America has wimpy anemometers

[tallywx]

Why is it that anemometers in this country are so...pardon the scientific term...WUSSY! Anytime we get a landfalling storm, all of our reporting stations go out well before the bad weather arrives. What's the point of having a reporting station when it can't report the worst conditions?

Case in point: Our Cameron, LA buoy station went off the air at 12:20 CDT after the 112 mph gust (well before the eyewall). Lake Charles station currently isn't reporting. The Cameron RAWS station also went out a good half hour ago after 96 mph.

Yet we can have wind recordings in Grand Cayman that captured Ivan last year in full fury. I think it held up against 152 mph gusts to 170-something.

You also see robust anemometers holding out in the Windward Islands. Why can't all reporting stations be as hearty as Mount Washington's, where 231 mph was recorded without a hitch, and where they commonly get 100+ mph winds.

Or at the very least, get anemometers that hold out as well as John Doe's homemade mast weather station. Why is it that hospitals are the ones with equipment sturdy enough to report the strongest winds in Charley, or a private individual recording the highest wind gust in Andrew? You'd think that government-proof equipment would be the most reliable, but it NEVER IS.

[vbhoutex]

I've often wondered that myself. It certainly doesn't make sense that we can continuously record high winds at Mt. Washington and not seem to get readings whenever a hurricane comes through.

[HurricaneBill]

I've often wondered that myself. It certainly doesn't make sense that we can continuously record high winds at Mt. Washington and not seem to get readings whenever a hurricane comes through.

Isn't the main problem anemometers getting hit by flying debris?

[Aslkahuna]

Well, we expected this when they deployed the APOS (Formerly ASOS-POS fits better) with those lightweight Aerovanes. Another problem is that apparently APOS doesn't have data recovery capability for when they lose power or communications so that we can retrieve the data later. Our mesonet that we deployed when I was at Fort Huachuca had tape backup with enough capacity for 72 hours worth of data. Came in very handy when we lost power in Tropical Storm Lester in 1992.

Steve

[vbhoutex]

I've often wondered that myself. It certainly doesn't make sense that we can continuously record high winds at Mt. Washington and not seem to get readings whenever a hurricane comes through.

Isn't the main problem anemometers getting hit by flying debris?

That would explain at least why the one on MT. Washington always works. There is no debris up there.

[TampaFl]

I've often wondered that myself. It certainly doesn't make sense that we can continuously record high winds at Mt. Washington and not seem to get readings whenever a hurricane comes through.

Isn't the main problem anemometers getting hit by flying debris?

That would explain at least why the one on MT. Washington always works. There is no debris up there.

[Cookiely]

Why is it that anemometers in this country are so...pardon the scientific term...WUSSY! Anytime we get a landfalling storm, all of our reporting stations go out well before the bad weather arrives. What's the point of having a reporting station when it can't report the worst conditions?

Case in point: Our Cameron, LA buoy station went off the air at 12:20 CDT after the 112 mph gust (well before the eyewall). Lake Charles station currently isn't reporting. The Cameron RAWS station also went out a good half hour ago after 96 mph.

Yet we can have wind recordings in Grand Cayman that captured Ivan last year in full fury. I think it held up against 152 mph gusts to 170-something.

You also see robust anemometers holding out in the Windward Islands. Why can't all reporting stations be as hearty as Mount Washington's, where 231 mph was recorded without a hitch, and where they commonly get 100+ mph winds.

Or at the very least, get anemometers that hold out as well as John Doe's homemade mast weather station. Why is it that hospitals are the ones with equipment sturdy enough to report the strongest winds in Charley, or a private individual recording the highest wind gust in Andrew? You'd think that government-proof equipment would be the most reliable, but it NEVER IS.

Maybe the government took the lowest bid for the equipment.

[jlauderdal]

Why is it that anemometers in this country are so...pardon the scientific term...WUSSY! Anytime we get a landfalling storm, all of our reporting stations go out well before the bad weather arrives. What's the point of having a reporting station when it can't report the worst conditions?

Case in point: Our Cameron, LA buoy station went off the air at 12:20 CDT after the 112 mph gust (well before the eyewall). Lake Charles station currently isn't reporting. The Cameron RAWS station also went out a good half hour ago after 96 mph.

Yet we can have wind recordings in Grand Cayman that captured Ivan last year in full fury. I think it held up against 152 mph gusts to 170-something.

You also see robust anemometers holding out in the Windward Islands. Why can't all reporting stations be as hearty as Mount Washington's, where 231 mph was recorded without a hitch, and where they commonly get 100+ mph winds.

Or at the very least, get anemometers that hold out as well as John Doe's homemade mast weather station. Why is it that hospitals are the ones with equipment sturdy enough to report the strongest winds in Charley, or a private individual recording the highest wind gust in Andrew? You'd think that government-proof equipment would be the most reliable, but it NEVER IS.

Maybe the government took the lowest bid for the equipment.

yeah right, they paid the most for the lowest quality would be more accurate

[x-y-no]

Yeah ... this is very disappointing.

For example, station CAPL1 Calcasieu Pass, LA quit reporting at 12:18 AM, a good two hours before landfall. If it had stayed in operation, it could have given us great data, since that's very close to the landfall point.

[Orlando_wx]

I am glad someone finally brought this up i was also wondering the same thing everytime we have a landfalling storm we seem to lose anemometer recordings. After buying my last davis weather monitor ii 2 years ago i was talking to one of the reps and they were talking anemometers i was comparing theres and another company when he told me that they just re worked there anemometer to handle more wind speed from bad weather he also told me that the davis company decided to make that move because of a gentleman several years ago brought them what was left of his weather station after hurrucane andrew which recorded a top wind of 177mph before part of it blew away so i think it may be debris or power outages is the biggest problem with these anemometers.
Just my opinion on this.

John

[jburns]

I've often wondered that myself. It certainly doesn't make sense that we can continuously record high winds at Mt. Washington and not seem to get readings whenever a hurricane comes through.

Simple, they do not use anemomoters on Mt Washington during severe events. They open the door of their bunker and toss a cat wearing a GPS collar straight up into the air.

Cat 1=cat lands less than 2 miles from mountain

Cat 2=cat lands less than 4 miles from mountain

Cat 3=cat lands in next county

Cat 4=cat lands in next state

Cat 5=cat does not land at all. Tracking is turned over to NASA.

An interesting historical side note. Saffir/Simpson adapted (stole) this scale to use in rating the strength of hurricanes and the rest is history.

PS Before some of you super accurate historians inform me that the Saffir/Simpson scale was around a long time before GPS I know that. What you may not know is in the early days they used spotters who would search for where the cats landed. It could get pretty messy so when they called in they would just say "cat a gory" to let everyone know they could stop searching. It was shortened to just cat when GPS began to be used.

[vbhoutex]

I wondered where the CAT designation came from. I learn something new everyday!!!

Debris is probably the problem in most cases.

[King-6]

No Kidding,needs better technology,like NASA stuff.

[jburns]

No Kidding,needs better technology,like NASA stuff.

Sadly NASA hasn't handled debri very well either.

[HurryKane]

No Kidding,needs better technology,like NASA stuff.

Sadly NASA hasn't handled debri very well either.

Ouch.

[vacanechaser]

Its not so much a debris problem as it is a power problem. One of the pro mets described that a few posts ago.. We have asked that question at the NHC when we have been around there, and that pretty much is the issue.. Power...

Lets think about it, they cant even put back up power sources on the satellites to avoid the eclipses.. That is being fixed with the newer satellites that will be replacing those now.


Jesse V. Bass III
http://www.vastormphoto.com
Hurricane Intercept Research Team

[brunota2003]

Yep, most reporting stations on land, not bouys, they should just put a bouy on land, lol, is, wonce the power goes out, the computers and everything turn off, so while the anemometer its self is stills recording winds, it cant be recorded on anything else, so we lose the data, its not like an inverter could charge all that equipment... any word from mark since 12 Jesse?

[btornado]

For anyone interested,
When average wind speeds climb above 40 mph at the summit of Mt Washington, the crew removes the cup anemometer, and switches over to the use of a pitot anemometer.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/btornado/pitot2.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

Since the pitot anemometer is used on commercial airliners to measure airspeed, there is virtually no chance of failure at mountain top windspeeds of a mere 100 - 200 mph. The cup anemometer is used because it is more accurate at the lower windspeeds, and the pitot anemometer is not only more accurate at higher windspeeds, but also less likely to be damaged. But because you need windspeeds of greater than 40 mph for a comfortable degree of accuracy, investing in these anemometers would be a waste of money for most cities.

Now to get technical:

The pitot-static probe is pointed into the wind by means of tail section which directs the probe and allows it to be able to rotate a full 360° as wind direction changes.
The force of the wind speed against the open-end (area) of the pitot-static probe creates a differential pressure (measured in inches of water). The Differential Pressure Transducer (DPT) is connected to the pitot-static probe via copper tubing and rubber hose. The tubing is insulated and wrapped with a heat tape system to prevent freezing should any moisture enter the system. Due to the extreme weather conditions experienced at the summit of Mount Washington, both the pitot-static probe and mounting assembly are heated to prevent the formation of ice on the probe assembly. The probe assembly is heated to ~170° F. Power to the probe heater is controlled by the Pitot Heater Control System. Ice formation on the probe assembly would prevent operation of the probe by blocking the orifices, and preventing the free movement of the assembly as wind direction varies.

The differential pressure signal developed at the pitot-static probe is transmitted to the DPT where the d/p signal is converted into a current loop signal. The loop current signal is converted to a voltage by measuring the voltage drop across a precision resistor which is installed in the series current loop. The voltage signal developed across the resistor is supplied to the data logging system. The data logging system performs the mathematical conversion of the d/p signal to wind speed, and supplies this information to the MWO computer system.

Theory of Operation

A pitot-static probe is one of the simplest devices (the probe itself has no moving parts) for measuring air flow at a specific point. The static portion of the probe measures the ambient air pressure in the air flow. Static pressure is measured via the orifice holes (located on the probe surface ) in the probe which are positioned parallel to the air flow direction when the probe is directed into the air stream. The static pressure is transmitted to the DPT (low pressure input port) via the system piping.

Bernie

[Ziplock]

Jburns, you are one sick puppy!
Truly, I am ROTFLMAO !!

Not weather related, but your post reminds me of the Miami Chrismas carol... Note: we have various forms of voo-doo, Santeria, religious animal sacrifice, blood letting, goat sacrificing, chicken offerings, etc.,all from our carribean melting pot society in Miami.

Better not cry,
Better not pout,
Better not let those kitty-cats out,
SANTA-ria's comin' to town...

Zip