cyclone Rainfall Data. Dozens of the maps he has created are used in Wikipedia articles. He has produced a number of valuable articles to the project such as tropical cyclone rainfall climatology and Atlantic hurricane reanalysis, and significantly expanded several seasonal articles such as 1982 Pacific hurricane season.

Xangsane edit

Feel free to help out here. – Chacor 16:18, 3 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

Image tagging for Image:HurricaneHuron2.jpg edit

Thanks for uploading Image:HurricaneHuron2.jpg. The image has been identified as not specifying the source and creator of the image, which is required by Wikipedia's policy on images. If you don't indicate the source and creator of the image on the image's description page, it may be deleted some time in the next seven days. If you have uploaded other images, please verify that you have provided source information for them as well.

For more information on using images, see the following pages:

This is an automated notice by OrphanBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. 17:07, 13 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

Tropical cyclones WikiProject Newsletter #6 edit

Number 6, November 5, 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 has its own IRC channel.

"THIS IS THE LAST PUBLIC ADVISORY ISSUED ON THIS USER UNLESS REGENERATION OCCURS"

Storm of the month

 
Xangsane to the east of the Philippines

Typhoon Xangsane, known as Typhoon Milenyo in the Philippines was a destructive typhoon that affected the Philippines and Indochina. The storm caused severe flooding and landslides in the regions it affected and was responsible for at least 279 deaths and $747 million (USD) in damage, mostly in the Philippines and Vietnam. Xangsane formed to the east of the Philippines and rapidly intensified, striking Samar Island as a Category 4 typhoon. It weakened over the Philippines, but again reached Category 4 strength in the South China Sea. After its landfall in Vietnam, the typhoon dissipated, with its remnant crossing Indochina and entering the Bay of Bengal.

Other tropical cyclone activity

  • Hurricane Isaac, which formed in September, hit Newfoundland with minimal effects on October 2. It was the only Atlantic storm in October.
  • One hurricane, Hurricane Paul, formed in the eastern Pacific and hit Mexico. There were also two tropical storms, Norman and Olivia, and two tropical depressions in the basin.
  • In addition to Typhoon Xangsane, two further typhoons and two tropical storms developed in the west Pacific. Typhoon Soulik and Tropical Storms Bebinca and Rumbia both stayed clear of land, whilst Typhoon Cimaron hit the Philippines killing at least 19 people there, before it dissipated in the South China Sea.
  • The North Indian Ocean saw one storm, Cyclonic Storm Ogni form in the Bay of Bengal.
  • The 2006-2007 Southern Hemisphere tropical cyclone season got underway, with Tropical Cyclone Xavier forming to the west of Fiji. There were two further tropical depressions in the South Pacific and a tropical disturbance in the South Indian Ocean.

New articles and improvements wanted

Member of the month

 
Cyclone barnstar

The October Member of the Month is Coredesat. Coredesat joined the WikiProject in March and has contributed to many diverse areas within the project. He has written two featured articles on Atlantic storms and a number of good articles on current typhoons. However, the article he is most proud of is a disambiguation page, a sorely neglected portion of the project.

Storm article statistics

Grade Aug Sep Oct Nov
  FA 16 15 15 16
  A 6 7 6 7
  GA 24 28 33 48
B 77 79 84 83
Start 191 200 201 210
Stub 8 8 13 11
Total 322 337 352 375
percentage
≥;Less than B
61.8 61.7 60.8 58.9

Tropical cyclone scales

The various agencies which report on tropical cyclones use a variety of different scales to measure the storms strength. The most familiar of these is the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and this is the de facto standard in the project and should be used everywhere. However, as it is only official in the Atlantic and East Pacific, other local scales should be used when discussing storms in other regions and given primacy over the Saffir-Simpson Scale. The Saffir-Simpson scale is based on 1-minute averages, but other scales are generally based upon 10-minute averages, which are approximately 15% lower.

This table provides a useful-at-a-glance comparison of the various scales currently in use. Further complications arise due to the fact different agencies obtain different estimates for the same storm at the same time, so be careful to use the most appropriate source agency.