"Simulated" Storm Satellite Images

[TheAustinMan]

Since I had bit a free time this morning I thought it would be neat to depict satellite images of tropical cyclones before the advent of satellite imagery based on weather maps and observational data. As a result I pulled up the GIMP image editor and made pseudo-satellite images of Hurricane Hazel and the 1924 Cuba hurricane, in the style of GFS IR brightness models.

Hurricane Hazel:


1924 Cuba hurricane:

[artist]

Nice

[supercane4867]

Are you able make one for the 1935 Labor day Hurricane?

[Hurricane_Luis]

Also is there any way of making them more clearer or de-pixelate the images. Otherwise they are really good. I wonder if Wikipedia would accept them.

[HURAKAN]

very interesting, could you explain the process? It would be interesting to do some of the storms in the early 1960s and make a comparison with the early TIROS images

[Nederlander]

Very cool. I think the Galveston storm of 1900 would be interesting too.

[Big O]

I would love to see Beulah ('67) and Carla ('61).

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

I would love to see Beulah ('67) and Carla ('61).

I actually own a book, The Killer Storms (1970) by Gary Jennings, which has both a B&W satellite photograph of Hurricane Beulah 1967 in the GOM as well as a B&W radar scoop (from Brownsville) image of the storm just prior to landfall. I could scan the images and post them, if you'd like?

[Iune]

Hurricane Beulah:

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

Yup, that is the sat image I have.

[Kalrany]

Very cool. I think the Galveston storm of 1900 would be interesting too.

Agreed. If you are taking requests......

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

Very cool. I think the Galveston storm of 1900 would be interesting too.

agreed

[HurricaneEdouard]

So I've been toying around with Photoshop lately, attempting to create/simulate the most intense-looking hurricane of all time. Combining and heavily editing Super Typhoon Tip, Cyclone Monica, Super Typhoon Zeb, Super Typhoon Cimaron, Super Typhoon Haiyan, Super Typhoon Gay and Hurricane Gilbert with an eye as tiny as Wilma's, I came up with this:



867mb in the western Caribbean might seem like a stretch, but plausible, given the fact that Atlantic ambient pressures can resemble the WPac (e.g. October 2005), and of course we have seen several storms that potentially dropped <870mb in the WPac.

Here's what I imagine the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane might have looked like. Technically, this is a fictional storm hitting Key West, but it's similar enough; quite challenging, due to the lack of precedence of <900mb micromonsters. I used Monica, Wilma and Iris as inspiration.



Also, slightly off-topic but one thing I was wondering when making that last one was whether a large sub-900mb hurricane is possible in the Florida Straits. With the Labor Day storm, being smaller than Charley, land interaction with Cuba or Florida was likely so minimal as to not impact intensity at all. The 1919 Atlantic-Gulf storm indicates a large sub-930mb hurricane is possible over the Dry Tortugas, but would land interaction impede intensification to sub-900mb over the Keys? Cuba is narrow, and Katrina strengthening over the Everglades is evidence enough of south Florida not being much of an issue, but I would still think Cuba could cut off southerly inflow and prevent a hurricane of Gilbert's size and intensity existing over the Keys.

[xtyphooncyclonex]

Super Typhoon Choi Wan (Ramon)

Images were modified versions of TS Olivia 2012, STY Higos 2002 and STY Hagupit 2014

Used Paint.NET 4

Full article here: http://hypotheticalhurricanes.wikia.com/wiki/Typhoon_Choi-wan_(2015,_Xtyphooncyclonex)

[tatertawt24]

So I've been toying around with Photoshop lately, attempting to create/simulate the most intense-looking hurricane of all time. Combining and heavily editing Super Typhoon Tip, Cyclone Monica, Super Typhoon Zeb, Super Typhoon Cimaron, Super Typhoon Haiyan, Super Typhoon Gay and Hurricane Gilbert with an eye as tiny as Wilma's, I came up with this:

http://imgur.com/5CJRaFq.png

867mb in the western Caribbean might seem like a stretch, but plausible, given the fact that Atlantic ambient pressures can resemble the WPac (e.g. October 2005), and of course we have seen several storms that potentially dropped <870mb in the WPac.

Here's what I imagine the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane might have looked like. Technically, this is a fictional storm hitting Key West, but it's similar enough; quite challenging, due to the lack of precedence of <900mb micromonsters. I used Monica, Wilma and Iris as inspiration.

http://imgur.com/1FebVcu.png

Also, slightly off-topic but one thing I was wondering when making that last one was whether a large sub-900mb hurricane is possible in the Florida Straits. With the Labor Day storm, being smaller than Charley, land interaction with Cuba or Florida was likely so minimal as to not impact intensity at all. The 1919 Atlantic-Gulf storm indicates a large sub-930mb hurricane is possible over the Dry Tortugas, but would land interaction impede intensification to sub-900mb over the Keys? Cuba is narrow, and Katrina strengthening over the Everglades is evidence enough of south Florida not being much of an issue, but I would still think Cuba could cut off southerly inflow and prevent a hurricane of Gilbert's size and intensity existing over the Keys.

This. Is. Awesome. idk if the CDO for 1935 would have been that extensive, though. I like that you used Gilbert's eye, since they apparently were the exact same size at peak intensity.

Edit: Actually, now that I look at it closer, I'm realizing that it's just the closeness of the picture making it look bigger. So, yep, basically perfect.

[Ptarmigan]

Cool stuff. I can imagine what past hurricanes looked like on satellite.

[HurricaneEdouard]

This. Is. Awesome. idk if the CDO for 1935 would have been that extensive, though. I like that you used Gilbert's eye, since they apparently were the exact same size at peak intensity.

Edit: Actually, now that I look at it closer, I'm realizing that it's just the closeness of the picture making it look bigger. So, yep, basically perfect.

Thanks for the kind words!

And yeah, it's easy to think it looks bigger than the map I superimposed would suggest, and that's because right now it does look too much like a medium-sized storm that I've shrunken down - which is pretty much what it is - without actually making it look like a micromonster (e.g. the kind of 'splotchy' outer bands you see in Iris, or Tracy). Still a work in progress.

Also, if anyone has any requests, I'd be more than happy to oblige! Photoshopping hurricanes is my favourite way to kill time, sadly enough.

[beoumont]

Cuba is narrow, and Katrina strengthening over the Everglades is evidence enough of south Florida not being much of an issue, but I would still think Cuba could cut off southerly inflow and prevent a hurricane of Gilbert's size and intensity existing over the Keys.

Many storms have intensified passing through the Fl. Straits; Rita, 2005, being a recent example.

Another example of a deepening system with its center on land was Elena in 1985. During its passage over the length of Cuber (longitudes 74 through 83.5) the central pressure dropped 12 mb.



Date: 28 AUG-04 SEP 1985
Hurricane-3 ELENA
ADV LAT LON TIME WIND PR STAT
1 19.80 -74.00 08/28/00Z 30 1012 TROPICAL DEPRESSION
2 20.80 -76.00 08/28/06Z 30 1010 TROPICAL DEPRESSION
3 21.80 -78.00 08/28/12Z 30 1008 TROPICAL DEPRESSION
4 22.60 -80.00 08/28/18Z 45 1006 TROPICAL STORM
5 23.20 -81.80 08/29/00Z 50 1004 TROPICAL STORM
6 24.00 -83.50 08/29/06Z 55 1000 TROPICAL STORM
7 25.00 -85.00 08/29/12Z 65 994 HURRICANE-1
8 25.90 -85.80 08/29/18Z 70 990 HURRICANE-1

[HurricaneEdouard]

Many storms have intensified passing through the Fl. Straits; Rita, 2005, being a recent example.

Another example of a deepening system with its center on land was Elena in 1985. During its passage over the length of Cuber (longitudes 74 through 83.5) the central pressure dropped 12 mb.



Date: 28 AUG-04 SEP 1985
Hurricane-3 ELENA
ADV LAT LON TIME WIND PR STAT
1 19.80 -74.00 08/28/00Z 30 1012 TROPICAL DEPRESSION
2 20.80 -76.00 08/28/06Z 30 1010 TROPICAL DEPRESSION
3 21.80 -78.00 08/28/12Z 30 1008 TROPICAL DEPRESSION
4 22.60 -80.00 08/28/18Z 45 1006 TROPICAL STORM
5 23.20 -81.80 08/29/00Z 50 1004 TROPICAL STORM
6 24.00 -83.50 08/29/06Z 55 1000 TROPICAL STORM
7 25.00 -85.00 08/29/12Z 65 994 HURRICANE-1
8 25.90 -85.80 08/29/18Z 70 990 HURRICANE-1

Intensified, of course, but would intensification to sub-900 mb while also being a very large hurricane be possible? The most intense hurricanes in the Straits that I can find are the 1935 and 1919 Florida Keys hurricanes, but the former was around Iris-sized, and even the latter, while very large overall, had a fairly small RMW. And I suspect the proximity of land (including some rugged terrain to the southeast) could still allow for a strong and large Category 4 hurricane (as with the Atlantic-Gulf Hurricane), but perhaps not a sub-900 mb storm of similar size.

I don't know. Haiyan at 8.0 with half of its CDO over land, and Mitch maintaining Category 5 intensity very close to mountainous Honduras, makes me think it's possible (even if these examples both intensified while further away from land), but somehow, when I superimpose a map over Gilbert to make it look like it's in the Straits, it doesn't look like it has any room to breathe so to speak, making me wonder if storms as powerful as Haiyan or the Labor Day Hurricane are only possible in the Keys if they're micromonsters.

[galaxy401]

Yeah it's certainly fascinating what storms in the pre-satellite era looked like. Another one I'm interested in is Ethel 1960 in how it quickly intensified and weakened (though the cat 5 intensity may have been overdone).