Bermuda and its weather have received international exposure in an professional journal.

The monthly magazine Weather, which is published by the Royal Meteorological Society and is read worldwide, carried a cover photograph plus a four-page article entitled Hurricanes Hardly Happen by local meteorologist H.R. (Jimmy) James in its November issue.

The photo of stunning cloud formations on the front cover was taken by Mr.

James from his balcony in Bailey's Bay shortly before sunset on October 20, 1996 when Hurricane Lili was passing the Island.

A second photo accompanying the article features similar cloud formations a short time later.

"The photographs were pure luck. I took them from my balcony which faces Dockyard and just guessed the exposures and everything. It's amazing that they came out,'' said Mr. James.

"When I saw them I thought this would be a good thing to write an article around.'' The article features a brief description of the Island but focuses on the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season which featured "above normal hurricane activity'' and "a much above normal number of intense hurricanes''.

There were 13 tropical storms during the season and nine became hurricanes, Six of these hit category three or higher on the hurricane scale.

Mr. James wrote briefly about Hurricane Edouard and Hurricane Hortense but devoted more space to the subject of his photographs, Hurricane Lili.

"Lili gave us the biggest scare because on October 18 the National Hurricane Center in Miami was predicting the storm centre to pass within 54 kilometres of Bermuda'' The storm later changed track "sparing Bermuda from a great deal of damage and disruption'', he noted.

The article also touches on the meteorological office at Bermuda International Airport and the challenges the team of 12 face working on such an isolated island.

"There are no meteorological stations immediately upwind to give the forecaster much warning or any detail of what system may be approaching and, being far from the major shipping lanes, ship reports are not very frequent,'' wrote Mr. James.

"Satellite imagery and the airfield's weather radar are thus critical to any forecasting decisions.'' Mr. James qualified as a meteorologist in 1969 while he was serving in the Royal Navy.

Upon leaving the army, he went to work on North Atlantic weather ships and then teamed up Serco Aviation Services Inc. He was stationed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates before joining the Bermuda Weather Service in April, 1996.

HURRICANE SUNSET -- Local meteorologist H.R. (Jimmy) James took this sunset picture from his balcony in Bailey's Bay shortly before sunset on October 20, 1996 when Hurricane Lili was passing the Island.

H.R. (Jimmy) James