Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tropical cyclones/Newsletter
Content discussion
editThis isn't in any particular order. This is not for specific content for a particular newsletter, but discussion on what should be included in general
The title
editSuggestions to date:
- The Tropical Times — Hurricanehink (talk) 01:30, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
- As The Cyclone Spins — RattleMan 02:40, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
- The Spinning Cyclone — Nilfanion (talk) 10:30, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
- The Fishspinner — Nilfanion (talk) 10:30, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
- The Hurricane Herald - Icelandic Hurricane #12(talk) 17:57, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
- Here that Spins is All that Spins - Anirudh Emani (talk) 16:02, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
Storms of the month
edit- In depth description of SotM - comparable to what is written for a TFA description.
- A much briefer description of any other storms - but all linked to their article or section in seasonal article.
Members of the month
editHow should the format go? Should it just be, Member of the month:Random user Or should it be more in depth? Member of the month: Random user has been part of the Tropical Cyclone Wikiproject since December of 2005. He has written 5 tropical cyclone articles, and contributed to numerous others. Random user has also contributed to the various formatting issues that have arisen.
A barnstar-type award also needs to be made. Hurricanehink (talk) 17:08, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
- I say give a reasonable description on the users contributions to the project and concur on the award. How about like the Random acts of kindness star but with a (larger) generic tropical cyclone replacing the smiley?--Nilfanion (talk) 17:17, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
How about this for a concept, make the MotM a secret ballot? Would make it more interesting for all involved, I mean you don't know that you are going to get a barnstar.--Nilfanion (talk) 20:04, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
- How would you make a secret ballot on Wikipedia? I suppose you could have a subpage, and as a rule, no one can sign their signature. Hurricanehink (talk) 21:16, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
- What we could do is say "send your vote by email to ...." that way its only the vote-counter who will know in advance (perhaps they should not be allowed to get it). After the result is announced (in the newsletter) the numbers for each nominee could be given here. How does that sound?--Nilfanion (talk) 21:48, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
- That sounds good. The recipient should be someone who was nominated, but also didn't nominate someone, just to ensure no problems will occur. Hurricanehink (talk) 22:26, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
- How does this sound? "The vote-counter cannot be nominated for the MotM and cannot vote or nominate. However in the case of a tie, they have a tie-breaker vote (to ensure we always have someone). Nominees can vote, but not for themselves." Actually I wonder if I'm turning into a megalomaniac now, I'll withdraw myself from this round of nominations (I'm nowhere near as worthy as Jdorje or Tito), so I can do all the upkeep tasks for the newsletter (archiving, distributing etc).--Nilfanion (talk) 00:04, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
- LOL, don't worry. That sounds great. I'm sorry to hear you're withdrawing, but I'm sure you'll get another nom in the future. Hurricanehink (talk) 00:11, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
- Nah, I'm satisfied doing it this way, this was my idea I'll suffer whats coming to me, lol... Can someone make up a cheesy barnstar? It needs to be standalone, so it can be be awarded even if you have opted out.--Nilfanion (talk) 00:32, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
- Try Image:Cyclone barnstar.png, just for this purpose. Titoxd(?!?) 06:54, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
- Yep, that works (you could change your MotM award to it)--Nilfanion (talk) 09:42, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
- Try Image:Cyclone barnstar.png, just for this purpose. Titoxd(?!?) 06:54, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
- Nah, I'm satisfied doing it this way, this was my idea I'll suffer whats coming to me, lol... Can someone make up a cheesy barnstar? It needs to be standalone, so it can be be awarded even if you have opted out.--Nilfanion (talk) 00:32, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
- LOL, don't worry. That sounds great. I'm sorry to hear you're withdrawing, but I'm sure you'll get another nom in the future. Hurricanehink (talk) 00:11, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
- How does this sound? "The vote-counter cannot be nominated for the MotM and cannot vote or nominate. However in the case of a tie, they have a tie-breaker vote (to ensure we always have someone). Nominees can vote, but not for themselves." Actually I wonder if I'm turning into a megalomaniac now, I'll withdraw myself from this round of nominations (I'm nowhere near as worthy as Jdorje or Tito), so I can do all the upkeep tasks for the newsletter (archiving, distributing etc).--Nilfanion (talk) 00:04, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
- That sounds good. The recipient should be someone who was nominated, but also didn't nominate someone, just to ensure no problems will occur. Hurricanehink (talk) 22:26, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
- What we could do is say "send your vote by email to ...." that way its only the vote-counter who will know in advance (perhaps they should not be allowed to get it). After the result is announced (in the newsletter) the numbers for each nominee could be given here. How does that sound?--Nilfanion (talk) 21:48, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Formatting discussion
editI've subst'ed the portal as a starting point for this, and added in some content. I think this is a fair starting point.--Nilfanion (talk) 17:45, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
- I think this works. Can someone sort out the code? (if we go for this format, it will mess up our talk pages.--Nilfanion (talk) 23:23, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
- It's simpler in appearance, and has messy code (template time?), but it works now. If someone who knows what they are doing can make a better format... all the better.--Nilfanion (talk) 00:12, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
I suggest the content nominations be archived with each storm and that the more fundamental discussion is held here.--Nilfanion (talk) 13:03, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Straw polls
editTitle
editAdd your nominations to the top. We should start voting on Friday and close it when there's a majority. I don't think you should be able to vote for your own nomination. Hurricanehink (talk) 15:12, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
- Agree, though a concrete deadline makes more sense (0000 UTC Sunday, the probable publishing time?)--Nilfanion (talk) 16:04, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
- OK. Also, any new suggestions have to be in by 0000 UTC on Friday (AKA midnight tonight). Hurricanehink (talk) 16:24, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Voting is open, we will run with whatever (I'll tie-break if needed).--Nilfanion (talk) 00:32, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
- The Hurricane Herald was the selected name.--Nilfanion (talk) 09:10, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
- The Tropical Times
- As The Cyclone Spins
- The Spinning Cyclone
- The Fishspinner
- The Hurricane Herald
- Yay! My title won! Thank's hink and Dr Denim for your votes! íslenska hurikein #12(samtal) 11:51, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
- no problem...now...about that political career ruining bribe...hahaDr Denim 12:22, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
Format
edit- Current format is OK
- Nilfanion (talk) 00:32, 2 June 2006 (UTC) I'm happy now, though the content still needs work
- íslenska hurikein #12(talk) 00:38, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
- Titoxd(?!? - help us) 19:05, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
- Current format needs changing
(please state how, this one works like an FAC: no actionable objections and enough support means we run with it)
- Wikilink Main Page
- Capitalize only the first word in each sub-section.
- Wrap the statistics table in a div, for consistency with the other sections.
- Titoxd(?!? - help us) 02:22, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
- The table is in a div and the capitalization is consistent. However I left "Main Page content" as that as Main Page is always capitalized. Not sure what you meant by wikilinking to Main Page though; it was already linked each time it is referred to except for the section title - did you want the section heading to be Main Page content?--Nilfanion (talk) 11:11, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
- Well, that's minor, and doesn't really matter, as the other ones are fixed. Titoxd(?!? - help us) 19:05, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
- The table is in a div and the capitalization is consistent. However I left "Main Page content" as that as Main Page is always capitalized. Not sure what you meant by wikilinking to Main Page though; it was already linked each time it is referred to except for the section title - did you want the section heading to be Main Page content?--Nilfanion (talk) 11:11, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
General comments
editI'm prepared to do the admin side of things for the newsletter (its my idea, I should suffer the hatemail), the content is up to all of us to do though. The MOTM, in particular, and to a lesser extent SOTM (I doubt there will be much disagreement on it) should be done by simple voting.--Nilfanion (talk) 16:32, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
I put a reference to the newsletter on 2006AHS as well as on the WikiProject page. Hopefully that will generate enough interest for meaningful votes on the title and MotM for the first edition - unless we get a bit more interest I'm inclined to say we don't have a MotM for this edition.--Nilfanion (talk) 12:49, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Someone make up a star please? I'm not that kind of artistic person.--Nilfanion (talk) 21:43, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
- If you want, you can send the one I made to WP:PUA... or to Wikipedia:Wikiproject awards. I never know which page is the correct one... Titoxd(?!?) 05:03, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
Mailing
editSome questions:
- How do we interpret no preference on mailing in future? Do we spam them, send them a link or do not mention it? My preference is to give them the links.--Nilfanion (talk) 09:30, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
- New members: I think we should have a WPTC welcome message, including a link to the previous edition of the newsletter and to the mailing list.--Nilfanion (talk) 09:30, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
- That sounds good. I have given a welcome message to most new members, so we can use that format if you want. As to the first question, a link will do. Hurricanehink (talk) 13:33, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
- Yep, I agree - all I'm saying there is make a link to the previous edition and please sign the mailing list obvious in the welcome message.--Nilfanion (talk) 21:07, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
- That sounds good. I have given a welcome message to most new members, so we can use that format if you want. As to the first question, a link will do. Hurricanehink (talk) 13:33, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Linking
editWhat should we do about all the people who requested "link-me" or those who have not expressed a preference (IMO they should count as link-me's until explictly stated)? Should we make a similar message to what the Military History wikiproject use for their newsletter?--Nilfanion (talk) 18:53, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
- How does this sound:
"The July issue of the WikiProject Tropical cyclones newsletter is now available. If you wish to receive the full newsletter or no longer be informed of the release of future editions please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list." Any objections?--Nilfanion (talk) 21:33, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Quotes
editAny chance of getting a footnote from where the funny notes came from? I don't mean Cite.php or anything like that, something as subtle as <sup class="plainlinks">your diff here</sup> would work. Titoxd(?!?) 16:47, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
- Well, when they come from on wiki sure. However if its an IRC quote...--Nilfanion (talk) 21:40, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Feedback
editWell thats done. Let's not rush into work on number 2 just yet.... any problems?--Nilfanion (talk) 01:15, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
- Looks good. Perhaps adding a small box to credit whoever worked on the month's newsletter. NSLE (T C) at 01:16 UTC (2006-06-04)
I've archived all the discussion relating to the first edition to its talkpage.--Nilfanion (talk) 09:11, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Content for next edition
editNew Articles
edit- Storm articles.
- Non-storm articles.
Improved Articles
edit- FACs.
- A cut-down version of the assessment log containing raises to GA/A/FA quality.
- Recently featured content.
TFA
To-do List
edit- Cut-down version of the Project to do list.
- Wishlist FA's.
Other content
edit- Main page mentions: TFA or DYK.
Monthly Activity
editRequested articles
edit- Tropical Storm Debbie (1965)- Costliest U.S. hurricane that does not have an article ($126 million 2006 USD)
- Outflow (meteorology) - Needed
- Tropical cyclone deaths - I think an article covering overall deaths from tropical cyclones could be useful
Nominations for next edition
editNote: Voting will be done purely on this talk page as with any other straw poll, the email thingy didn't work.--Nilfanion (talk) 01:11, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
SotM
editMotM
editDraft of next edition
edit
The Hurricane Herald: 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics Special 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 your subscription to this newsletter, please visit the mailing list. This issue of The Hurricane Herald covers all project-related events from May 1–September 3, 2021. This edition's editors and authors are LightandDark2000, MarioJump83, HurricaneParrot, CodingCyclone, CycloneFootball71, HurricaneCovid, HurricaneEdgar, Jason Rees, and Destroyeraa (the MoTM for this issue). 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: Member of the month (Editor's Pick) – Nova Crystallis and Supportstorm In this edition of Hurricane Herald, I (MarioJump83, one of the Hurricane Herald editors) am going to award Nova Crystallis and Supportstorm with my pick. Both of them are second-generation of WPTC members who joined Wikipedia in 2011 and 2014, respectively. Their most notable work were off-wiki: Nova Crystallis created the WPTC Discord server in August 2018, an idea of Hurricane Noah's, and has since then administered the server to this day, including several server cleanups on the occasions of server disruptions. Supportstorm, meanwhile, is one of the most prolific track creator in all of WPTC, which led some WPTC members (Janm 7 in particular) to ask him for tracks, and as of now, he's actively converting track images from JPG into PNG versions, including the creation of tropical cyclones by year tracks. However, their on-wiki work deserve appreciation as well, since Nova Crystallis has created numerous GA-class WPAC pre-1980 typhoon articles pre-1980, in addition to actively creating GAs for WikiProject U.S. Roads, while Supportstorm takes their time to add their tracks into the articles once they're done and was once assisted in the creation of 1960s North Indian Ocean cyclone season articles back in 2013.
As we entered the summer and the start of the Northern Hemisphere tropical cyclone seasons, several users wrote new articles for the FT project and brought several to GA status.
If you are interested in writing new articles, promoting articles to GA, or helping with the FAC review process for the Global 2018 FT project, please reach out to Hurricane Noah, LightandDark2000, or any other member of the 2018 FT task force. WikiProject To-Do
Current assessment table As of this issue, there are 162 featured articles and 81 featured lists. There are 3 A-class articles, and 1121 good articles. There are only 173 B-class articles, perhaps because because most articles of that quality already passed a GA review. There are 668 C-class articles, 795 start-class articles, and 137 stub-class articles, with 1126 lists, and 0 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. Project Goals & Progress The following is the current progress on the four milestone goals set by the WikiProject as of this publishing. They can be found, updated, at the main WikiProject page.
Storm of the month and other tropical activity for May, June, July, and August SoTM for May: Cyclone Tauktae Tauktae originated from a tropical disturbance, which was first monitored by the India Meteorological Department on May 13. The disturbance drifted eastward and organized into a deep depression by May 14. The storm soon took a northward turn, continuing to gradually intensify, and the system strengthened into a cyclonic storm and was named Tauktae later that same day. Tauktae continued intensifying into May 15, reaching severe cyclonic storm status later that day. Tauktae began to parallel the coast of the Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, before rapidly intensifying into a very severe cyclonic storm, early on May 16. Early on May 17, Tauktae intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm, reaching its peak intensity soon afterward. Later that same day, Tauktae underwent an eyewall replacement cycle and weakened, before restrengthening as it neared the coast of Gujarat, making landfall soon afterward. After making landfall, Tauktae gradually weakened as it turned northeastward, moving further inland. On May 19, Tauktae weakened into a well-marked low-pressure area. Tauktae brought heavy rainfall and flash floods to areas along the coast of Kerala and on Lakshadweep. There were reports of heavy rain in the states of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra as well. Tauktae resulted in at least 169 deaths in India, and left another 81 people missing. There were also 5 deaths reported in Pakistan. The storm displaced over 200,000 people in Gujarat. The cyclone also caused widespread infrastructure and agricultural damage to the western coast of India. SoTM for June: Tropical Storm Claudette (2021) Claudette originated from a broad trough of low pressure over the Bay of Campeche on June 12, which moved erratically over the region for the next several days. Moving northward with little development due to unfavorable upper-level winds and land interaction, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) initiated advisories on it as a Potential Tropical Cyclone late on June 17, due to its imminent threat to land. The disturbance finally organized into Tropical Storm Claudette at 09:00 UTC on June 19 as it was over southeast Louisiana. Claudette weakened to a depression as it turned east-northeastward before moving through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Baroclinic forcing then caused Claudette to reintensify into a tropical storm over North Carolina early on June 21 before it accelerated into the Atlantic Ocean later that day. Soon afterward, it degenerated into a low-pressure trough on the same day, before being absorbed into another extratropical cyclone on the next day. Claudette produced gusty winds, flash flooding, and tornadoes across much of the Southeastern United States. Claudette overall caused minor impacts along the Gulf of Campeche’s coastline due to the system stalling in the region as an Invest and a Potential Tropical Cyclone. Impacts were most severe in Alabama and Mississippi, where heavy rains caused flash flooding. Several tornadoes in the states also caused severe damage, including an EF2 tornado that damaged a school and destroyed parts of a mobile home park in East Brewton, Alabama, injuring 20 people. At least 14 people died in Alabama due to the storm. Total economic losses across the United States exceeded $350 million. SoTM for July: Typhoon In-fa In-fa was first noted by the JTWC as an area of low pressure, located east of the Philippines on July 14. Favorable conditions helped the storm to intensify, becoming a tropical depression, two days later and a tropical storm on July 17, being assigned the name In-fa by the Japan Meteorological Agency. Located in a weak steering environment, the system struggled to organize under dry air and moderate wind shear before organizing further. It continued to move mostly westward, strengthening into a typhoon and deepening quickly. The storm struggled to organize itself significantly due to continuous dry air intrusions and its frequent motion changes. On July 21, it reached its peak intensity, with maximum 1-minute sustained winds of 175 km/h (110 mph), and 10-minute sustained winds of 150 km/h (90 mph) on the system. Nevertheless, the system reached its minimum barometric pressure of 950 hPa (28.05 inHg), three days later, after passing through the Ryukyu Islands. As it entered the East China Sea, marginal conditions started to take their toll on the system, with In-fa weakening steadily and slowly, until it made its consecutive landfalls over Putuo District of Zhoushan and Pinghu on July 25 and 26, respectively, as a tropical storm. For the next couple of days, the storm slowly moved inland while gradually weakening, before turning northward on July 29. Later that day, In-fa weakened into a remnant low over northern China. The remnants continued their northward trek for another couple of days, before dissipating near North Korea on July 31. Typhoon In-fa exacerbated and played a part in starting the 2021 Henan floods, a flooding event that killed at least 302 people and dealt upwards of 82 billion yuan (US$12.7 billion) in damage, while leaving at least 50 people missing. The typhoon itself killed 6 people and caused at least $2 billion in damages.
Member of the month (edition) – Destroyeraa Destroyeraa joined Wikipedia as an IP editor in 2018. His edits back then were sparse, mostly involving correcting typos and grammar articles in articles that he read. In 2019, he began editing more often, and he started editing articles on weather, especially those on storms in the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season. Although he contributed to those articles, his edits appeared to go unnoticed. On January 17, 2020 (January 18, UTC time), Destroyeraa created his user account on Wikipedia. In May of that year, he joined WPTC, though no one welcomed him for a month. Around this time, he co-created his first article, Tropical Storm Bertha (2020). He also began contributing larger amounts of contents to articles, in addition to creating new ones. In July 2020, Destroyeraa created an article for Hurricane Dolores (2015), which became his first GA later that month. By this time, he had become a regular WPTC editor and a key contributor, often updating the articles for various storms, such as Hurricane Isaias. As time went on, Destroyeraa contributed more content and built up his accomplishments. In October, he got Dolores's article posted to the Did You Know? section on the Main Page, and he got more articles promoted to GA status as well. He also started engaging in anti-vandalism activities, combatting multiple vandals and even some LTAs. However, he was blocked for a week for engaging in sockpuppetry. Nevertheless, after his block, Destroyeraa resumed contributing to various articles, and he also helped out with the workings of WPTC. In January 2021, Destroyeraa created the Cyclone Cup, a fun competition based on the WikiCup for WikiProject Weather users to participate in, in order to help encourage more article creation and the improvement of article quality. However, by March 2021, his school work caught up with him, and he was forced to take a WikiBreak for the next few months. In early April, Destroyeraa made the decision to retire from Wikipedia, due to a recent spate of drama and negative behavior on WPTC; however, after some off-wiki persuasion, he was persuaded to change his mind. In June 2021, Destroyeraa officially returned to WPTC. While he was a lot more inactive, largely due to summer assignments and real-life activities, he still contributed to Wikipedia from time to time. As of the publication of this newsletter, Destroyeraa has created 24 articles and brought five articles to GA status. He has become one of the most accomplished WPTC users who joined post-2020, and he plans on continuing his work in the future. We wish him the best of luck in his future on Wikipedia and in his studies at school, and we hope to continue seeing him around here. 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! Thank you, TropicalAnalystwx13, MarioJump83, DachshundLover82, and Cyclone Toby TropicalAnalystwx13 left Wikipedia in September 2020 without notice. He was one of the most prominent content contributors within the past decade, and he also welcomed some of the other users when they joined. Within the past few months, MarioJump83 went into semi-retirement, and both DachshundLover82 (previously known as Robloxsupersuperhappyface) and Cyclone Toby decided to fully retire from Wikipedia. These users made their decisions after suffering from a lack of interest in editing, a variety of real-life issues (including health issues for DachshundLover82), and also a lack of time. MarioJump83 was an invaluable editor who had made many edits and written multiple aritcles and GAs, and they also brought new users to WPTC, in addition to mentoring Chicdat. DachshundLover82 and Cyclone Toby were both seasoned article writers, having authored multiple articles and even promoting some articles to GA status. Each of these users were MoTM picks in recent issues of The Hurricane Herald. We wish them the best in life and hope to see them again someday.
From May 1 to September 3, a featured list, a featured article, and a featured topic were promoted: From the Main Page: Documents WikiProject related materials that have appeared on the main page from May 1–September 3, 2021 in chronological order.
There is an article currently nominated for featured article status: Article of the Month: 2018 Pacific hurricane season The 2018 Pacific hurricane season was one of the most active Pacific hurricane seasons on record, producing the highest accumulated cyclone energy value on record in the basin. The season saw 26 tropical cyclones, 23 named storms – the fourth-highest value recorded, tied with 1982, 13 hurricanes, and 10 major hurricanes, in addition to one unofficial subtropical storm. The season also featured eight landfalls, six of which occurred in Mexico. The season officially began on May 15 in the Eastern Pacific, and on June 1 in the Central Pacific; they both ended on November 30. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Pacific basin. However, tropical cyclone formation is possible at any time of the year, as illustrated when the first tropical depression formed on May 10, five days prior to the official start of the season. The accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) index for the 2018 Pacific hurricane season was around 316 units. Broadly speaking, ACE is a measure of the power of a tropical or subtropical storm multiplied by the length of time it existed. Therefore, a stronger storm with a longer duration contributes more to the seasonal total than several short-lived, weaker storms combined. 2018 had the highest total ACE of any Pacific hurricane season on record, having surpassed the 1992 Pacific hurricane season. Tropical Cyclone Anniversary: August 29, 2005 – Hurricane Katrina On Monday, August 29, 2005, at 6:10 a.m. CDT (11:10 UTC), Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Buras-Triumph, Louisiana, before making another landfall near the Louisiana–Mississippi border, a few hours later. The storm made landfall as a powerful high-end Category 3 hurricane, with maximum 1-minute sustained winds of 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) and a central pressure of 920 millibars (27 inches of mercury). The storm had weakened from its peak as a Category 5 hurricane, due to an eyewall replacement cycle. Katrina caused the levee system in New Orleans to fail, flooding the city, and causing enormous amounts of destruction. The floods also ended up killing many residents of the city. In all, Katrina killed 1,836 people and caused an estimated $125 billion (2005 USD) in damages, making the storm the costliest hurricane on record in the United States and also worldwide (tied with Hurricane Harvey, without factoring in inflation), and also making the storm one of the deadliest hurricanes to strike the United States in the 21st century. My Experience on Wikipedia, by LightandDark2000 I joined Wikipedia as an IP editor on May 1, 2009 (May 2, if you go by UTC time). Although a couple of users encouraged me to make an account early on, I decided to continue editing articles from my IPs for the next few years. I just felt that I wasn't ready for a user account yet. In 2010–11, I experienced hounding from another user on some TV show articles, which made me withdraw from those articles for a while and briefly consider quitting Wikipedia. I registered my user account in May 2012, but I spent another year on Wikipedia as an IP editor, before fully transitioning over to my account in the summer of 2013. I also created my first articles in 2012. I pretty much grew used to using my account and decided to stick with it. :) In March 2014, I received an invitation to join WPTC, which I obviously accepted. I had considered myself a member of WPTC since 2012, but I didn't really know about WikiProjects, much less how to join them (otherwise, I would've joined much earlier). Since 2010, I had regularly contributed to articles. While I didn't have a solid grasp of how to cite sources at the time, I managed to contribute a good a mount of content, in addition to cleaning up spelling and grammar errors. As time went on, my article-writing skills improved, and so did my knowledge of Wikipedia policies. I will admit: I did have difficulty at times, and my temper got me into trouble from time to time. However, these mistakes made me more determined to better myself, and avoid the same missteps in the future. I also engaged in anti-vandalism activities quite often, which brought me into conflict with IPhonehurricane95 and his copycap, Lightning Sabre, whom can be considered the two most vicious LTAs that WPTC has had to deal with. In late 2014–early 2017, I largely moved out of WPTC into MILHIST, due to my interest in the recent conflicts involving the terrorist organization ISIL in the Middle East. I contributed a lot to those articles, though I still contributed to tropical cyclone and other weather articles from time to time. I had made some friends on-wiki by this point, including Master of Time and EkoGraf. In early April 2016, a small number of users were fed up with some of my edits and decided to launch a witchhunt in order to get me topic banned (or even completely banned, for some). While the case was eventually dropped, it was very disturbing to me and made me consider permanently retiring from Wikipedia. In August 2016, the combination of college work and stress led me to take a 3-month WikiBreak. I pulled a full exit and considered never coming back. However, I enjoyed contributing to Wikipedia too much (hehe), and during my winter break, I returned and resumed editing. In 2017, my editing activity gradually ramped up, and in September 2017, I returned to WPTC, following the devastating landfall of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. During my time in MILHIST, my citation skills had greatly improved. Once again, I regularly contributed to tropical cyclone articles, as well as articles on other storms and natural disasters, which I greatly enjoyed. I also observed the peak of the hyperactive 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, including the devastating landfalls of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. However, as I had noted before in some previous Op-Eds and elsewhere, I noticed that WPTC had stagnated, and had serious manpower issues. As we remained a rather small WikiProject for a while, it grew a little depressing at times. In December 2017, a combination of poor habits and overworking myself took its toll on my health and I suffered a severe burnout, and I was forced to leave Wikipedia until late January 2018 (a mistake I intend never to repeat). In 2017 through 2019, WPTC's membership slowly grew in size, a few of whom became very accomplished article-writers over time, and I met Hurricane Noah and others. I eventually acquired a number of user rights in order to help with my work on Wikipedia, including Pending Changes Reviewer, Rollbacker, and Page Mover. I continued tracking tropical cyclones and regularly contributing to those articles through the summer of 2019. However, in September 2019, I took an extended series of WikiBreaks through mid-2020, due to college work and real-life activities. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic went global, and lockdowns ensued. During this time, WPTC began seeing an explosion of new editors, though I remained inactive on-wiki for another several months and missed out the first part of this growth (much to my regret). In July 2020, I finally returned to Wikipedia, during the appearance of Comet NEOWISE and the impending landfall of Hurricane Isaias. Through the remainder of the year, I gradually increased my contributions, though I had to cut back on my editing activity until December, due to college. During this period, I met some of our new WPTC members, including Destroyeraa, HurricaneCovid, CodingCyclone, CycloneFootball71, and AC5230, and I made new friends, growing extremely close to some of them. I became more involved in WPTC's work, and I also helped out some of my fellow users when they needed it. In January 2021, I joined Destroyeraa's Cyclone Cup, a competition he made based on Wikipedia's WikiCup. In the past several months, I've witnessed and experienced several tumultuous episodes on WPTC, but I toughed them out. I continued contributing to various articles during this time, and I also got my first GA, Tropical Storm Rolf, with assistance from Destroyeraa. (Yeah, I didn't have the confidence to attempt a GA before then, even though I probably had the skills to do so since 2017.) In the summer of 2021, my activities began to wane once again, as I turned my attention more towards real-life activities, taking a break, and preparing for the upcoming school year. As of this writing, I am currently in college classes once again. I probably won't remain a regular editor for more than a year (since I will be searching for employment by then) and I will likely be forced into permanent Semi-Retirement then, but truly I appreciate my time here. I've created at least 26 articles and I have 3 GAs, and I'm looking forward to more content creation in the near future. In closing, I'd like to thank my fellow editors for everything. When I first joined, I was unaware of the existence of this WikiProject (much less WikiProjects in general). I've had a rough start, but I've grown a lot during my time here, both as a writer and as a person. (I have to say, my time editing on Wikipedia really improved my writing and typing skills, which really helped me in school.) I've also made some good friends here. WPTC was also kind enough of a WikiProject for me to feel comfortable retreating to during times of trouble. I've experienced a lot here during my 12 years on Wikipedia, and looking back on it, it was worthwhile. Thank you all for everything, ~ LightandDark2000 🌀 (talk) My experience on Wikipedia, by codingcyclone I first joined Wikipedia on May 15, 2020. It's been over a year since then, and I've definitely learned a lot and will continue to learn more about contributing here. When I first joined, I never thought that I would be where I am today. To those who have given me advice and support, and been all around lovely people throughout my journey here (you know who you are), to name a few, hehe, your generosity means a lot to me. You have seen me at my best and at my worst, and you've been there for me through it all. You're all very sweet. codingcyclone advisories/damages 05:59, 26 June 2021 (UTC) To start off, my wikistory isn't all that interesting, and I'm not as experienced or accomplished as the other members of WPTC, but I've been wanting to write an opinion piece, so here we go. I made my first edit the day I joined. I didn't understand the concept of WP:BOLD, so my first few edits were to talk pages to discuss what to do. I also did not know how to sign my posts. LOL. I was a bit naïve, and in retrospect, I did some stuff prematurely. Luckily, I never did anything that was too damaging to the encyclopedia at this stage. At this point, my 'better' edits were mainly typo correcting, and copyediting. My activity was sparse due to IRL stuff from May to September 2020, but by October 2020, I had found out about Twinkle, and was making more edits, mostly to revert vandalism. This led to a minor dispute with an IP after I reverted their edit, which, to me, looked like blanking. I was wrong in classifying it as vandalism, and I violated WP:DEADHORSE when replying a month later. I do think that both the IP and I were wrong in some respects, but they were certainly more experienced than me, and I was definitely mistaken in trying to continue the argument. I continued to fix typos and revert vandalism, until I saw all the neglected tropical cyclone season timelines on Wikipedia, and I started to fix them. I created Timeline of the 2013 North Indian Ocean cyclone season (very incomplete still, I'll get to it soon™) and brought Timeline of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season to FLC (still needs a bit of work, though), leading to its promotion and my first little bronze star. I did my first GAR and helped out with the GANs of Tropical Storm Fay (2020) and Hurricane Paulette. I also helped start off 2021's Atlantic and Eastern Pacific timelines, and actually guided a new editor a bit. As of this edition's release, I'm helping the 2018 FT with timelines for the Southern Hemisphere. My activity is starting to lessen, since I'm going to be kind of busy IRL and I'm trying to manage my life more efficiently and other personal stuff, but I won't forget about Wikipedia. I'll always be here, fixing the timelines up. Semi-retirement, by MarioJump83 Hi! MarioJump83 here. You know by this point that I'm semi-retired, and you can see the farewell message above by fellow members. I won't give much clarification on why I have semi-retired in this newsletter, but I'm not fully gone just yet. As I am making this piece, I have removed the DachshundLover82 farewell message which I made by myself as they are strongly reconsidering retirement and became much more active recently, as well as changing some of my farewell message, but as you can tell from these, retirement isn't a sure thing. You can still edit anywhere at any time. I've got plans to work on Wikipedia in my semi-retirement like Cyclone Cup stuff and Spoken Wikipedia but here's a catch with a little bit of clarification (that's why I said "I won't give much" - that means I still give some clarification eventually): I feel much more restricted than I have ever was since I got my laptop on September 2020 (which led to the peak of my activity next month). I tried to sleep by day and night, but my sleep attempts keep getting disturbed thus leading to lack of sleep. And many more I won't tell for now - there's a lot more than this, but it is more private. I'll can give more about why I semi-retired, but only on WPTC IRC or contact me directly on Discord (you can search SMB99thx on WPTC Discord). By the way, this will be my final OP on Hurricane Herald, but probably not the final edit on Hurricane Herald yet. Thanks for giving me support, though, for helping me cope through mental stresses for all this time, which my family didn't give much thought about it, if not truly helping at all, since they are all about their business, AND as well as trying to get me regain interest on Wikipedia, but I don't feel like I'm going to come back on full speed this year. Not sure about next year, though. Tropical cyclone infobox images, by LightandDark2000 In 2016–2018, WPTC experienced a serious of vicious edit wars involving the main infobox image on numerous tropical cyclone articles, the most vicious of which was the Hurricane Ophelia (2017) image war. Most of them were visible satellite images Vs. Infrared satellite (IR) images that were slightly closer to the peak. This series of edit wars affected numerous articles, and they continued until the edit-warriors either stopped with their attempts at changing images or ended up getting blocked (most of those blocked were IPs who continued the edit wars). In August 2020–August 2021, a new series of edit-wars erupted over tropical cyclone infobox images once again. The largest of these newer wars was one that involved Hurricane Delta's infobox image. While many of those conflicts involved the same issue of visible satellite image Vs. IR images seen in the 2016–2018 edit wars, the newer wars also included competing visible satellite images that editors thought looked better than the original, for one reason or another. I have seen these edit wars affect multiple articles (though not as many as the older wars from a few years ago), but after all this warring, multiple WPTC users have grown fed up with it, including me. After various discussions on- and off-wiki, as a project, we have successfully moved more towards discussions first instead of edit-warring, though image-warring still crops up occasionally. First of all, I will say this to those who have participated in the image wars, and those who are inclined to do so in the future: knock it off. Consider this your only warning: If you have image-warred and you have been told to stop, if you do it again, there will be consequences. It does not matter who "started it" or who was "wrong". Edit-warring, especially image wars, are completely unacceptable. Not only are they unacceptable, but they are extremely stupid. WPTC has a set of image policies that dictate what kinds of images should be used in the infoboxes of tropical cyclone articles. While there is some wiggle room for interpretation, these guidelines should be followed regarding the infobox images. You can see the linked page for the image policies themselves, but I will list the most important points here:
Please consider these guidelines in the future regarding tropical cyclone images and any changes made to them. Editing on Wikipedia should not be stressful or filled with conflict. Instead, editing should be productive, and even enjoyable. We should all keep a level head and take a mature approach in all matters. Hopefully, together, we can make these image wars a thing of the past. ~ LightandDark2000 🌀 (talk) |
Wikipedia:WikiProject Tropical cyclones/Newsletter/Current
editI created Wikipedia:WikiProject Tropical cyclones/Newsletter/Current and updated it with March 2007's newsletter (the most recent one I could find). The page was created so that Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Newsletters doesn't have to be continuously updated. If the project plans to start with new newsletters, just paste the entire newsletter on this page and it will update it on the main newsletters' page. --Nehrams2020 (talk) 00:23, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
- I updated it with the latest issue (July). Juliancolton Tropical Cyclone 00:28, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
new edition
editi produced a new edition, formally, number 31. Anirudh Emani (talk) 08:41, 10 September 2010 (UTC)