Hurricane Charley Video
Moderator: S2k Moderators
Forum rules
The posts in this forum are NOT official forecasts and should not be used as such. They are just the opinion of the poster and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. They are NOT endorsed by any professional institution or STORM2K. For official information, please refer to products from the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service.
- Bocadude85
- Category 5
- Posts: 2941
- Age: 37
- Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:20 pm
- Location: Honolulu,Hi
Hurricane Charley Video
I came across this video on YouTube of Hurricane Charley and was just awe struck by the power of the wind in the video. Does any one have any guesses of what the max winds in this video are?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_2293753811&feature=iv&src_vid=yQbkPgbxafQ&v=y76zDoDQkbQ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_2293753811&feature=iv&src_vid=yQbkPgbxafQ&v=y76zDoDQkbQ
0 likes
- Hurricaneman
- Category 5
- Posts: 7280
- Age: 43
- Joined: Tue Aug 31, 2004 3:24 pm
- Location: central florida
- TheAustinMan
- Category 4
- Posts: 992
- Age: 24
- Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 4:26 pm
- Location: United States
- Contact:
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
I've never bore witness to winds of that strength, so I have no ability to visually estimate those winds, but I might be able to provide some insight based on the plentiful data involving Charley. The timestamp on the video would suggest the film was from the left back quadrant of the storm, though the fact that the RaceTrac at the beginning of the clip is the same one depicted here (destroyed in Charley's right front, northeastern quadrant) suggests that the timestamp is off by about 30 minutes, so the video's strongest winds do actually depict the northeastern quadrant of Charley.
There's another clip from the same cameraman - Rob Jones - not included in that particular YouTube link in which he relays his position as "just north of the Peace River on US 41." After digging around on Google Maps for a bit I found that the location of the strongest winds in the video (from 0:14 to 4:20 or so) were taken from the McDonalds near the Charlotte Town Apartments (most of the video is looking south at the apartments so we see the east to west winds of the northeast quadrant blowing right across the film).
Going off of archived radar data alone, the storm-relative velocity for that position topped out at around 95 mph, with the base velocity data roaring in at 111 mph at the height of the storm. About 2.19 miles to the southeast on the other side of the Peace River at Charlotte Regional Medical Center, a gust of 172 mph was reported. At the Charlotte County Airport about 5.5 miles to the southeast, a gust of 160 mph was reported. These measurements were reported by Charlotte County emergency management officials, though NOAA aerial surveys tenatively indicated these were overestimates as the damage was indicative of gusts in the 125 to 145 mph range. This agrees with slightly lower reports of 112 and 127 mph gusts at Punta Gorda. According to their data, the gusts in the video lie in the 130-140 mph range. (The gusts in the infamous RaceTrac video are located just inside the 140mph+ contour). As for sustained winds, preliminary wind swath analyses from NOAA/HRD suggest 1-minute sustained winds at the video's location were in the 110-120 mph range, which would indicate intense Category 3 winds.
Gust swaths from NOAA aerial survey:
There's another clip from the same cameraman - Rob Jones - not included in that particular YouTube link in which he relays his position as "just north of the Peace River on US 41." After digging around on Google Maps for a bit I found that the location of the strongest winds in the video (from 0:14 to 4:20 or so) were taken from the McDonalds near the Charlotte Town Apartments (most of the video is looking south at the apartments so we see the east to west winds of the northeast quadrant blowing right across the film).
Going off of archived radar data alone, the storm-relative velocity for that position topped out at around 95 mph, with the base velocity data roaring in at 111 mph at the height of the storm. About 2.19 miles to the southeast on the other side of the Peace River at Charlotte Regional Medical Center, a gust of 172 mph was reported. At the Charlotte County Airport about 5.5 miles to the southeast, a gust of 160 mph was reported. These measurements were reported by Charlotte County emergency management officials, though NOAA aerial surveys tenatively indicated these were overestimates as the damage was indicative of gusts in the 125 to 145 mph range. This agrees with slightly lower reports of 112 and 127 mph gusts at Punta Gorda. According to their data, the gusts in the video lie in the 130-140 mph range. (The gusts in the infamous RaceTrac video are located just inside the 140mph+ contour). As for sustained winds, preliminary wind swath analyses from NOAA/HRD suggest 1-minute sustained winds at the video's location were in the 110-120 mph range, which would indicate intense Category 3 winds.
Gust swaths from NOAA aerial survey:
2 likes
- Bocadude85
- Category 5
- Posts: 2941
- Age: 37
- Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:20 pm
- Location: Honolulu,Hi
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
TheAustinMan wrote:I've never bore witness to winds of that strength, so I have no ability to visually estimate those winds, but I might be able to provide some insight based on the plentiful data involving Charley. The timestamp on the video would suggest the film was from the left back quadrant of the storm, though the fact that the RaceTrac at the beginning of the clip is the same one depicted here (destroyed in Charley's right front, northeastern quadrant) suggests that the timestamp is off by about 30 minutes, so the video's strongest winds do actually depict the northeastern quadrant of Charley.
There's another clip from the same cameraman - Rob Jones - not included in that particular YouTube link in which he relays his position as "just north of the Peace River on US 41." After digging around on Google Maps for a bit I found that the location of the strongest winds in the video (from 0:14 to 4:20 or so) were taken from the McDonalds near the Charlotte Town Apartments (most of the video is looking south at the apartments so we see the east to west winds of the northeast quadrant blowing right across the film).
Going off of archived radar data alone, the storm-relative velocity for that position topped out at around 95 mph, with the base velocity data roaring in at 111 mph at the height of the storm. About 2.19 miles to the southeast on the other side of the Peace River at Charlotte Regional Medical Center, a gust of 172 mph was reported. At the Charlotte County Airport about 5.5 miles to the southeast, a gust of 160 mph was reported. These measurements were reported by Charlotte County emergency management officials, though NOAA aerial surveys tenatively indicated these were overestimates as the damage was indicative of gusts in the 125 to 145 mph range. This agrees with slightly lower reports of 112 and 127 mph gusts at Punta Gorda. According to their data, the gusts in the video lie in the 130-140 mph range. (The gusts in the infamous RaceTrac video are located just inside the 140mph+ contour). As for sustained winds, preliminary wind swath analyses from NOAA/HRD suggest 1-minute sustained winds at the video's location were in the 110-120 mph range, which would indicate intense Category 3 winds.
Gust swaths from NOAA aerial survey:
Is the map you posted in knots or MPH? I would assume Kts because those gusts seem awfully low for a strong Cat 4 hurricane.
0 likes
- TheAustinMan
- Category 4
- Posts: 992
- Age: 24
- Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 4:26 pm
- Location: United States
- Contact:
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
Bocadude85 wrote:Is the map you posted in knots or MPH? I would assume Kts because those gusts seem awfully low for a strong Cat 4 hurricane.
Those are gusts in MPH. The data comes from aerial surveys of the data with a +/- 15 mph error confidence. Remember, while Hurricane Charley was a powerful hurricane, its core was also exceptionally compact. Just going a few hundred feet closer to the core of the system could mean a 10-20 mph increase in peak gusts. It's likely that the strongest winds in Charley were over a small area over the Peace River where friction with the surface would reduce winds compared to bare land. From the aerial wind mapping report:
The strongest winds were estimated to be in a small area at the sound end of North Captiva
Island, near where the barrier island was breached along an approximately 400 yard stretch. A
second wind maximum was estimated to be in Charlotte Harbor and shoreline areas of Port
Charlotte and Punta Gorda (See Appendix B). Overall, a 12 mile wide swath of winds gusting
over 100 MPH swept inland with the hurricane’s core. Wind gusts estimated at 120 MPH
progressed inland to near Arcadia. Wind gusts to near 100 MPH persisted into the Orlando area,
with gusts near 80 MPH still occurring as the cyclone’s center exited Florida near Daytona
Beach.
The location of the winds in the video were about 0.6 miles west of the Peace River, where the winds would be coming from. That's enough land to slow down Charley's fierce 180 mph estimated gusts by quite a clip (though, clearly, they were still damaging and intense). Unfortunately, anemometers in position to possibly measure these most intense winds probably failed. As the National Hurricane Center noted, "as usual, there were no official surface anemometer measurements of wind speeds even approaching the intensity estimate [of 150 mph] near the landfall location." The highest official gust measurement was 97 kt / 111 mph at Punta Gorda, and that anemometer failed during the storm, and it's likely stronger winds would have occurred there.
Gust swath across Florida from Charley:
Note how gusts up to 100 mph were carried well inland, through Orlando with gusts up to 90 mph being felt straight to Florida's east coast, while the stronger, 120 mph+ gusts remained limited to the Peace River and adjacent areas (which is probably no coincidence).
0 likes
-
- Category 1
- Posts: 309
- Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:57 pm
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
It's kind of amazing how resilient palm trees are. You'd think from their flimsy appearance they'd be the first to snap, but in reality they're the last ones standing. That makes the picture on the left after Andrew even more impressive:
0 likes
Personal Forecast Disclaimer:
The posts in this forum are NOT official forecast and should not be used as such. They are just the opinion of the poster and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. They are NOT endorsed by any professional institution or storm2k.org. For official information, please refer to the NHC and NWS products.
The posts in this forum are NOT official forecast and should not be used as such. They are just the opinion of the poster and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. They are NOT endorsed by any professional institution or storm2k.org. For official information, please refer to the NHC and NWS products.
- Kazmit
- Category 5
- Posts: 1915
- Age: 21
- Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2016 8:49 am
- Location: Williamsburg VA for college, Bermuda otherwise
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
tatertawt24 wrote:It's kind of amazing how resilient palm trees are. You'd think from their flimsy appearance they'd be the first to snap, but in reality they're the last ones standing. That makes the picture on the left after Andrew even more impressive:
Palm trees grow in tropical locations, and therefore are adapted to hurricanes, so they're basically "designed" to not break. It is incredible how much they can bend, they can withstand a lot of wind before breaking.
0 likes
Igor 2010, Sandy 2012, Fay 2014, Gonzalo 2014, Joaquin 2015, Nicole 2016, Humberto 2019
I am only a tropical weather enthusiast. My predictions are not official and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. For official information, please refer to the NHC and NWS products.
I am only a tropical weather enthusiast. My predictions are not official and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. For official information, please refer to the NHC and NWS products.
- beoumont
- Category 1
- Posts: 473
- Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2011 4:13 pm
- Location: East Central Florida
- Contact:
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
Shortly after the Racetrack video was shot chaser Theiss estimated the sustained winds at 135 mph. He might have changed this figure in afterthought; but looking at his video I would agree with his first estimate. Personally driving by and looking at the area the next day I also felt his first estimate was quite good.
The most complete damage I observed was within a block or two of Charlotte Harbor on both the north an south sides of the water, near US 41. The Holiday Inn on the south side just west of US 41, where Brad Riley and myself checked into three hours before landfall, had many sections almost completely flattened We went south a few miles before landfall and missed the worst of it; but seeing later that the 2nd story room we checked into had collapsed into the lower floor tempered our "disappointment" to some extent. My estimate, based on the damage, in that area was 145 mph sustained.
Jim Leonard and Andy Dressler, stationed at the Hospital parking garage about two miles north of the water, had winds of 130-135 mph in gusts; which I included long segments of in the DVD we produced "Hurricane Charley - As it Happened."
The most complete damage I observed was within a block or two of Charlotte Harbor on both the north an south sides of the water, near US 41. The Holiday Inn on the south side just west of US 41, where Brad Riley and myself checked into three hours before landfall, had many sections almost completely flattened We went south a few miles before landfall and missed the worst of it; but seeing later that the 2nd story room we checked into had collapsed into the lower floor tempered our "disappointment" to some extent. My estimate, based on the damage, in that area was 145 mph sustained.
Jim Leonard and Andy Dressler, stationed at the Hospital parking garage about two miles north of the water, had winds of 130-135 mph in gusts; which I included long segments of in the DVD we produced "Hurricane Charley - As it Happened."
1 likes
List of 79 tropical cyclones intercepted by Richard Horodner:
http://www.canebeard.com/page/page/572246.htm
http://www.canebeard.com/page/page/572246.htm
-
- Tropical Storm
- Posts: 120
- Age: 31
- Joined: Tue Dec 11, 2012 4:50 pm
- Location: Sebring, Florida
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
I'll always remember Charley because he arrived on Friday the 13th.
0 likes
- gatorcane
- S2K Supporter
- Posts: 23499
- Age: 46
- Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2005 3:54 pm
- Location: Boca Raton, FL
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
Charley was supposed to be Tampa's storm. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. Lived in Clearwater in the Tampa area at that time. Thought Tampa's hurricane drought had finally come to an end until Charley veered more NE instead of NNE in the SE Gulf rather unexpectedly. Something like that cutting through St. Pete/Clearwater/Tampa would create an unbelievable amount of damage and not all because of wind but because of the incredible storm surge that would result in an even more densely populated area.
0 likes
- p1nheadlarry
- Category 2
- Posts: 672
- Age: 32
- Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2014 2:42 pm
- Location: SR County FL
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
That gas station at the very beginning is where Mike Theiss recorded the peak of Charley. He estimates sustained 125 mph with the strongest gust in the video (around 3 minutes in after he cleans the lens) over 150.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unV5KcSrY-I&t=20s
Here's another really good shoot from Chris Collura from Punta Gorda. Peaks at around 3:45 after he says "c'mon, I want the eye"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd5-uglb-fg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unV5KcSrY-I&t=20s
Here's another really good shoot from Chris Collura from Punta Gorda. Peaks at around 3:45 after he says "c'mon, I want the eye"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd5-uglb-fg
0 likes
--;->#GoNoles--;->.
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
I wish we had a page on here to bring all the Hurricane videos in one place.
0 likes
- TheStormExpert
- Category 5
- Posts: 8487
- Age: 30
- Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 5:38 pm
- Location: Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
Hurricane Charley was your classic example of a small but mighty storm! Was basically a super-sized tornado which brought bad conditions to a small confined area and if you were just more than a couple miles away from the center you basically got spared from the worst. Just like Andrew he sure intensified rapidly on approach to Florida, unlike some that are saying storms that approach the U.S. and Florida as of recent have weakened considerably(which I disagree with, look at Matthew for instance) he did the contrary.
Btw, it's hard to believe the only tress still standing are palm tress and coconut palms. Back during either Frances or Jeanne I lost a coconut palm just from winds that were probably not even close to what Charley unleashed. Of course it wasn't maintained either prior to the twin hurricanes that slammed us three weeks apart.
Btw, it's hard to believe the only tress still standing are palm tress and coconut palms. Back during either Frances or Jeanne I lost a coconut palm just from winds that were probably not even close to what Charley unleashed. Of course it wasn't maintained either prior to the twin hurricanes that slammed us three weeks apart.
0 likes
The following post is NOT an official forecast and should not be used as such. It is just the opinion of the poster and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. It is NOT endorsed by storm2k.org.
- p1nheadlarry
- Category 2
- Posts: 672
- Age: 32
- Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2014 2:42 pm
- Location: SR County FL
Re: Hurricane Charley Video
TheStormExpert wrote:Hurricane Charley was your classic example of a small but mighty storm! Was basically a super-sized tornado which brought bad conditions to a small confined area and if you were just more than a couple miles away from the center you basically got spared from the worst. Just like Andrew he sure intensified rapidly on approach to Florida, unlike some that are saying storms that approach the U.S. and Florida as of recent have weakened considerably(which I disagree with, look at Matthew for instance) he did the contrary.
Add Hugo to that list. And intense storms aside there are quite a few examples of storms forming near the coast and intensify up until landfall. I guess people mainly refer to the classic CV road trippers.
0 likes
--;->#GoNoles--;->.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Cleveland Kent Evans, duilaslol, ljmac75, NessFrogVenom and 58 guests