'Roaring Forties' hurting Malaysian MH370 debris search operation

Heavy rain, strong winds and low clouds once again stopped search operation of the Malaysian MH370 debris in the southern Indian Ocean on Thursday. This area where search is going on lies around 40° latitude which is famous for strong westerly winds named as Roaring Forties. Pressure and temperatures change rapidly here, driving the winds frequently over 50 to 70 kmph, giving rise to storms.

According to a report published in the Washington Post which quoted Roger Badham, an Australian marine meteorologist, Friday weather would be a lot better but it will become bad for continuing the search operation during the weekend.

“The series of weather fronts expected to pass over the search area starting Sunday mean more low cloud cover, rain, winds reaching up to 30 to 40 knots, waves of up to 30 feet high and more whitecaps, making it much harder to spot debris, really, when you look at things in the next seven days, today afternoon and tomorrow are by far the best conditions we will see until the following weekend,” said Badham.

Searchers aboard planes and ships on Thursday failed to find any of the 122 objects seen in satellite images as possible debris from the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said all 11 planes that headed for the search area in the southern Indian Ocean earlier Thursday were returning to Perth.

 

Photograph by NASA