The Gulf of Sigo and the Caribbean Sea are arguably one of the most hydrological complexes in the world. All this should be "attributed" to a few currents that are invisible to the naked eye. It can be said that this sea area is also the most complex sea area in the world!

There are four major currents in this area. One is the Guyana Current, which enters from the southeastern side of the Caribbean Sea and flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The second is the North Equatorial Current, which enters the northern part of the Little Andrés Islands, and eventually enters the Gulf of Mexico. The third is the Gulf Stream that flows from the Gulf of Mexico, which passes through the Florida Strait and turns northward, eventually transforming into the North Atlantic Current near the island of Newfoundland. Fourth, along the east coast of the continental United States, the Labrador cold snap ends in the northern waters of the Bahamas. In addition to this, to the east, there is also an Andrés Warm Current, which separates from the North Equatorial Warm Current. In other words, there are a total of five currents affecting this area.

Of these currents, the most impactful is definitely the Labrador Snap, which is the only one. And it is this cold snap that causes the hydrological situation in this area to be unusually complex. On the surface, the temperature of the warm current is only a few degrees higher than that of the surrounding seawater, and the cold current is only a few degrees lower. But it is precisely these temperature differences that have a huge impact on the climate. For example, the average annual rainfall in the Gulf of Mexico is around 1,300 mm, and the same ::: rainfall on the planet is higher than that. Similarly, the East Coast of the United States has unusually cold winters, which are considered low at the same latitude, and are also affected by the Labrador cold snap. And in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is produced. And frequented the Caribbean. Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean in the eastern United States are also a combination of these meteorological factors. Hurricanes occur in times of peace, as well as in times of war, and they have a huge impact on all human activities, including war. And every year from June to November, it is the peak season for hurricanes!

Before the outbreak of the Great War, there was no systematic meteorology, although the influence of meteorology on the place of military operations was quite obvious at that time, and some people had proposed a systematic study of meteorological changes, but no country really developed systematic meteorology. The impetus of war is incomparable to the normal state of development in peacetime, and it is precisely because of the increasing influence of weather on war and the urgent need of war. Truly, systematic meteorology was born during the Great War. At that time, the navy of each country must have paid the most attention to meteorology.

In '24, before the United States entered the war, the Imperial Navy established the Elephant Research Institute, which was initially headed by an agency under the General Staff of the Naval Command, and by the beginning of '26 as the meteorological problems became more and more serious. This department is already directly accountable to the Chief of the General Staff of the Navy. At that time, the main research was still focused on practical applications, such as how to systematically analyze meteorological changes, and how to detect and judge meteorological changes, which included both theoretical analysis and research, as well as a lot of practical work, such as. It was this department that first proposed the development of a weather radar, and it received the full support of the Navy.

However, the problem is that the comprehensive and in-depth study of meteorology at that time has just begun, and the most important theoretical system is still being perfected and summarized. In addition, the means of observing meteorological changes, especially those in the oceans, are quite limited, and the accuracy of meteorological forecasts will not be much higher. Sometimes, in order to assist in the planning of campaign operations, dozens of meteorologists are even gathered. But the conclusions reached by these scientists are often contradictory. For example, during the attack on the Australian continent. The Navy organized more than 30 scholars specializing in the study of marine climate change, hoping that they would be able to predict the meteorological changes in the future, so that the landing time could be arranged at the most favorable time, but as a result, these 30 or so scholars came up with six conclusions, and they were completely different, or even completely contradictory, so that the Navy Command almost wanted to hold these scholars accountable and find out where so much research funds provided by the Navy every year were spent!

In 28 years, the situation still hasn't changed much. In fact, the main factor restricting the accuracy of climate change prediction was the lack of effective observation and detection methods at that time. Whether it is a meteorological reconnaissance aircraft or a weather radar that appeared at the end of 27, in fact, it can only detect meteorological changes and movements of +|, and it is impossible to detect meteorological changes thousands of kilometers or even thousands of kilometers away. At that time, theoretical research had proved that meteorological change was a global problem, and many major meteorological changes were caused by some factors on the other side of the world, thousands of kilometers, or even on the other side of the world. At that time, there was also the "butterfly theory", which believed that meteorological changes were unpredictable. Whether this theory is correct or not, it ultimately illustrates the fact that at the time, it was extremely difficult, even a matter of luck, to accurately predict what the weather would be like in a few days.

Because of this, generals who command armies often deliberately ignore weather factors that should not be ignored in the first place. Even in situations where weather must be taken into account, the commander minimizes the time it takes to make a prediction. This not only reduces the difficulty of forecasting, but also increases the uncontrollable factors of combat operations, thereby increasing the likelihood of failure of combat operations. Throughout the Great War, there were numerous battles that failed due to weather factors. If nothing else, on the continental battlefield, it was because the weather changed beyond the predicted range, and as a result, it took more than a year to defeat Russia, resulting in hundreds of thousands of imperial soldiers, as well as many more German officers and soldiers, and the officers and soldiers of the Persian Empire were bloodied. Similarly, on the battlefield of the seas, the impact of weather changes is extremely severe. In the Pacific Theater, there were several battles that were lost or terminated due to sudden changes in the weather.

Tan Renhao has not suffered from God, and in the Pacific Theater, there have been at least two campaign operations that had unexpected results due to weather factors. But the problem is that Tan Renhao is not a meteorologist, he only knows extremely superficial meteorological knowledge (this is the common sense necessary for generals), and it is impossible to make accurate predictions of weather changes. It is precisely because he has suffered several losses before that Tan Renhao always has an attitude of incomplete trust in the weather forecast. At that time, there were not many generals who really took the weather forecast to heart, and at most they only determined the period of the campaign when planning the campaign

There is bad weather, and ordinary weather changes, often do not suffer

Maybe it was because Tan Renhao didn't pay much attention to the weather forecast, and as a result, he was punished by God again. But he can't be blamed for this, but he can only blame God for not being beautiful, or for the lack of professional ability of those weather forecasting officers and their failure to provide accurate forecasts.

Before returning to the fleet, Tan Renhao got the weather forecast for the next five days, which was the longest "accurate" weather forecast that could be made at that time. And this so-called "accurate" does not mean that it is completely accurate, but that the probability of predicted weather conditions is more than 80%. In other words, there is a 20% chance that other weather conditions may occur, including bad weather conditions!

With this report, Tan Renhao directly left the weather factor behind. According to the fleet's ability to withstand weather changes at that time, as long as there was no bad weather, whether it was rain or sunny, it could continue to fight, and the impact should not be very large, at most it would only reduce combat efficiency. However, the weather that occurred this time was definitely not as simple as reducing the combat efficiency.

On the night of the 23rd, when Tan Renhao began to organize aviation combat operations, he received a telegram from Lei Shaoqing. This is a weather change report that is reported by a weather station located in Dominica. At the time of the telegram from the weather station, a hurricane from the middle of the Atlantic was approaching Dominica at a speed of more than 80 knots, and the speed was still <=. At the time of reaching the southern seas of Haiti. The movement speed may exceed 100, and the wind speed in its center will exceed 150. According to the current land classification, this is definitely a hurricane above level 12! And, judging by the conditions at the time, this weather forecast was so detailed that it could not have been more detailed.

After receiving the telegram, Tan Renhao was a little unconvinced. After all, he has been "deceived" many times. However, it soon occurred to him that when the lateral wind speed exceeded 25 knots, it would be difficult for carrier-based aircraft to take off, and it would be difficult to land after 30 knots. That is, the Hurricane does not need to reach the operational zone of the fleet, it only needs to be close to it. It will make it impossible for the fleet to make sorties of aircraft, and thus to participate in combat operations. Considering the seriousness of the problem, Tan Renhao immediately ordered the fleet to accelerate westward, moving the operational area nearly 100 miles westward, hoping to avoid a hurricane. However, he seriously underestimated the power and scope of the hurricane, 100 miles, for a hurricane of 12 or higher. This distance is indeed too short! 12dc7de

By about 12 o'clock on the 23rd, the hurricane had reached the central part of the Caribbean Sea, and its speed was much faster than predicted, when the hurricane from the side of a shore-based long-range meteorological reconnaissance plane moved at a speed of 105, and according to the forecast, the speed of the hurricane at this time was only 90 knots at most. By about five o'clock in the morning of the 24th, the hurricane had reached the vicinity of the fleet combat sea area set by Tan Renhao before, and its speed of movement exceeded 120. The wind speed at the center exceeded 170. With the combined action of several warm currents in the Caribbean Sea, the hurricane is like a mad beast, rampaging through this narrow sea, and no human force can intercept it, nor can it turn it around! 12dc7de

At that time, the custom of the sea area where the fleet was located was already approaching 20 knots. Tan Renhao had already ordered the fleet to continue sailing westward at full speed, and to arrange for the reconnaissance planes to take off before half past five, fifteen minutes earlier than planned. Immediately afterward, the fighters that provided cover for the 3rd Task Force also took off. After the departure of the fighters from the aircraft carrier, the custom on the sea reached 25 knots. Basically approaching the limit of the take-off of carrier-based aircraft. And at this time, it was simply impossible to determine whether the Atlantic Fleet was in the port of San Diego or not. Or somewhere else, it would be impossible for Tan Renhao to let the bombers with bombs and torpedoes leave the aircraft carrier early, and only let the fleet avoid the hurricane as much as possible. 12dc7de

Compared with the speed of the hurricane's movement, the fleet's speed of 30 knots is too high, that is, when Tan Renhao sent a message to Chang Zhixin that he could not send bombers to participate in the battle for the time being, and then the third task force engaged in an artillery battle with the American fleet, the fleet had reached about 180 miles southwest of Jamaica Island, and was still sailing westward. If it sails a few dozen nautical miles, the fleet will leave the range of the attack on the port of San Diego, and it is very likely that the reconnaissance planes and fighters that departed before will not return to the fleet.

Just when Tan Renhao was in a hurry, the fleet was caught up by a hurricane. To be precise, it was severely affected by the hurricane, because the center of the hurricane storm was actually in the southeastern waters of Jamaica Island, dozens of nautical miles away from the fleet. In winds of more than 75 knots, the aircraft carrier appeared vulnerable. Fortunately, the aircraft carriers of several task forces at that time were replaced with "hurricane bows", that is, fully enclosed bows, and the load-bearing structure between the flight deck and the hangar was strengthened several times before going to the Atlantic Ocean to fight. The days of escort battleships are not easy, heavy cruisers are a little better, after all, they are heavier, they must be more stable, and the destroyers are like boats in the stormy waves, which will be pushed to the top of the waves at one time, and then fall to the bottom of the waves, and even make people feel that these "small boats" may be swallowed up by the waves at any time!

Just when Tan Renhao was almost desperate, the hurricane was affected by a high-pressure air mass over the Central American continent, and its speed began to slow down, and at the same time it turned northwestward. In other words, the hurricane "spared" the fleet of the Imperial Navy, in the eyes of Tan Renhao and others, it was probably because God had opened his eyes and didn't want to torture them anymore, while some of the more superstitious officers and soldiers thought that God had heard their begging! 12dc7de

As the hurricane turned, the fleet also turned to the southeast, trying to get out of the hurricane's area as soon as possible, and get out of the hurricane's area before the planes sent out ran out of fuel. Just when Tan Renhao breathed a sigh of relief, the staff officer's report made his heart fall to the bottom, when it was hit by a hurricane, all the antennas of long-range stations on the flagship were destroyed, and the situation on other warships was not much better, that is, Tan Renhao, as well as other fleets, temporarily lost the ability to communicate with the outside world!