Tampa Tribune Article

[Cookiely]

Did anyone see the Tampa Tribune article this week on studying the radar images of Charley? I can't for the life of me see what good studying the increase in wind speeds of the hurricane two hours from landfall. If you know the hurricane is strengthening at that point it would be too late for anyone to do anything but hunker down. Why is this going to be helpful as a predictor.

[wxman57]

I didn't see the article, but we can't know too much about rapid intensification cycles. Knowing what might have contributed to Charley's rapid intensification just prior to landfall may help forecasters predict such rapid intensification cycles long before landfall, perhaps days in the future.

[O Town]

Heres the article.
http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBDELOTOZE.html

I think its great that they may be able to read winds with accuracy from this model along with radar. Much better than waiting every hour for recon.

[jinftl]

Gathering data is key to understanding hurricanes. Not sure the post-analysis is just done to pinpoint the strength of a given storm.....the applications of any knowledge gained is much broader.

[gatorcane]

I didn't see the article, but we can't know too much about rapid intensification cycles. Knowing what might have contributed to Charley's rapid intensification just prior to landfall may help forecasters predict such rapid intensification cycles long before landfall, perhaps days in the future.

Wouldn't you say that since the water temps were approaching 90F off the SW coast of Florida that would be a reason for rapid intensification? I think so.

[CycloneJim]

One main reason for the rapid intensification of hurricane Charley was the position of the tropical cyclone in reference to the approaching trough over the east central U.S. There was a strong SW flow ahead of the trough that was perfectly placed just to the north of the anticyclone over the top of the hurricane. This feature created strong divergence to the north and which caused rapid deepening. A similar scenario occured as hurricane Wilma approached the SW coast of Florida. If Wilma had a smaller eyewall like Charley and was a month earlier we would have easily had a strong cat-4 instead of a cat-3.