ATL: CRISTOBAL - Post-Tropical - Discussion

[Hammy]

Any reports of max surface winds? I'm interested to see if this ends up stronger than satellite estimates.

[Chris_in_Tampa]

Sondes don't measure sustained winds of course, more momentary.

Also, the Global Hawk is not estimating surface winds like the Air Force and NOAA. This unmanned aerial vehicles is around 55,000 feet. I'm not sure to what extent they were trying to hit the highest surface winds with sondes. Most of the sondes will be around the storm, not in it.

OB03 had a wind of 70mph at 971mb. The surface was 972mb.

OB10 had a 116 mph wind at the 833mb level. Wind was unavailable below that, although other obs were. So perhaps the wind instrument failed or it was invalid.

OB10 had a 122 mph wind at the 94mb level (the 100mb level was at 54,528 ft), but the wind around the normal levels was 45 to 65 mph and the surface was 44mph.

Decoded obs:
http://www.tropicalatlantic.com/recon/r ... duct=sonde

[Chris_in_Tampa]

They may travel to the center twice. This mission was very late, so times are wrong.

From the NHC Plan of the Day:

Code: Select all

I.  ATLANTIC REQUIREMENTS
    1. HURRICANE CRISTOBAL: AV-6 GLOBAL HAWK HURRICANE RESEARCH
       FLIGHT ONE -- NASA872
       A. 28/1330Z, 29/0730Z AT CENTER
       B. NA872 XXXX CRISTOBAL
       C. 28/1100Z KWAL
       D. CP 36.7N, 64.9W AND 42.0N, 54.5W; IP 37.3N, 71.95W
       E. 28/1100Z TO 29/1000Z
       F. 55,000 TO 62,000 FT
       G. LANDING: 29/1000Z KWAL; 88 SONDES TOTAL- FLY RACETRACK
       PATTERN WITHIN BOX BOUNDED BY:
       A. 36.67N 49.22W
       B. 46.20N 53.15W                 
       C. 33.17N 64.02W         
       D. 42.62N 67.62W

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/recon.php

For comparison, this was the previous mission for Cristobal, when the aircraft was positioned from California to Virginia:

[Time_Zone]

I'd guess this thing may have peaked as a category 2 Hurricane. Merely a guess but it looks very impressive.

Would have liked it to make landfall here in Nova Scotia personally, could have gotten some great videos.

[HurricaneRyan]

Cristobal was the second best hurricane we've had this year

[Time_Zone]

^^^ May have been the best if we had recon during it's peak.