User talk:Dylan620

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Congratulations!![edit]

Happy Birthday from the Birthday Committee

Wishing Dylan620 a very happy birthday on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee!

Don't forget to save us all a piece of cake!

WikiCup 2019 July newsletter[edit]

The third round of the 2019 WikiCup has now come to an end. The 16 users who made it to the fourth round needed to score at least 68 points, which is substantially lower than last year's 227 points. Our top scorers in round 3 were:

  • Norfolk Island Cas Liber, our winner in 2016, with 500 points derived mainly from a featured article and two GAs on natural history topics
  • South Carolina Adam Cuerden, with 480 points, a tally built on 16 featured pictures, the result of meticulous restoration work
  • Cascadia (independence movement) SounderBruce, a finalist in the last two years, with 306 points from a variety of submissions, mostly related to sport or the State of Washington
  • United States Usernameunique, with 305 points derived from a featured article and two GAs on archaeology and related topics

Contestants managed 4 (5) featured articles, 4 featured lists, 18 featured pictures, 29 good articles, 50 DYK entries, 9 ITN entries, and 39 good article reviews. As we enter the fourth round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Please also remember that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them, and it is imperative to claim them in the correct round; one FA claim had to be rejected because it was incorrectly submitted (claimed in Round 3 when it qualified for Round 2), so be warned! When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anything else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:12, 2 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

38th edition of The Hurricane Herald[edit]

Volume XIV, Issue 38, August 1, 2019

The Hurricane Herald is the arbitrarily periodical newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The newsletter aims to provide in summary the recent activities and developments of the WikiProject, in addition to global tropical cyclone activity. The Hurricane Herald has been running since its first edition ran on June 4, 2006; it has been almost thirteen years since that time. If you wish to receive or discontinue subscription to this newsletter, please visit the mailing list. This issue of The Hurricane Herald covers all project related events from June 1–July 31, 2019. This edition's editor and author is ♫ Hurricanehink (talk) .

Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve the newsletter and other cyclone-related articles. Past editions can be viewed here.

35 · 36 · 37 · 38 · 39

Storm of the month and other tropical activity


Hurricane Barry was the wettest tropical storm on record in Arkansas, and one of only four hurricanes to strike Louisiana in July. Originating from a trough over the southeastern United States, Barry formed on July 11 off the southeast Louisiana coast. Despite wind shear and an asymmetrical structure, the storm intensified into a minimal hurricane before making landfall near Intracoastal City, Louisiana. Barry dropped heavy rainfall from the Gulf of Mexico to the Ohio Valley, peaking at 23.43 in (595 mm) near Ragley, Louisiana. The storm caused flooding rains, power outages, and one death due to rip currents. Damage totaled over US$500 million.

  • The Atlantic hurricane season, and the Central Pacific hurricane season, began on June 1. The 2019-20 tropical cyclone year in the Southern Hemisphere began on July 1 in the South-West Indian Ocean, Australian region, and South Pacific.
  • Since the last newsletter, 18 other systems have formed worldwide, in addition to Barry.
  • Western Pacific
    In the Western Pacific, Tropical Storm Sepat in June passed near Japan and was classified as a subtropical storm by the JTWC. In early July, Tropical Storm Mun killed two people when it struck Vietnam. Tropical Storm Danas formed near the Philippines and moved northward, later crossing the Korean peninsula. Toward the end of July, Tropical Storm Nari moved across Japan as a tropical depression, and Tropical Storm Wipha struck southern China. There were also three tropical depressions, one of which the JTWC classified as a tropical storm.
  • Eastern Pacific
    After the latest start of a hurricane season since 1971, activity in the basin began on June 25 when Hurricane Alvin formed off the southwest coast of Mexico. Hurricane Barbara became a strong Category 4 hurricane, and its remnants later caused power outages in Hawaii. Tropical Storm Cosme, Tropical Depression Four-E, Tropical Storm Dalila, and hurricanes Erick, and Flossie also formed in July southwest of Mexico.
  • Atlantic
    Short-lived Tropical Depression Three formed near the Bahamas and dissipated east of Florida in late July
  • North Indian Ocean
  • Cyclone Vayu was a powerful cyclone that threatened western India, but stalled and weakened significantly before moving ashore. The storm killed eight people, and lashed western India with heavy rainfall and high tides.
  • South-West Indian Ocean
Recent storms of the month
Edition Storm
37 Cyclone Kenneth
36 Cyclone Idai
35 Typhoon Wutip (2019)

Member of the month (edition) – TheAustinMan


TheAustinMan has been involved with WPTC since 2009. Since the last newsletter, TheAustinMan worked on the Storm of the Month (Barry), as well as 1915 Galveston hurricane, Typhoon Alice (1979), 1937 Atlantic hurricane season, 1944 Jamaica hurricane, and the 1944 Cuba–Florida hurricane. A prolific editor, TheAustinMan has contributed to three featured articles and 46 good articles. Thank you for your contributions!

New WikiProject Members since the last newsletter in June/July 2019


More information can be found here. This list lists members who have joined/rejoined the WikiProject since the release of the last issue in May 2019. Sorted chronologically. Struckout users denote users who have left or have been banned.

To our new members: welcome to the project, and happy editing! Feel free to check the to-do list at the bottom right of the newsletter for things that you might want to work on. To our veteran members: thank you for your edits and your tireless contributions!

Current assessment table


Assessments valid as of this printing. Depending on when you may be viewing this newsletter, the table may be outdated. See here for the latest, most up to date statistics.
As of this issue, there are 152 featured articles and 70 featured lists. There are 142 A-class articles, but that number is subject to change, depending if we mandate that all A-class articles have an A-class review first. There are 961 good articles, meaning it is possible we get to our 1000th GA by the end of the year. There are only 62 B-class articles, perhaps because because most articles of that quality already passed a GA review. There are 363 C-class articles, 717 start-class articles, and 141 stub-class articles, with 26 lists and 9 current articles. The number of lists may decrease further as the "Tropical cyclone X" articles continue to be reclassified as set index articles. These figures mean that more than half of the project is rated a GA or better - including the lists/current/future articles, there are 1283 articles that are below GA status, versus 1325 that are GA or better.

About the assessment scale →

Sourcing guidelines, by TheAustinMan


The core content policies on Wikipedia (neutral point of view, no original research, and verifiability) all apply to articles tagged by WikiProject Tropical cyclones. The project's style guidelines also provide information on how to cite sources effectively. Relevant guidelines discussing the WikiProject's tropical meteorology articles may also be found at WP:SCICITE and WP:SCIRS.

Reports, bulletins, and other products issued by Regional Specialized Meteorological Centers are the authoritative source on meteorological information pertaining to tropical cyclones in their respective basins. This includes both quantitative and qualitative information about a storm's characteristics, including intensities, durations, and locations. The most recent post-storm assessments take precedence over operational data. Thus, post-season revisions to a storm's "best track" file, new information presented in a tropical cyclone report, or official database adjustments made by the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project, or other official reanalyses supersede operational information where they disagree. Data in operational RSMC products can still be used if later data does not dispute them. Information from other public agencies can also be used, but generally require in-text attribution. While the original best track data from meteorological agencies is a reliable source and can be referenced, readers often find difficulty interpreting them. Consider using IBTrACS, a more easily understandable track database, which is endorsed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), for this information. Because the Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecasting System (ATCF) used by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and National Hurricane Center is liable to change frequently in realtime, they should not be used for currently active storms. Forecasts from these agencies and RSMCs should only be used to cite the forecasts themselves; in other words, they can only be used to describe what was expected to occur, and never to describe what did occur.

Maps and other graphics published by meteorological agencies may be used to describe events (see the associated essay). However, they should only be referenced if they are explicit in conveying the supported information and do not require any rigorous meteorological interpretation (such as satellite analysis or drawing conclusions over what the arrangement of meteorological features represents). In general, self-published sources should not be used as sources for present or historical storm intensities. However, information contained in articles from reliable sources or commentary from established tropical cyclone experts can be used as sources for information not covered by WMO-endorsed agencies. If such sources dispute WMO-endorsed meteorological data, commentary on the disputed information may be used, making sure to attribute claims and giving due weight.

Storm effects are typically referenced with a wide array of published sources. These may include news organizations, risk assessment organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGO), government agencies, and impact databases. So long as they are reliable sources, they can be used as references for tropical cyclone impacts. Note that figures from early impact reports, often disseminated by the first NGO situation reports and news reports, may quickly be outdated in light of newer information. When sourcing damage totals or casualty figures, use the most recent value from a reliable source, as these values tend to be more stable and use more up-to-date information. If such figures are disputed by other reliable sources, this should be noted in the article, making sure to attribute claims and giving due weight. Routine calculations of damage and casualty figures (for instance, adding casualties from different countries) are acceptable as long as they arise from reliable sources.

Latest WikiProject Alerts


The following are the latest article developments as updated by AAlertBot, as of the publishing of this issue. Due to the bot workings, some of these updates may seem out of place; nonetheless, they are included here.

Categories for discussion

Featured list candidates

Featured topic candidates

Good article nominees

Articles to be merged

(2 more...)

From the Main Page


From the Main Page documents WikiProject related materials that have appeared on the main page from April 14–May 31, 2019 in chronological order.

Today's Featured Article
Did you know...?

History of WikiProject Tropical cyclones

The article for hurricane (tropical cyclone) was created on December 2, 2001. On October 3, 2002, User:Ed Poor created an article for Hurricane Lili while the storm was active and near peak intensity; since then, 163 other people have edited the article to help make it a . In March 2004, User:BigT27 created an article for the hyperactive 1995 Atlantic hurricane season, then the 3rd most-active Atlantic hurricane season on record. On August 14 of that year, an article was created for Hurricane Iniki, the first non-Atlantic storm, and on August 31, the 1900 Galveston hurricane became the first TC-related . On October 4, 2004, Cyclone Tracy became featured, which was the 2nd FA in the project. A week later, User:Golbez created the article for 2004 Pacific hurricane season, which was the first season article for the EPAC.

On May 19, 2005, User:Tom created Template:Infobox Hurricane, which standardized the infobox that appears in every storm article. On July 20, User:Skywayman created the article for the 2005 Pacific typhoon season, which became the third basin to get season articles. On July 31, User:Holderca1 created the article for 2004-05 Southern Hemisphere tropical cyclone season – for the first several years on Wikipedia, the SHEM was handled in a singular article, but was split into SWIO, AUS, and SPAC beginning on April 16, 2007, and finished on April 21, 2013. During the hyperactive 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, articles were created quickly for the most powerful storms, including Hurricane Dennis which quickly became an FA.

On August 26, 2005, User:CrazyC83 created an article for Hurricane Katrina after the legendary storm crossed over southern Florida. By two days later, there were 500 edits to the article, and the hurricane was threatening to hit New Orleans as a Category 4 or 5. We now know it was “only” a Category 3 at landfall. In the 14 years since Katrina, there have been 6,327 editors to the Hurricane Katrina article, along with 23 sub-articles. During the 2005 season, there were debates among editors whether lesser notable storms, like Hurricane Cindy (2005), should have articles. At one point in 2006, there were articles for every named storm during the 2005 AHS, but in the 13 years since then, articles for tropical storms Franklin, Harvey, and Lee, and Philippe were created and merged. As a way to coordinate edits among the tropical cyclone pages, User:Jdorje created Template:Hurricane on September 12, 2005. This is the same template that appears on the talk pages for every article in the WPTC. On October 5, Jdorje officially created WP:WPTC, the tropical cyclone WikiProject. That October, in quick succession, the Atlantic hurricane seasons reached back to the beginning of recordkeeping (before 1600s) due to a collaboration of several editors; User:RattleMan created the first season article for the North Indian Ocean; User:Miss Madeline successfully nominated List of California hurricanes for featured list; and Jdorje created a a standardized storm path template.

In 2006, a series of users improved articles worldwide to featured article status. Professional met David Roth joined the project, and in the same year, the NOAA and NHC copied some material from Wikipedia, including track maps, and the Tropical Cyclone Report for Tropical Storm Chris (2006). In June 2006, User:Nilfanion created the project assessment page, which documents the status of every article, organized by basin, the year, and storm shaded by the quality. On August 1, the chat room on IRC for the project was created, which allowed real-time communication among editors. There’s something special about conversing with fellow weather geeks during an epic storm, which seems to have become all the more common. On January 1, 2007, the number of good articles in the project reached 100. On January 29th, a collaboration of users made the List of retired Pacific hurricane names the first featured topic in the project. It was joined by the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season in March 2007.

In 2008, further collaborations helped make the article for tropical cyclone a featured article, one of 100 FA’s in the project. Notably among project members, Tropical Storm Erick (2007) became featured on December 14, 2008. The storm lasted for a short amount of time over open waters, and as such, it was the shortest featured article anywhere on Wikipedia. Users questioned whether the storm was notable enough to have such a detailed article, but the article described the storm in articulate detail. After an AFD and two featured article review (and a series of low-notability storms being merged), Erick was delisted as a featured article on March 2, 2013. In the period from 2008 to 2013, users created task forces for various basins, articles for all of the seasons in the Atlantic and EPAC, and enough high-quality articles that more than half of all storm/season articles were good or featured articles. In January 2008, there were 1000 articles in the entire project. On January 1, 2014, User:Yellow Evan created Typhoon Nancy (1982), which was the 2000th article in the project. In October 2008, there were 100 FA’s in the project, which reached 200 on November 28, 2015, with Hurricane Fay (2014). By March 2016, every basin had at least 100 storm articles, multiple featured articles, and season articles of various quality.


Featured Content

This section lists content that have become featured, articles and lists, since the past newsletter in mid-April 2019.
From June 1–July 31, 2019, one featured article and one featured list was promoted:

WikiProject Tropical Cyclones: News & Developments


New articles since the last newsletter include:

New GA's include:

WikiProject To-Do



Here are some tasks you can do:

Project Goals & Progress


The following is the current progress on the three milestone goals set by the WikiProject as of this publishing. They can be found, updated, at the main WikiProject page.

Today's Wikipedian 10 years ago[edit]

Awesome
Ten years!

Thank you alaso for having added names to that list. You are remembered! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:09, 12 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2019 September newsletter[edit]

The fourth round of the competition has finished in a flurry of last minute activity, with 454 points being required to qualify for the final round. It was a hotly competitive round with two contestants with over 400 points being eliminated, and all but two of the finalists having achieved an FA during the round. Casliber, our 2016 winner, was the highest point-scorer, followed by Enwebb and Lee Vilenski, who are both new to the competition. In fourth place was SounderBruce, a finalist last year. But all those points are swept away as we start afresh for the final round.

Round 4 saw the achievement of 11 featured articles. In addition, Adam Cuerden scored with 18 FPs, Lee Vilenski led the GA score with 8 GAs while Kosack performed 15 GA reviews. There were around 40 DYKs, 40 GARs and 31 GAs overall during round 4. Even though contestants performed more GARs than they achieved GAs, there was still some frustration at the length of time taken to get articles reviewed.

As we start round 5, we say goodbye to the eight competitors who didn't quite make it; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia, and we hope you will join us again next year. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them (some people have fallen foul of this rule and the points have been removed).

If you are concerned that your nomination, whether it be for a good article, a featured process, or anything else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:44, 1 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Twelve years of editing[edit]

Hey, Dylan620. I'd like to wish you a wonderful First Edit Day on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee!
Have a great day!
Chris Troutman (talk) 12:57, 15 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]


WikiCup 2019 November newsletter[edit]

The WikiCup is over for another year! Our Champion this year is Better far to live and die / Under the brave black flag I fly Adam Cuerden (submissions), who over the course of the competition has amassed 91 featured pictures, including 32 in the final round. Our finalists this year were:

  1. Better far to live and die / Under the brave black flag I fly Adam Cuerden (submissions) with 964 points
  2. England Lee Vilenski (submissions) with 899 points
  3. Norfolk Island Casliber (submissions) with 817 points
  4. Wales Kosack (submissions) with 691 points
  5. Washington (state) SounderBruce (submissions) with 388 points
  6. Antarctica Enwebb (submissions) with 146 points
  7. United States Usernameunique (submissions) with 145 points
  8. Indonesia HaEr48 (submissions) with 74 points

All those who reached the final will win awards. The following special awards will be made based on high performance in particular areas of content creation. So that the finalists do not have an undue advantage, these prizes are awarded to the competitor who scored the highest in any particular field in a single round, or in the event of a tie, to the overall leader in this field. Awards will be handed out in the coming weeks. Please be patient!

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this year's WikiCup, whether you made it to the final rounds or not, and particular congratulations to the newcomers to the WikiCup who have achieved much this year. Thanks to all who have taken part and helped out with the competition, not forgetting User:Jarry1250, who runs the scoring bot.

We have opened a scoring discussion on whether the rules and scoring need adjustment. Please have your say. Next year's competition will begin on 1 January. You are invited to sign up to participate; the WikiCup is open to all Wikipedians, both novices and experienced editors, and we hope to see you all in the 2020 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth 14:18, 2 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A survey to improve the community consultation outreach process[edit]

Hello!

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking to improve the community consultation outreach process for Foundation policies, and we are interested in why you didn't participate in a recent consultation that followed a community discussion you’ve been part of.

Please fill out this short survey to help us improve our community consultation process for the future. It should only take about three minutes.

The privacy policy for this survey is here. This survey is a one-off request from us related to this unique topic.

Thank you for your participation, Kbrown (WMF) 10:44, 13 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2019 election voter message[edit]

Hello! Voting in the 2019 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 on Monday, 2 December 2019. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2019 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:10, 19 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome to the 2020 WikiCup![edit]

Happy New Year, Happy New Decade and Happy New WikiCup! The competition begins today and all article creators, expanders and improvers are welcome to take part. If you have already signed up, your submissions page can be found here. If you have not yet signed up, you can add your name here and the judges will set up your submissions page. We are relaxing the rule that only content on which you have completed significant work during 2020 will count; now to be eligible for points in the competition, you must have completed significant work on the content at some time! Any questions on the rules or on anything else connected to the Cup should be directed to one of the judges, or posted to the WikiCup talk page. Signups will close at the end of January, and the first round will end on 26 February; the 64 highest scorers at that time will move on to round 2. Good luck! The judges for the WikiCup are Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email), Godot13 (talk · contribs · email), Vanamonde93 (talk · contribs · email) and Cwmhiraeth (talk) 11:43, 1 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2020 March newsletter[edit]

And so ends the first round of the competition. Everyone with a positive score moves on to Round 2, with 57 contestants qualifying. We have abolished the groups this year, so to qualify for Round 3 you will need to finish Round 2 among the top thirty-two contestants.

Our top scorers in Round 1 were:

  • New York (state) Epicgenius, a WikiCup newcomer, led the field with a featured article, five good articles and an assortment of other submissions, specialising on buildings and locations in New York, for a total of 895 points.
  • England Gog the Mild came next with 464 points, from a featured article, two good articles and a number of reviews, the main theme being naval warfare.
  • United States Raymie was in third place with 419 points, garnered from one good article and an impressive 34 DYKs on radio and TV stations in the United States.
  • Somerset Harrias came next at 414, with a featured article and three good articles, an English civil war battle specialist.
  • Pirate flag CaptainEek was in fifth place with 405 points, mostly garnered from bringing Cactus wren to featured article status.
  • The top ten contestants at the end of Round 1 all scored over 200 points; they also included United States L293D, Venezuela Kingsif, Antarctica Enwebb, England Lee Vilenski and Nepal CAPTAIN MEDUSA. Seven of the top ten contestants in Round 1 are new to the WikiCup.

These contestants, like all the others, now have to start scoring points again from scratch. In Round 1 there were four featured articles, one featured list and two featured pictures, as well as around two hundred DYKs and twenty-seven ITNs. Between them, contestants completed 127 good article reviews, nearly a hundred more than the 43 good articles they claimed for, thus making a substantial dent in the review backlog. Contestants also claimed for 40 featured article / featured list reviews, and most even remembered to mention their WikiCup participation in their reviews (a requirement).

Remember that any content promoted after the end of Round 1 but before the start of Round 2 can be claimed in Round 2. Some contestants made claims before the new submissions pages were set up, and they will need to resubmit them. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews.

If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:46, 1 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup newsletter correction[edit]

There was an error in the WikiCup 2020 March newsletter; United States L293D should not have been included in the list of top ten scorers in Round 1 (they led the list last year), instead, United States Dunkleosteus77 should have been included, having garnered 334 points from five good articles on animals, living or extinct, and various reviews. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:30, 2 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

39th edition of The Hurricane Herald![edit]

Volume XIV, Issue 39, March 17, 2020

The Hurricane Herald: Special St. Patrick's Day and COVID-19 edition!

The Hurricane Herald is the semi-regular newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The newsletter aims to provide in summary the recent activities and developments of the WikiProject, in addition to global tropical cyclone activity. The Hurricane Herald has been running since its first edition ran on June 4, 2006; it has been almost thirteen years since that time. If you wish to receive or discontinue subscription to this newsletter, please visit the mailing list. This issue of The Hurricane Herald covers all project related events from August 1, 2019–March 17, 2020. This edition's editor and author is ♫ Hurricanehink (talk).

Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve the newsletter and other cyclone-related articles. Past editions can be viewed here.

From the Main Page

36 · 37 · 38 · 39 · 40

WikiProject Tropical Cyclones: News & Developments

  • An awards program for the project began on May 31. It involves 25 levels that may be gained by earning points for completing various actions such as getting good or featured articles. Additional awards will be added in the future.
  • In March 2020, the most popular article in the project was the Beaufort scale, with about 4,800 daily views, followed by tropical cyclone with 3,865 daily views, and Hurricane Katrina, with 3,393 daily views. Hurricane Dorian remains popularly viewed, six months after it devastated the Bahamas. Rounding out the top 10 are hurricanes Sandy and Irma.
  • There is ongoing featured article review for the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The recent look at the article stemmed from a discussion about merging the List of storms in the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which was created in January 2006 in response to the large season article. The 2005 article was then more of a summary, covering economic costs, the record activity, and focusing on storms by month (and not sequentially). For several years, there were a few season articles that had both a primary article and a dedicated list of storms article; all were eventually re-incorporated back into the main season article, recently including 2005 AHS. On March 3, 2020 (hard to believe that was this month), the list article was merged, as well as 2005 Atlantic hurricane season statistics, and articles for Franklin and Philippe. A singular article for the 2005 season was prepared in draftspace, and was incorporated into the main 2005 article.

New articles since the last newsletter include:

New GA's include:

The 1988 and 2015 Pacific seasons are now good topics.

Project Goals & Progress


The following is the current progress on the three milestone goals set by the WikiProject as of this publishing. They can be found, updated, at the main WikiProject page.

New WikiProject Members since the last newsletter


More information can be found here. This list lists members who have joined/rejoined the WikiProject since the release of the last issue in May 2019. Sorted chronologically. Struckout users denote users who have left or have been banned.

To our new members: welcome to the project, and happy editing! Feel free to check the to-do list at the bottom right of the newsletter for things that you might want to work on. To our veteran members: thank you for your edits and your tireless contributions!

Latest WikiProject Alerts


The following are the latest article developments as updated by AAlertBot, as of the publishing of this issue. Due to the bot workings, some of these updates may seem out of place; nonetheless, they are included here.

Categories for discussion

Featured list candidates

Featured topic candidates

Good article nominees

Articles to be merged

(2 more...)

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for August


Typhoon Lekima became China's costliest typhoon ever recorded when it struck the country in early August, leaving 90 fatalities and over $9 billion in damage.

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for September


Hurricane Dorian was the strongest hurricane on record to strike The Bahamas, and was regarded as the worst natural disaster in the country's history. Dorian formed on August 24, and moved through the Caribbean as an intensifying storm. On September 1, Dorian hit Great Abaco Island with sustained winds of 185 mph (295 km/h), and struck Grand Bahama Island at the same intensity a day later. Dorian killed 58 people and left $7 billion in damage to the island nation. The hurricane later struck North Carolina as a minimal hurricane, and Nova Scotia as a post-tropical cyclone.

  • Atlantic - The tropics were more active in September. Tropical Storm Fernand killed one person and caused damaging floods in northeastern Mexico. Tropical Storm Gabrielle moved across the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Humberto affected the Bahamas weeks after Dorian devastated the island chain, and later brought hurricane-force winds to Bermuda. Tropical Storm Imelda formed rapidly near the coast of Texas and dropped torrential rainfall, killing five people and inundating parts of Texas affected by Hurricane Harvey two years earlier. Hurricane Jerry and Tropical Storm Karen moved near or over the eastern Caribbean. At the end of the month, Hurricane Lorenzo became the easternmost Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, reaching that intensity in the eastern Atlantic Ocean; the hurricane caused a shipwreck, killing at least three people, and also passed through the Azores in early October.
  • Western Pacific - In early September, Tropical Storm Kajiki brought heavy rainfall to northeastern Vietnam, killing six people. Typhoon Lingling moved through the East China Sea before striking North Korea, killing eight people. In the middle of September, short-lived Tropical Storm Peipah dissipated south of Japan, and Typhoon Tapah passed between Japan and South Korea. At the end of the month, Typhoon Mitag was moving across South Korea. There were also a series of nine non-developing depressions.
  • Eastern Pacific - There were two major hurricanes in September – Juliette and Kiko. Short-lived Tropical Storm Akoni was in the Central Pacific. Toward the end of the month, Tropical Storm Mario and Hurricane Lorena interacted with each other, and the latter hurricane struck Mexico twice, killing one person. At the end of the month, Tropical Storm Narda followed a similar path to Lorena, killing four people in southwestern Mexico.
  • North Indian Ocean - In September, Cyclonic Storm Hikaa struck eastern Oman, killing one person. At the end of the month, a land depression formed over western India.

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for October


Typhoon Hagibis was considered the most devastating typhoon to hit the Kantō region of Japan since Ida in 1958. It struck near Tokyo on October 12, triggering heavy rainfall and landslides. Hagibis killed 95 people along its path and left about US$9 billion in damage.

  • Atlantic - a series of weaker storms formed in October, beginning with Melissa, which caused significant flooding along the east coast of the United States from its predecessor extratropical low. After a weak tropical depression formed near Cabo Verde, there were two tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico – Nestor and Olga, which together left more than $250 million in damage and four fatalities to the United States gulf coast. Later in the month, Hurricane Pablo became the easternmost storm on record to attain hurricane status, having originated from a nontropical storm near the Azores. A few days later, Subtropical Storm Rebekah formed in the same region.
  • Eastern Pacific - there were three cyclones in the Eastern Pacific during the month, beginning with short-lived Ema in the Central Pacific. Later, Tropical Storm Octave lasted two days over open waters, and Tropical Storm Priscilla moved ashore near Manzanillo.
  • Western Pacific - in addition to Hagibis, two other storms formed in the western Pacific during October. Typhoon Neoguri and Typhoon Bualoi existed south of Japan. At the end of the month, Tropical Storm Matmo struck Vietnam, which later redeveloped in the North Indian Ocean as Cyclone Bulbul.
  • North Indian Ocean - there were two storms in the North Indian Ocean during October. The first was Super Cyclonic Storm Kyarr, which was the strongest storm on record in the Arabian Sea; the cyclone produced high waves throughout the basin, but didn't strike land. Later in the month, Cyclone Maha formed in the Arabian Sea, marking the first time on record there were two simultaneous storms in the body of water. Maha eventually struck Gujarat in western India as a depression.

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for November


Cyclone Bulbul formed in the Bay of Bengal from the remnants of Tropical Storm Matmo, which struck Vietnam in late October. Bulbul intensified into the record-breaking sixth very intense tropical cyclone (the NIO equivalent to a hurricane). On November 9, Bulbul made landfall near the India/Bangladesh border, killing 38 people and leaving US$2.6 billion in damage.

  • Atlantic - Tropical Storm Sebastien formed northeast of the Lesser Antilles and moved across much of the Atlantic, becoming an extratropical cyclone near the Azores.
  • Eastern Pacific - there were two simultaneous tropical cyclones in the middle of the month. Tropical Storm Raymond brought rainfall to California, and Tropical Depression Twenty-One-E existed south of Mexico.
  • Western Pacific - Typhoon Halong was the strongest storm of the year worldwide, reaching winds of 215 km/h (130 mph) according to the JMA. The storm remained away from land. Also in the month, Typhoon Nakri struck Vietnam, killing six people. Typhoon Fengshen struck the northern Marianas Islands. Typhoon Kalmaegi and Tropical Storm Fung-wong affected the northern Philippines in short succession. Later in the month, Typhoon Kammuri formed, moving through the Philippines in early December, where it caused US$116 million in damage and 12 deaths.
  • South Pacific - Cyclone Rita passed through the Solomon Islands.

Member of the month (edition) – ChocolateTrain


ChocolateTrain first joined Wikipedia in April 2017. An Australian native, he is already a prolific writer on the Australian basin, and is responsible for half the edits to the current Australian cyclone season. ChocolateTrain wrote good articles on Cyclone Lili (2019) and Cyclone Nora, plus several articles that are C-class. We thank ChocolateTrain for his edits, and hopes he keeps writing about southern hemisphere storms!

Featured Content

From August 1, 2019–March 17, 2020, one featured list and three featured articles were promoted:

Current assessment table


Assessments valid as of this printing. Depending on when you may be viewing this newsletter, the table may be outdated. See here for the latest, most up to date statistics.
As of this issue, there are 154 featured articles and 70 featured lists. There are 134 A-class articles, but that number is subject to change, depending if we mandate that all A-class articles have an A-class review first. There are 974 good articles. There are only 63 B-class articles, perhaps because because most articles of that quality already passed a GA review. There are 374 C-class articles, 733 start-class articles, and 150 stub-class articles, with 32 lists, and 9 current articles. These figures mean that slightly more than half of the project is rated a GA or better - including the lists/current/future articles, there are 1320 articles that are below GA status, versus 1334 that are GA or better.

There is a discussion about getting rid of redirect and list-class articles.

About the assessment scale →

WikiProject To-Do



Here are some tasks you can do:

Collaborating - AKA the right kind of sharing, by User:Hurricanehink
As mentioned elsewhere in the newsletter, 2005 Atlantic hurricane season has changed recently. It was a collaborative effort of several users, making sure this top-importance vital article is still of featured-quality. (There is an ongoing discussion about removing its featured article status).

There are other kinds of collaborations. Recently, users Juliancolton and TropicalAnalystwx13 wrote Tropical Storm Kirk (2018) together. Each year, the season articles are written by many editors, by folks who add the latest satellite imagery or track. There are others who document the storm's journey, and what impacts they left. When a major storm is threatening a landmass (especially the United States), users edit from IP addresses far and wide to add the latest information. Unfortunately, some of these big storm articles languish, because they're written in real time without historical perspective, and the websites might no longer be up and running a few years later. Don't get me wrong, I know the excitement of being the first to write on Wikipedia when the NHC classifies something. However, there are lots of older articles that end up half-finished, or with broken weblinks. Thankfully we have the web archive.

We see the disruption that Covid-19 is causing in our world right now. Yea, it sucks to have everything canceled, for schools and bars and gyms and restaurants to be shut down. Some people experience that same feeling every few years when a hurricane/typhoon/cyclone strikes. It's easy writing/researching about these furious beasts of nature when we're in the comfort of our own home/office/library/school. And sometimes it's uncomfortable seeing how we rebuild. After every storm, there is help, often from the government. Politics have made my country turn fearful and hateful, and so I have to choose my words carefully. When nature is at its worst, my government is there after when people need it the most, providing financial assistance, logistical support, and a sense of national unity.

This pandemic is making a lot of people fearful of the unknown, how bad that unstoppable force will be. A lot of us may be stuck at home right now with a sense of fear and too much time on our hands. Consider, then, the spirit of collaboration, working together to document the world around us. If you're reading this, you are likely interested in meteorology. Go improve an article then. Now. Do it. :P Stop reading this and find an article you're interested in, and make it better. <3

Tropical cyclones by year
In 2019, there have been 143 tropical or subtropical cyclones. We (the thousands of editors who are writing the first draft of history in the middle of Earth's biggest climate crisis in many millennia) are writing the first draft of history. There might be edit wars, conflicts over whether a source is reliable, and maybe even a controversy surrounding a sharpie, Alabama, and a NWS weather map (see also Hurricane Dorian–Alabama controversy, AKA Sharpiegate). 2019 has featured several significant storms: Cyclone Idai, one of the deadliest tropical cyclones in the southern hemisphere. Cyclone Kenneth was the strongest cyclone to strike Mozambique. In February, Typhoon Wutip was the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the month of February.

The storms in 2019 represent about 0.116% of the known tropical cyclones on Wikipedia. We're aware of around 12,000 tropical cyclones; about one-third were in the Western Pacific, where storms have killed more than 1.4 million people. Storms in the western Pacific date back to the year 957, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. In the Atlantic, we know of 2,443 tropical cyclones, dating back to 1494, and Christopher Columbus's 2nd voyage to the New World; however, paleotempestological evidence] of storms date back to 1330 BC. In the eastern Pacific, storms date back to 1537, when a hurricane struck Mexico and was recorded by a missionary. Storms in the South Pacific Ocean date back to 1568, and in the South Indian Ocean to 1615. Wikipedia coverage in the North Indian Ocean goes back to 1721.

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for December


Cyclone Ambali was the first very intense tropical cyclone in the South-west Indian Ocean since Cyclone Fantala in 2016. It formed on December 3 as part of a series of storms in the western Indian Ocean in both hemispheres. Ambali's winds increased by 185 km/h (115 mph) in 24 hours, marking the fastest 24-hour intensification recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. The storm rapidly weakened after its peak, degenerating into a remnant low by December 8.

  • Western Pacific - Typhoon Phanfone moved through the central Philippines on Christmas Day, killing 50 people. Damage was estimated at US$67.2 million, enough to warrant the retirement of its international name, as well its local Filipino name Ursula.
  • North Indian - Cyclonic Storm Pawan formed in early December in the western Arabian Sea. It struck Somalia, causing flooding rains that killed six people. Pawan existed simultaneously to a deep depression off India's west coast, which killed 25 people. The season ended on December 10 when another deep depression formed in the Arabian Sea, which dissipated near the Somalia coastline.
  • South-west Indian Ocean - Cyclone Belna developed west of Cyclone Ambali, and struck northwestern Madagascar on December 9. The storm killed nine people and left US$25 million in damage. Cyclone Calvinina formed at the end of the month, passing near Mauritius on December 31, causing power outages and flooding. The storm became extratropical the next day.
  • South Pacific - There were two December tropical cyclones – a tropical depression, and Tropical Cyclone Sarai. Sarai passed near Fiji on December 27, causing two deaths and US$2.3 million in damage.

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for January


Cyclone Tino was part of a broader convergence zone that affected ten South Pacific countries. Tino formed on January 11, and passed near Fiji on January 17 with winds of 120 km/h (75 mph), where two people were left missing. Tino became extratropical two days later.

  • South Atlantic - Subtropical Storm Kurumí formed on January 23 south of São Paulo. It existed for two days, until it was absorbed by a larger weather system that killed three people in Brazil.
  • South-West Indian Ocean - A series of three systems formed in the second half of the month, beginning with a short-lived tropical depression. Tropical Storm Diane moved across Madagascar in its formative stages, killing 31 people. It later passed near Mauritius, and eventually became extratropical. Tropical Storm Esami formed east of Madagascar and followed Diane's path.
  • Australia - the Australian season began when Tropical Cyclone Blake formed on January 4. It later struck Western Australia on the Dampier Peninsula, causing localized flooding. Simultaneous to Blake's development, Cyclone Claudia moved across Australia's Top End, dropping heavy rainfall, and eventually reached its peak intensity off northwest Australia. There were also two tropical lows during the month, including one low in the extreme southeastern Gulf of Carpentaria, which dropped 475 mm (18.7 in) of rainfall in Queensland.
  • South Pacific - Toward the end of the month, there was a short-lived tropical disturbance near American Samoa.

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for February


Cyclone Damien struck Western Australia near Karratha on February 8, having originated from a monsoon trough five days later. Damien caused localized flooding and power outages.

  • South-west Indian - Tropical Storm Francisco lasted for nearly two weeks, beginning as a short-lived storm near the Chagos, and moving across much of the basin as a weak disturbance. Francisco regenerated into a tropical storm near eastern Madagascar, moving ashore near Mahanoro; it killed one person in the country. Also in the month, Cyclone Gabekile formed on February 13, and weakened after it stalled over open waters.
  • Australia - there were two other storms in the basin during the month, in addition to Damien. Cyclone Esther moved across the Northern Territory, reached the coastline of the Indian Ocean, and then moved back east inland. The storm caused flooding rains along its path. Occurring simultaneously to Esther, Cyclone Ferdinand developed, intensified, and weakened off Australia's northwest coast.
  • South Pacific - Cyclone Uesi passed west of New Caledonia on February 11, causing flooding and power outages. It later moved into the Australian basin, where it transitioned into a subtropical cyclone. High waves killed one person in Sydney. Over a one week span, four tropical cyclones developed in the basin in short-succession near American Samoa, including two tropical disturbances. Cyclone Vicky caused power outages and flooding, followed only days later by Cyclone Wasi.

The 40th Edition of The Hurricane Herald[edit]

Volume XL, Issue 40, May 1, 2020

The Hurricane Herald is the semi-regular newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The newsletter aims to provide in summary the recent activities and developments of the WikiProject, in addition to global tropical cyclone activity. The Hurricane Herald has been running since its first edition ran on June 4, 2006. If you wish to receive or discontinue subscription to this newsletter, please visit the mailing list. This issue of The Hurricane Herald covers all project related events from March 17 to April 30, 2020. This edition's editor and author is Hurricanehink.

Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve the newsletter and other cyclone-related articles. Past editions can be viewed here.

From the Main Page

37 · 38 · 39 · 40 · 41

WikiProject Tropical Cyclones: News & Developments

Map
Map plotting the track and the intensity of the storm, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale

New articles since the last newsletter include:

New GA's include:

WikiProject To-Do



Here are some tasks you can do:

Project Goals & Progress


The following is the current progress on the three milestone goals set by the WikiProject as of this publishing. They can be found, updated, at the main WikiProject page.

Storms of the month over the last year
Month Storm
February 2020 Cyclone Damien
January 2020 Cyclone Tino
December 2019 Cyclone Ambali
November 2019 Cyclone Bulbul
October 2019 Typhoon Hagibis
September 2019 Hurricane Dorian
August 2019 Typhoon Lekima (2019)
July 2019 Hurricane Barry (2019)
June 2019 Cyclone Kenneth
May 2019 Cyclone Idai

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for March


Cyclone Herold (not to be confused with April's storm of the month) was an intense tropical cyclone in the southwest Indian Ocean. It formed near northeastern Madagascar, where its flooding killed five people. Herold later passed between the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues before becoming extratropical.
Special thanks to Chicdat for helping write this newsletter's storm of the month!

  • Australia - the month began with Cyclone Ferdinand dissipating off northwest Australia. Several days later, a tropical low struck Western Australia, and Tropical Cyclone Gretel formed northeast of Queensland, later exiting into the South Pacific. There, the storm brushed New Caledonia with gusty winds and locally heavy rainfall. The month ended with another tropical low near Papua New Guinea.

Member of the month (edition) – TropicalAnalystwx13


TropicalAnalystwx13 first joined Wikipedia in September 2010. A long-time writer, TropicalAnalystwx13 (or TAWX13) is a prolific writer about tropical cyclones and tornadoes. Since the last newsletter, he worked on Hurricane Humberto (2019), now a featured article, as well as good articles for Tropical Storm Olga (2019), 1938 Atlantic hurricane season, and 1934 Atlantic hurricane season. We thank TropicalAnalystwx13 for his many edits, and hope he keeps up the good work!

New WikiProject Members since the last newsletter


More information can be found here. This list lists members who have joined/rejoined the WikiProject since the release of the last issue. Sorted chronologically.

To our new members: welcome to the project, and happy editing! Feel free to check the to-do list at the bottom right of the newsletter for things that you might want to work on. To our veteran members: thank you for your edits and your tireless contributions!

Featured Content
An illustration of the steamship Home breaking apart in shallow waters just off the beach. The Home is split in two, lying on its starboard side, and about to be struck by one particularly large wave.
Lithograph by Nathaniel Currier depicting the loss of the SS Home on the Outer Banks during Racer's hurricane, one of five recent featured articles.

From March 17 to present, five featured articles were promoted:

There are currently three featured article candidates:

From the Main Page documents WikiProject related materials that have appeared on the main page from March 17–April 30, 2020 in chronological order.

Did you know...?

Storms around the world, by Jason Rees
Over the last few months, the project has started to dip its toe into several other types of articles away from the traditional season, storm and timeline articles. These articles include lists on what tropical cyclones existed in which year, tropical cyclone by intensity and tropical cyclones affecting a certain territory, island nation etc. The hope is that these articles will be developed over the next few months to the point, where they get used by the international community.

We have had some early success with this goal with information from Category 5 South Pacific severe tropical cyclones being used by a Facebook page after Cyclone Harold. However, we need help developing these articles since there are approximately 150 countries impacted by tropical cyclones and there are approximately 15 tropical cyclones off all intensities per basin per year. You can help by finding resources for us to use, going through IBTRACS and the various databases published by the warning centres or even helping to expand the various articles.

''Opinion piece - , by Chicdat

As a reader: I first became interested in hurricanes when the buzz on Hurricane Dorian making landfall in the Bahamas came out at the end of August 2019. I was interested to know more about Dorian, but not too much. I went onto the solution page: 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, one of the first pages I saw on Wikipedia (that's where I got my signature, 🐔Chicdat ChickenDatabase, the Chicken links to 2019 AHS). As hurricane season continued, I "experienced" every single storm from Dorian to Sebastien. After hurricane season in the Atlantic ended, I turned my eyes to the Southern Hemisphere. By the beginning of 2020, I was even delving into FAs, GAs, and stubs.
As an IP: By late January 2020, I began questioning sharing my knowledge with the rest of Wikipedia, and on February 3, me my IP made what I believe was my first Wikipedia edit as an IP. However, many users were following the "All IPs are vandals, so let's revert their edits!" rule (e.g. here). Any coincidence that just 5 hours later...?
As Chicdat: Five hours after I was given a violation of the WP:IPs are humans too rule, I decided to create an account. I like chickens, and I had a database that I used for their egg production, which I call CHICDAT (Chicken Database), so I chose the username Chicdat. Not long after that, I made my first edit as Chicdat. On March 18, I created my first article, List of Alabama hurricanes. On February 24, I became an autoconfirmed user, and on March 19, I became extended confirmed. In late March, I created my first userspace draft, User:Chicdat/Cyclone Herold. In other words, that is how I became a Wikipedia user! 🐔Chicdat ChickenDatabase

Current assessment table


Assessments valid as of this printing. Depending on when you may be viewing this newsletter, the table may be outdated. See here for the latest, most up to date statistics.
As of this issue, there are 157 featured articles and 70 featured lists. There are 135 A-class articles, and 996 good articles. There are only 65 B-class articles, perhaps because because most articles of that quality already passed a GA review. There are 369 C-class articles, 736 start-class articles, and 151 stub-class articles, with 31 lists, and 8 current articles. These figures mean that slightly more than half of the project is rated a GA or better.

About the assessment scale →

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for April


Cyclone Harold was a Category 5 storm on both the Saffir-Simpson and the Australian scale. The storm formed near the Solomon Islands on April 1, where high waves drowned 27 people on the MV Taimareho ferry. Near peak intensity, Harold struck the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, causing widespread damage and disruptions amid the ongoing pandemic, as well as two deaths. Harold later passed south of the main island of Fiji, resulting in power outages and one fatality. The storm subsequently passed just south of Tonga, causing power outages and high tides.
Special thanks to Hurricaneboy23, Jason Rees, and TheAustinMan for helping write 94% of this newsletter's storm of the month!

  • Eastern Pacific - Tropical Depression One-E formed on April 25 southwest of Mexico, becoming the earliest tropical cyclone in the basin (east of 140°W and north of the equator). The depression dissipated a day after formation.
  • South-west Indian - toward the beginning of April, Cyclone Irondro formed southwest of Diego Garcia and moved to the southeast, becoming an intense tropical cyclone before weakening and becoming extratropical near the boundary with the Australian basin. In the middle of the month, Tropical Storm Jeruto originated in the Australian basin and took a southwest trajectory over open waters, dissipating on April 16.

WikiCup 2020 May newsletter[edit]

The second round of the 2020 WikiCup has now finished. It was a high-scoring round and contestants needed 75 points to advance to round 3. There were some very impressive efforts in round 2, with the top ten contestants all scoring more than 500 points. A large number of the points came from the 12 featured articles and the 186 good articles achieved in total by contestants, and the 355 good article reviews they performed; the GAN backlog drive and the stay-at-home imperative during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been partially responsible for these impressive figures.

Our top scorers in round 2 were:

  • New York (state) Epicgenius, with 2333 points from one featured article, forty-five good articles, fourteen DYKs and plenty of bonus points
  • England Gog the Mild, with 1784 points from three featured articles, eight good articles, a substantial number of featured article and good article reviews and lots of bonus points
  • Botswana The Rambling Man, with 1262 points from two featured articles, eight good articles and a hundred good article reviews
  • Somerset Harrias, with 1141 points from two featured articles, three featured lists, ten good articles, nine DYKs and a substantial number of featured article and good article reviews
  • England Lee Vilenski with 869 points, Gondor Hog Farm with 801, Venezuela Kingsif with 719, Cascadia (independence movement) SounderBruce with 710, United States Dunkleosteus77 with 608 and Mexico MX with 515.

The rules for featured article reviews have been adjusted; reviews may cover three aspects of the article, content, images and sources, and contestants may receive points for each of these three types of review. Please also remember the requirement to mention the WikiCup when undertaking an FAR for which you intend to claim points. Remember also that DYKs cannot be claimed until they have appeared on the main page. As we enter the third round, any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed now, and anything you forgot to claim in round 2 cannot! Remember too, that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them. When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anything else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth. - MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:44, 1 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Happy...[edit]

Happy Birthday![edit]

41st edition of The Hurricane Herald[edit]

Volume XLI, Issue 41, July 1, 2020
←(Previous issues) 38 · 39 · 40 · 41 · 42

The Hurricane Herald: Special Hurricane Season/New SHEM Cyclone Year Edition!

The Hurricane Herald is the semi-regular newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The newsletter aims to provide in summary the recent activities and developments of the WikiProject, in addition to global tropical cyclone activity. The Hurricane Herald has been running since its first edition ran on June 4, 2006. If you wish to receive or discontinue subscription to this newsletter, please visit the mailing list. This issue of The Hurricane Herald covers all project related events from May 1–July 1, 2020. This edition's editors and authors are Chicdat and Hurricanehink.

Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve the newsletter and other cyclone-related articles. Past editions can be viewed here.

WikiProject To-Do



Here are some tasks you can do:

Project Goals & Progress


The following is the current progress on the three milestone goals set by the WikiProject as of this publishing. They can be found, updated, at the main WikiProject page.

2018 Featured Topic


Hurricane Noah recently announced an initiative to get a featured topic for the year of 2018 with complete subtopics. The Eastern Pacific portion is very close to achieving a featured topic, and the Atlantic and North Indian Ocean are around a B-class average. The Western Pacific, Southern Hemisphere, and the global article for 2018 need your help! A lot of work is needed to get those three items up to par. For more information on which articles need specifically, please check out the project talk page. Getting a featured topic for an entire year would be an impressive feat for our project.

Happy New Year by Jason Rees

I want to invite you all to sing Auld Lang Syne with me and open up the egg nog with me as today July 1, 2020, marks the formal start of the 2020-21 tropical cyclone year, as well as the start of the season in the South-West Indian Ocean. As a result, it is a good chance to look back at the previous TC year and look forward to the season starting on November 1. As things stand, it appears that the status of the El Nino Southern Oscillation will either be La Nina or neutral conditions leaning towards La Nina. As a result, I would expect more activity to occur within the Coral Sea, near Queensland rather than out towards French Polynesia. On a social basis, the biggest question this year will be how will the island nations deal will Covid 19 and a major tropical cyclone - assuming it's still around in November. We got an early taster of how Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga will deal with it thanks Severe Tropical Cyclone Harold.


Storms of the month over the last year
Month Storm
April 2020 Cyclone Harold
March 2020 Cyclone Herold
February 2020 Cyclone Damien
January 2020 Cyclone Tino
December 2019 Cyclone Ambali
November 2019 Cyclone Bulbul
October 2019 Typhoon Hagibis
September 2019 Hurricane Dorian
August 2019 Typhoon Lekima (2019)
July 2019 Hurricane Barry (2019)

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for May


Cyclone Amphan was the second Category 5-equivalent tropical cyclone of 2020, and the first tropical cyclone of the 2020 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. It formed in the southern Bay of Bengal, and made landfall on Odisha and Bangladesh, killing 128 people. It was a very strong super cyclonic storm. It was also the costliest North Indian Ocean tropical cyclone in recorded history, shattering the record held by Cyclone Nargis, after it left US$13.6 billion in damage.

Member of the month (edition) – KN2731


KN2731 first joined Wikipedia in 2015, and has contributed to/written 13 good articles in the project. Recently, he has contributed to the project-wide goal of improving tropical cyclones in 2018 to a featured topic, including tropical storms Sanba, Bolaven, and Ewiniar, plus Typhoon Maria. KN2731 has also worked in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific, and contributed to two featured lists – Timeline of the 2015 Pacific hurricane season and List of Category 3 Pacific hurricanes. We thank KN2731 for his many edits, and hope he keeps up the good work!

New WikiProject Members since the last newsletter


More information can be found here. This list lists members who have joined/rejoined the WikiProject since the release of the last issue. Sorted chronologically.

To our new members: welcome to the project, and happy editing! Feel free to check the to-do list at the bottom right of the newsletter for things that you might want to work on. To our veteran members: thank you for your edits and your tireless contributions!

Featured Content

From May 1 to present, two featured articles were promoted:

From the Main Page documents WikiProject related materials that have appeared on the main page from May 1–June 30, 2020 in chronological order.

Today's Featured Article/List

There are currently two featured article canidates:

OPINION PIECE, by Chicdat

When a new storm undergoes rapid intensification and makes landfall, the members of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones try hard to create an article for it. Suddenly, the storm goes back out to sea again and makes landfall somewhere different. In one 20-kilobyte edit, Hurricaneboy23, let's say, adds in more information about this landfall, but not before the storm undergoes a cyclonic loop and makes a third landfall. As the article gets huge and bloated, it's split.

The story above is fictional, but things like it happen often, like in Cyclone Amphan's revision history. For Wikipedia to have an accurate coverage of tropical cyclones, there need to be enough members to put the new information — boosted by reliable sources, of course — into the article. So, if you haven't already, go to WP:WPTC/MEMBER and add your name! 🐔Chicdat ChickenDatabase

Burnout - an opinion piece by ♫ Hurricanehink (talk)
I've been editing Wikipedia for a while. I've retired a few times, thinking I would be done for good, but something kept drawing me back. It might be the thrill to be the first one to post an advisory, or if you found a damage total that wasn't in the article, or the thrill of publishing an article and making it the best source of information on a given storm. Those are all great reasons to edit and to continue editing. But while the text we write is just computer code, we all are humans, subjected to outside stresses and the dreaded real life (RL).

When you edit for too long, you might find that you can't finish that list of projects you wanted to work on. It is better to take a break from what you were working on, and try something different (maybe not even weather-related) so that editing becomes enjoyable again. There's no sense getting burned out and stressed. The work will eventually get done on Wikipedia. Some projects are in much worse shape, but improving slowly but surely. The WPTC has a leg up on other projects because we have such a passionate group of editors and writers. It's better for the long run to take a break, focus on RL, get some sun, have a laugh, and do whatever you can to stay sane these days.

Current assessment table


Assessments valid as of this printing. Depending on when you may be viewing this newsletter, the table may be outdated. See here for the latest, most up to date statistics.
As of this issue, there are 157 featured articles and 70 featured lists. There are 135 A-class articles, and 1,002 good articles. There are only 65 B-class articles, perhaps because because most articles of that quality already passed a GA review. There are 369 C-class articles, 736 start-class articles, and 151 stub-class articles, with 31 lists, and 8 current articles. These figures mean that slightly more than half of the project is rated a GA or better. Typhoon Warren was the 1000th GA in the project.

About the assessment scale →

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for June


Tropical Storm Cristobal formed on June 1 in the Bay of Campeche from the remnants of Amanda in the eastern Pacific. Cristobal looped over the Yucatán peninsula before progressing northward, striking Louisiana on June 7, marking the second-earliest landfall on record in the state. The system moved through the central United States, eventually becoming extratropical over Wisconsin. Cristobal killed four people and left US$343 million in damage.

  • Atlantic - in addition to Cristobal, Tropical Storm Dolly formed in late June off the east coast of the United States. Originating as a subtropical depression, Dolly transitioned into a tropical cyclone over the Gulf Stream, and became extratropical on June 24.
  • Eastern Pacific - there were two short-lived tropical cyclones in the basin in late June. Tropical Storm Boris formed on June 24 and was a minimal tropical storm, and Tropical Depression Four-E formed at the end of the month off of Baja California.
  • Western Pacific - one tropical storm - Nuri - formed in the South China Sea, and killed one person when it struck southern China.
  • North Indian Ocean - Cyclone Nisarga formed on June 1 off India's western coast. The storm intensified into a severe cyclonic storm before it made landfall south of Mumbai. The cyclone killed 6 people and caused US$665 million in damage.

WikiCup 2020 July newsletter[edit]

The third round of the 2020 WikiCup has now come to an end. The 16 users who made it into the fourth round each had at least 353 points (compared to 68 in 2019). It was a highly competitive round, and a number of contestants were eliminated who would have moved on in earlier years. Our top scorers in round 3 were:

  • New York (state) Epicgenius, with one featured article, 28 good articles and 17 DYKs, amassing 1836 points
  • Botswana The Rambling Man , with 1672 points gained from four featured articles and seventeen good articles, plus reviews of a large number of FACs and GAs
  • England Gog the Mild, a first time contestant, with 1540 points, a tally built largely on 4 featured articles and related bonus points.

Between them, contestants managed 14 featured articles, 9 featured lists, 3 featured pictures, 152 good articles, 136 DYK entries, 55 ITN entries, 65 featured article candidate reviews and 221 good article reviews. Additionally, Denmark MPJ-DK added 3 items to featured topics and 44 to good topics. Over the course of the competition, contestants have completed 710 good article reviews, in comparison to 387 good articles submitted for review and promoted. These large numbers are probably linked to a GAN backlog drive in April and May, and the changed patterns of editing during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we enter the fourth round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Please also remember that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them. When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met. Please also remember that all submissions must meet core Wikipedia policies, regardless of the review process.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk), Cwmhiraeth (talk) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:33, 2 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Your work best[edit]

Your work best Janm 7 (talk) 14:14, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2020 September newsletter[edit]

The fourth round of the competition has finished, with 865 points being required to qualify for the final round, nearly twice as many points as last year. It was a hotly competitive round with two contestants with 598 and 605 points being eliminated, and all but two of the contestants who reached the final round having achieved an FA during the round. The highest scorers were

  • Free Hong Kong Bloom6132, with 1478 points gained mainly from 5 featured lists, 12 DYKs and 63 in the news items;
  • IndonesiaHaEr48 with 1318 points gained mainly from 2 featured articles, 5 good articles and 8 DYKs;
  • England Lee Vilenski with 1201 points mainly gained from 2 featured articles and 10 good articles.

Between them, contestants achieved 14 featured articles, 14 featured lists, 2 featured pictures, 87 good articles, 90 DYK entries, 75 ITN entries, 95 featured article candidate reviews and 81 good article reviews. Congratulations to all who participated! It was a generally high-scoring and productive round and I think we can expect a highly competitive finish to the competition.

Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them. If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. It would be helpful if this list could be cleared of any items no longer relevant. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk), Cwmhiraeth (talk) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:52, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

42nd edition of The Hurricane Herald![edit]

Volume XLII, Issue 42, September 1, 2020
←(Previous issues) 39 · 40 · 41 · 42 · 43

The Hurricane Herald: September Edition!

The Hurricane Herald is the semi-regular newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The newsletter aims to provide in summary the recent activities and developments of the WikiProject, in addition to global tropical cyclone activity. The Hurricane Herald has been running since its first edition ran on June 4, 2006. If you wish to receive or discontinue subscription to this newsletter, please visit the mailing list. This issue of The Hurricane Herald covers all project related events from July 1–August 31, 2020. This edition's editors and authors are (alphabetically) Chicdat, Destroyeraa, Hurricanehink, Jason Rees, KN2731, Typhoon2013, & Weatherman27.

Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve the newsletter and other cyclone-related articles. Past editions can be viewed here.

WikiProject Tropical Cyclones: News & Developments

  • As we rapidly approach the 15th anniversary of the project in October, it has been proposed that the Climate, Tropical cyclone, Severe Weather, and Non-tropical storms (defunct) wikiprojects get merged into a single project: Wikipedia:WikiProject Weather. This brand new project would remove the overlap that exists between the projects. It provide us with a better opportunity to develop articles such as List of named storms A, B, C etc; Tornadoes in Fiji/New Zealand/Hawaii/etc; Floods in 2018, 2019, 2020, etc; Floods in Bangladesh/United States/Egypt, etc; Weather of 1997, 1998, 2020, etc; Weather in Tokelau/South Africa/France, etc; Hurricanes in the United States, Hurricanes in Mexico, Typhoons in China, etc. The discussion continues on WP:Meteorology. Any feedback would be appreciated.
  • There are now more than 1,000 distinct good articles in the project, as of June, when Tropical Storm Sanba (2018) passed its GAR. That doesn't include the articles rated A-class that also passed GA status. There are now 1,299 good or featured articles, which 47.1% of all articles in the project. 80 net more good articles are needed for half of the project to be good or featured.
  • There are more than 500 articles in the Western Pacific, as of July, when Yellow Evan (talk · contribs) created Tropical Storm Ofelia (1993) and Tropical Storm Percy (1993). The WPAC is the second basin to reach that milestone, after the Atlantic, which crossed that threshold in 2008. In fact, the WPAC is growing at a rate of 33 articles per year (since 2017), while the Atlantic is only growing at a rate of 13.6 articles per year (also since 2017). At that rate, the WPAC would surpass the Atlantic in number of articles in 15 years, when both basins would have about 1,000 articles. The EPAC would only have about 450 articles by that point. At the current rate, the entire WPTC would have 4,632 articles. For reference, there are 2727 articles in the WPTC at the moment, 2,185 of which are a storm/season/timeline article.
  • The intensity lists by basin are progressing. List of Category 1 Atlantic hurricanes is still under construction, and could use help adding storms from 1936 to 2014. The List of Eastern Pacific tropical storms could use help adding storms from 1949 to 1989. The List of typhoons is going to take some time, as the current plan is to list every recorded typhoon, and not separate it (like the other basins) by category. This is because JMA is the RSMC for the WPAC, and they don't publicly use super/violent typhoon. Most intensity lists are finished for the North Indian Ocean, excepting the proposed List of depressions and deep depressions within the North Indian Ocean. Australia is almost done, only needing List of Australian region tropical lows, and SPAC is done all the way down to List of South Pacific tropical disturbances and tropical depressions. SWIO has only lists for very intense and intense tropical cyclones, so it could use more help.
  • There is a discussion to merge the nearly 600 disambiguation/set index article into naming lists by letter, such as List of named storms (I), instead of Tropical Storm Ingrid. This would make sure that the pages are centralized, which would make updating and navigation easier.

New articles since the last newsletter include:

New GA's include:

Featured Content

From July 1 to present, two featured articles were promoted:

From the Main Page documents WikiProject related materials that have appeared on the main page from July 1–August 31, 2020 in chronological order.

Today's Featured Article/List

There is currently one featured article candidate:

WikiProject To-Do



Here are some tasks you can do:

2018 Featured Topic


Hurricane Noah recently announced an initiative to get a featured topic for the year of 2018 with complete subtopics. The Eastern Pacific portion is very close to achieving a featured topic, and the Atlantic and North Indian Ocean are around a B-class average. The Western Pacific, Southern Hemisphere, and the global article for 2018 need your help! A lot of work is needed to get those three items up to par. For more information on which articles need specifically, please check out the project talk page. Getting a featured topic for an entire year would be an impressive feat for our project.

Storms of the month over the last year
Month Storm
June 2020 Tropical Storm Cristobal (2020)
May 2020 Cyclone Amphan
April 2020 Cyclone Harold
March 2020 Cyclone Herold
February 2020 Cyclone Damien
January 2020 Cyclone Tino
December 2019 Cyclone Ambali
November 2019 Cyclone Bulbul
October 2019 Typhoon Hagibis
September 2019 Hurricane Dorian

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for July


Hurricane Isaias caused widespread flooding and wind damage to the East Coast of the United States, spawning a destructive tornado outbreak and killing at least 18 people. Forming from a tropical wave near the Lesser Antilles on July 30, Isaias crossed Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and parts of the Bahamas, before making its final landfall in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. The storm proceeded up the East Coast, spawning 37 tornadoes and causing more than 3 million power outages, with more than half of them in New Jersey. Overall, Isaias caused a total of $4.2 billion in damage and 18 fatalities.

  • Atlantic - there were five named storms in the North Atlantic in July, tying the record set by 2005. In addition to Isaias, the first storm of the month was Tropical Storm Edouard, which formed near Bermuda and moved quickly across the north Atlantic. A few days later, Tropical Storm Fay became the first storm to hit New Jersey since 2011. Fay caused 6 fatalities and $400 million in damage. Short-lived Tropical Storm Gonzalo threatened the southern Lesser Antilles, but it dissipated while crossing into the Caribbean Sea. Hurricane Hanna formed in the Gulf of Mexico and rapidly intensified as it made landfall in Padre Island, Texas. The storm caused $500 million in damage and 5 fatalities. There was also a short-lived tropical depression near Cabo Verde.
  • Eastern Pacific - Tropical Storm Cristina nearly reached hurricane intensity as it moved to the southwest of Mexico, affecting Socorro Island. After two short-lived tropical depressions, Hurricane Douglas became the basin's first hurricane on July 23, which was the fourth-latest on record. Douglas would go on to strengthen into the season's first major hurricane, briefly attaining Category 4 status before weakening as it passed north of Hawaii. Damage in Hawaii was minor.
  • Western Pacific - For the first time on record, there were no tropical storms or typhoons during the month of July in the western Pacific. There were two nondeveloping tropical depressions during the month, as well as two tropical depressions in late July that would reach peak intensity in August. Tropical Storm Sinlaku formed on July 31 and made landfall in Vietnam, causing significant flooding and killing 6 people. Typhoon Hagupit formed east of the Philippines and later made landfall in Wenzhou, China, killing 12 and causing more than ¥2.858 billion (US$411 million) in damage.

Member of the month (edition) – ChessEric


ChessEric first joined Wikipedia in April of this year, and has quickly become a prolific weather editor. In addition to his work on tornado and severe weather articles, ChessEric helped write the bulk of the Hurricane Laura article (the storm of the month), in addition to making sure the article stayed free of vandalism, with 224 edits to the article as of this newsletter. ChessEric was one of 190 editors who worked on the Laura article. We thank ChessEric for his edits, and hope we can build on more collaborations in the future between the severe and the tropical cyclone Wikiprojects.

New WikiProject Members since the last newsletter


More information can be found here. This list lists members who have joined/rejoined the WikiProject since the release of the last issue. Sorted chronologically.

To our new members: welcome to the project, and happy editing! Feel free to check the to-do list at the bottom right of the newsletter for things that you might want to work on. To our veteran members: thank you for your edits and your tireless contributions!

WPTC and WP:ITN, by Destroyeraa

A few weeks ago, I created an article, Hurricane Isaias, as it threatened much of the East Coast. I've created several articles already, but Isaias is one that stood out to me. First of all, it affected me, my town and my state of New Jersey, along with millions of other people. Two months ago, I learned about Wikipedia's In The News section of the main page, which documents recent events that are in the news. I nominated Isaias' article on August 1 here, and the discussion was closed quickly after Isaias had weakened significantly after impacting the Bahamas. As Isaias made landfall in the Carolinas, spawned 36+ tornadoes and killed 18 people, I re-nominated Isaias [1], got rejected again, and I learned a few lessons that I want to share to other editors:

When posting

  • If you post something that isn't in the news or isn't notable at all, then it would be quickly closed without much discussion.
  • Don't feel upset when someone opposes your nomination. It is almost guaranteed that someone will oppose your nomination.
  • Keep improving the article. An article that is a stub won't likely be posted.
  • When posting about a person, make sure the article complies with BLP policies, and is adequately referenced and well-written.

I also learned a few lessons about which tropical cyclones to post. In July, someone nominated Hurricane Hanna (2020) here, and it was also rejected because it didn't meet the notability requirements. Also, keep in mind that damage estimates and death reports often come out several days after the storm, which makes passing the nomination for a storm like Isaias, a storm that caused $4.2 billion and 18 deaths, somewhat hard.

My opinions on when to nominate an article (this list mainly refers to tropical cyclone articles)

  • The storm should affect more than two countries. However, if the storm causes a lot of death and destruction in one country (such as Tropical Storm Imelda), see the requirements below
  • The storm should cause more than $1 billion in damage. However, if the storm causes less destruction and less death, see the requirements below
  • The storm should cause at least 10 or 20 deaths. Most ITN nominations about a disaster that have less than 10 deaths are usually rejected/closed.
  • The storm should break at least 1 notable record (such as the deadliest storm to hit a country in 20 years, or something like that).

There is currently a discussion on the WPTC project page about this topic.

New user perspective on WPTC, By Weatherman27

Around six months ago, I joined Wikipedia after seeing many articles on tropical cyclones and their seasons. Being someone who has studied (and been through) multiple storms, I realized I could help make a difference, bring more attention to tropical cyclones and that Wikipedia was the perfect place to do that. Soon after, I came across the WikiProject Tropical cyclones page, and after seeing what they did, I decided to sign my name and join the project. I really enjoyed how they gave to-do lists of tropical cyclone pages that needed work among other things. One of the great things about this WikiProject is the warm welcome I received when I joined and I got to know some of the more veteran editors, and they really helped me get around on Wikipedia, such as helpful tips and great advice to make better edits. As I have become comfortable editing and helping other users, some things came to mind that I thought other new users should know when they join the WPTC:

  • If you are new and have questions, don't be afraid to ask someone. There are plenty of helpful editors who know what they are doing, and who would be happy to give some great tips to get you used to editing weather articles on Wikipedia.
  • Don't be afraid to start editing. You can edit tropical cyclone pages as much as you want, just make sure you use the proper sources and citations.
  • Be kind. It is simply the Golden Rule, if you use it, others will too.
  • If you see something wrong, do something! If you see vandalism or any strange edits, make sure you revert them.
  • Help improve. There are plenty of tropical cyclone articles that need improvement and we need all the help we can get.
  • If you have any ideas but you're not sure if they would be right for an article, you can discuss them with fellow users on a talk page.

I am sure I missed some tips, but these are important for getting started with WPTC. This WikiProject has some amazing people and articles and I am sure new users (and veteran users as well) enjoy this as much as I do and will continue to make great edits as well as informative articles.

Current assessment table


Assessments valid as of this printing. Depending on when you may be viewing this newsletter, the table may be outdated. See here for the latest, most up to date statistics.
As of this issue, there are 157 featured articles and 70 featured lists. There are 135 A-class articles, and 1,002 good articles. There are only 65 B-class articles, perhaps because because most articles of that quality already passed a GA review. There are 369 C-class articles, 736 start-class articles, and 151 stub-class articles, with 31 lists, and 8 current articles. These figures mean that slightly more than half of the project is rated a GA or better. Typhoon Warren was the 1000th GA in the project.

About the assessment scale →

Storm of the month and other tropical activity for August


Hurricane Laura tied the 1856 Last Island hurricane as the strongest hurricane ever recorded to make landfall in the U.S state of Louisiana, as measured by maximum sustained winds. It moved across the Lesser and Greater Antilles as a tropical storm, killing 35 people on the island of Hispaniola due to flooding and landslides. Laura rapidly intensified once it reached the Gulf of Mexico, becoming a powerful Category 4 hurricane on August 26 with peak winds of 150 mph (240 km/h) early the next day. On August 27, Laura made landfall near Cameron, Louisiana at peak intensity, producing wind gusts of 137 mph (220 km/h) in Lake Charles, and leaving at least $8 billion in damage. Overall, Laura killed more than 57 people, with more missing.

  • Atlantic - the basin continued its record pace of activity. In the middle of the month, Tropical Storm Josephine formed east of the Lesser Antilles and eventually dissipated north of the islands. Tropical Storm Kyle originated off the east coast of the United States and moved to the east-northeast. Hurricane Marco formed in the Caribbean and briefly strengthened into a minimal hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. For a few days, the NHC forecast back-to-back hurricane landfalls from Marco and Laura within two days of each other; however, Marco dissipated near the Louisiana coastline without causing significant damage. Toward the end of the month, Tropical Depression Fifteen formed off the southeastern United States.
  • Eastern Pacific - Hurricane Elida was the season's second hurricane, which brushed the Baja California Peninsula while moving northwestward. In the middle of the month, a series of storms formed, including a long-lived tropical depression, Tropical Storm Fausto, and Hurricane Genevieve, the last of which passed near the Baja California Peninsula. Genevieve killed two people, and its moisture spread into the southwestern United States. Toward the end of the month, Tropical Storm Hernan caused flooding and landslides in southwestern Mexico, and Iselle formed around the same time farther west over open water.
  • Western Pacific - after a quiet July, the basin became more active in August. Tropical Storm Jangmi brushed western Japan and South Korea with heavy rainfall. A short-lived tropical depression existed south of Japan. Severe Tropical Storm Mekkhala formed in the South China Sea and struck Guangdong, resulting in heavy rainfall and $154 million in damage. About a week later, Severe Tropical Storm Higos struck the same region, leaving eight deaths. Typhoon Bavi formed east of Taiwan and moved northward through the Yellow Sea, eventually striking North Korea, where it caused one fatality. Toward the end of the month, Typhoon Maysak formed east of Taiwan and followed a similar path to Bavi, becoming a powerful typhoon as it moved through the Ryukyu Islands. Another tropical depression formed between the Marianas Islands and Japan on August 31.

Project Goals & Progress


The following is the current progress on the three milestone goals set by the WikiProject as of this publishing. They can be found, updated, at the main WikiProject page.


Happy First Edit Day![edit]

WikiCup 2020 November newsletter[edit]

The 2020 WikiCup has come to an end, with the final round going down to the wire. Our new Champion is England Lee Vilenski (submissions), the runner-up last year, who was closely followed by England Gog the Mild (submissions). In the final round, Lee achieved 4 FAs and 30 GAs, mostly on cue sport topics, while Gog achieved 3 FAs and 15 GAs, mostly on important battles and wars, which earned him a high number of bonus points. Botswana The Rambling Man (submissions) was in third place with 4 FAs and 8 GAs on football topics, with New York (state) Epicgenius (submissions) close behind with 19 GAs and 16 DYK's, his interest being the buildings of New York.

The other finalists were Gondor Hog Farm (submissions), Indonesia HaEr48 (submissions), Somerset Harrias (submissions) and Free Hong Kong Bloom6132 (submissions). The final round was very productive, and besides 15 FAs, contestants achieved 75 FAC reviews, 88 GAs and 108 GAN reviews. Altogether, Wikipedia has benefited greatly from the activities of WikiCup competitors all through the contest. Well done everyone!

All those who reached the final will receive awards and the following special awards will be made, based on high performance in particular areas of content creation. So that the finalists do not have an undue advantage, these prizes are awarded to the competitor who scored the highest in any particular field in a single round, or in the event of a tie, to the overall leader in this field.

Next year's competition will begin on 1 January. You are invited to sign up to participate; the WikiCup is open to all Wikipedians, both novices and experienced editors, and we hope to see you all in the 2021 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:37, 3 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2020 Elections voter message[edit]

Hello! Voting in the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 7 December 2020. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2020 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:43, 24 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

44th edition of The Hurricane Herald![edit]

Volume XLIV, Issue 44, December 1, 2020
←(Previous issues) 41 · 42 · 43 · 44 · 45


The Hurricane Herald: Happy Thanksgiving Edition!

The Hurricane Herald is the semi-regular newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The newsletter aims to provide in summary the recent activities and developments of the WikiProject, in addition to global tropical cyclone activity. The Hurricane Herald has been running since its first edition ran on June 4, 2006. If you wish to receive or discontinue subscription to this newsletter, please visit the mailing list. This issue of The Hurricane Herald covers all project related events from October 5–November 30, 2020. This edition's editors and authors are SMB99thx, Weatherman27, Chicdat, Hurricanehink, Cyclone Toby, Typhoon2013, and ChessEric. Please visit this page and bookmark any suggestions of interest to you. This will help improve the newsletter and other cyclone-related articles. Past editions can be viewed here.

WikiProject Tropical Cyclones: News & Developments


New articles since the last newsletter include:

New GA's include:

Featured Content

From October 5 to November 30, two featured articles were promoted:

From the Main Page documents WikiProject related materials that have appeared on the main page from October 5–November 30, 2020 in chronological order.

Today's Featured Article/List

There is currently one featured article candidate:

WikiProject To-Do



Here are some tasks you can do:

Current assessment table


Assessments valid as of this printing. Depending on when you may be viewing this newsletter, the table may be outdated. See here for the latest, most up to date statistics.
As of this issue, there are 164 featured articles and 70 featured lists. There are 133 A-class articles, and 1,010 good articles. There are only 71 B-class articles, perhaps because because most articles of that quality already passed a GA review. There are 415 C-class articles, 788 start-class articles, and 182 stub-class articles, with 23 lists, and 9 current articles. These figures mean that slightly more than half of the project is rated a GA or better. Typhoon Warren was the 1000th GA in the project.

About the assessment scale →

Project Goals & Progress


The following is the current progress on the three milestone goals set by the WikiProject as of this publishing. They can be found, updated, at the main WikiProject page.

Storms of the month over the last year
Month Storm
November 2020 Hurricane Iota
October 2020 Typhoon Goni (2020)
September 2020 Cyclone Ianos
August 2020 Hurricane Laura
July 2020 Hurricane Isaias
June 2020 Tropical Storm Cristobal (2020)
May 2020 Cyclone Amphan
April 2020 Cyclone Harold
March 2020 Cyclone Herold
February 2020 Cyclone Damien
January 2020 Cyclone Tino
December 2019 Cyclone Ambali
November 2019 Cyclone Bulbul
October 2019 Typhoon Hagibis

Storms of the month and other tropical activity for October and November


SotM for October: Typhoon Goni / Rolly
Typhoon Goni formed from east of The Philippines towards the end of October, just as Typhoon Molave ravaged the country. Taking in the plentiful favorable conditions, Goni, known as Rolly in The Philippines, explosively intensified into a Category-5 equivalent hurricane just three days after it became a tropical depression. An eyewall replacement cycle managed to curb its intensification. Goni finished the cycle a few hours before it made landfall, and explosively intensified again into winds of 195 mph (JTWC) and a pressure of 884 mbar. This allowed it to tie with typhoons Haiyan and Meranti as the strongest typhoon by wind speed. Goni made landfall at peak intensity, killing 25 people and causing US$368 million in damage.


SotM for November: Hurricane Iota
Hurricane Iota developed in the central Caribbean Sea in mid-November. Like Goni, it explosively intensified, strengthening 120 mph in 48 hours, and deepening 81 mbar in the same amount of time. Iota explosively strengthened late on November 15 and early on November 16, becoming a Category 5 hurricane at 15:00 UTC on the 16th. By the time Iota had achieved C5 intensity, three people were already dead in Colombia due to landslides. As the storm made landfall, and subsequently weakened and dissipated, adding to the destruction from Hurricane Eta. Iota killed at least 61 people.


  • Atlantic - Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota.

The active Atlantic hurricane season continued. In early October, Tropical Storm Gamma dissipated over the northern Yucatan and was absorbed by powerful Hurricane Delta, which was the season's third major hurricane. Delta weakened before hitting Quintana Roo, but restrengthened in the Gulf of Mexico, later hitting Louisiana as a low-end Category 2 hurricane in nearly the same location as Hurricane Laura in August. Delta killed six people and left US$4 billion in damage. A few days later, Hurricane Epsilon developed southeast of Bermuda, becoming a major hurricane and brushing the island to the east. Hurricane Zeta followed a similar path as Delta, striking Quintana Roo and later striking southeastern Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane; it killed 8 people and left U$3 billion in damage. At the end of the month, Hurricane Eta developed, becoming a strong Category 4 hurricane before striking Nicaragua. After killing hundreds of people in Central America, Eta reformed in the northwestern Caribbean. It made another landfall in Cuba, moved over the Florida Keys, and briefly became a hurricane again in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, before weakening and striking Cedar Key, Florida as a tropical storm. In early November, Tropical Storm Theta developed from a non-tropical low and moved across the eastern Atlantic.

  • Eastern Pacific - Tropical Storm Norbert was the basin's only storm in October. It formed southwest of Mexico, though wind shear killed it off within a few days. Norbert then pulled a surprise on meteorologists: it regenerated into a tropical storm again on October 13, although it eventually dying again two days later. In early November, the season's next system, Tropical storm Odalys, formed, which remained weak off southwest Mexico. After an 11-day lull in activity, Tropical Storm Polo southwest of Mexico, which dissipated two days after its formation.
  • Western Pacific - In early October, Typhoon Chan-Hom passed south of Japan and turned to the southeast, dissipating after 12 days. A series of storms affected Vietnam, causing deadly floods that killed over 200 people. In short succession, tropical storms Linfa and Nangka struck the country. Typhoon Saudel moved across the Philippines and later struck Vietnam. Typhoon Molave crossed the central Philippines and later hit Vietnam, killing 71 people. After the powerful Typhoon Goni, Tropical Storm Atsani reached peak intensity southeast of Taiwan before dissipating. In early November, Tropical Storm Etau struck southeastern Vietnam, followed days later by Typhoon Vamco, which crossed the Philippines and hit central Vietnam.
  • 2020 North Indian Ocean cyclone season - after a long hiatus, the season sprang to life with one deep depression and two tropical depressions in October. Deep Depression BOB 02 killed 98 people in Central India, and flooded the city of Hyderabad. The system redeveloped into a depression in the Arabian Sea. Later in the month, a depression struck West Bengal. In November, Cyc

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