Welcome to the Weekly Weather Update – your guide to the world’s oceans and seas. Each week, we highlight key marine weather patterns and analyze unusual or significant weather events. From calm spells under high pressure to tropical cyclones forming in equatorial waters, and from jet streams steering oceanic storms to anomalies in sea-surface temperature that shape global climate patterns. Here’s what this week’s weather has in store.
High pressure gaining influence
Amy, the first official storm of the upcoming winter season, brought severe conditions last weekend with winds exceeding 60kts and waves up to 10m in the northern parts of the North Sea. This week, a transition to more settled weather is underway with Atlantic low pressure areas following a more northerly track across Iceland and the Norwegian Sea, while Atlantic high pressure settles over the UK by the end of the week and during the weekend.
Weak fronts will affect the North Sea during the first few days, but the approaching high will gradually stabilize and calm the weather conditions. As a result, the large-scale westerly flow will slowly veer to northwesterly. This week’s strongest winds, reaching strong to near gale force (25–30 kts) and highest waves (significant wave height of 3.5–4.5m) are expected on Thursday in the northern North Sea. The high will already extend a ridge towards the Benelux on Thursday, resulting in much calmer conditions over the southern North Sea in general, with moderate to fresh winds (around 15kts) and waves between 1.0 and 1.5 m. The northwesterly flow will transport relatively cool air into the North Sea, reducing the risk of fog formation.
Tropical cyclones
After an active week over the Atlantic with two hurricanes, Humberto and Imelda, the upcoming week is expected to be much calmer. Currently, only one area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms over the central Atlantic shows potential for tropical development. This system has a medium to high chance of developing into a tropical depression or storm in the coming days and could potentially threaten the northern Leeward Islands later this week.
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Figure 2: Development of a tropical system over the Atlantic. Source: NOAA
On the other side of the Americas, two tropical systems are active. Hurricane Priscilla is moving northwestward across the eastern Pacific, offshore of Mexico, while Tropical Storm Octave is tracking eastward across the eastern Pacific.
Over the western Pacific, Typhoon Halong is moving clockwise south of Japan the coming days.
Conclusion
In this article, we provided a rough overview of notable weather phenomena around the world. If you are interested in an offshore forecast tailored specifically to your location, please contact us!
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