Want to see some real Katrina data?

[hurricanetrack]

Here are two links to the data logs that we being posted to my site from two remote weather stations that Mike Watkins and I set up during Katrina. This first link is to the station that we put on a light pole about 10 feet off the pavement on Urie Pier in Gulfport. It includes wind, temp and pressure. Notice when the station went out- that is when water overtook the Storm Case and ripped it away. Trust me, the computer inside the case is still in tact, even today. Those cases are virtually indestructible. Oh well. But it is neat to see the wind coming up and the pressure going down- every minute.

Now, link number two is to the station right along Hwy 49 in downtown Gulfport. We put the station on top of a huge 500 pound concrete planter and let it sit there. No wind with this one- time would not allow us to set up the anemometer- plus it would have been screwed up by nearby buildings. Notice on this one how late it was when the thing went live and how long it lasted. 8:11am CT. That is when the water reached this Storm Case and took it out. Note that the pressure made it down to ~978 mb. Too bad these cases were torn away by the surge- we were definitely on to something here and would have had excellent and reliable wind and pressure data from just outside of the core. Oh well, that's what persistence is for.

Anyhow, here are the links to the data:

http://www.hurricanelivenet.com/hln3/daily.htm (Urie Pier data)

http://www.hurricanelivenet.com/hln2/daily.htm (downtown Gulfport data)

[Javlin]

interesting info yea shame you lost it to surge would of been some nice data for further analysis.

[JonathanBelles]

wish u wouldnt have lost it. good data

[Audrey2Katrina]

Very interesting. Those near 70 mph gusts were fully 8 hours before second landfall. It would've made some interesting data indeed.

A2K

[hurricanetrack]

As they say, losing is only temporary. There's always next season....

[brunota2003]

Yes it is a shame that the cases were lost...BUT...some valuable lessons were learned from it to...so be thankful for that...
EDIT: Top Wind Speed that I saw was 51 MPH sustained...

4:35am 91 51 51 80.1 990.76

[brunota2003]

I wanna see the video for the second case...it lived until 8:11 AM...it was probably pretty bright by then...would of been some awesome surge video...and if the cameras got taken with the case...but no one has found them...

[tornadochaser1986]

to bad the surge got all the data

[ROCK]

great data.....I only saw 51mph sustained also...

[Pearl River]

That 51 mph sustained occured some 5 1/2 hrs prior to last landfall.

[Margie]

Very interesting. Those near 70 mph gusts were fully 8 hours before second landfall. It would've made some interesting data indeed.

A2K

You mean the 66mph gust that occured exactly five hours before landfall (1445Z).

[Audrey2Katrina]

Very interesting. Those near 70 mph gusts were fully 8 hours before second landfall. It would've made some interesting data indeed.

A2K

You mean the 66mph gust that occured exactly five hours before landfall (1445Z).

Yes I mean the, as quoted "near 70" (which I imagine 66 mph is--I did say "near") recorded at 4:45 AM. My error in timing was in not making a proper conversion from the actual GMT/Z/UTC which is 6 hours ahead. And that would actually put it at, well, yes, FIVE hourse (dang that Daylight Savings Time!) before 2nd/3rd landfall.

Regardless... still a lot more winds can arrive in a five hour lapse as a hurricane draws closer and winds intensify for those next five hours; certainly more than the eyeball estimates of around 60-70 sustained and maybe 80-90 gusts or thereabouts that some folks have pompously suggested at CPA... I mean the figures show an increase of those gusts bordering on 20 mph over the previous hour, actually less in some cases and yes I know they vary widely--gusts always do... but continue that pattern for five more hours and you conceivably could have 140+ mph gusts as the gradient only decreases with sharper increases in windspeeds as the center draws near. Yes, it is interesting, don't ya think?

A2K

[Pearl River]

Actually 4:45 am CDT is 0945 UTC. Daylight Savings Time we are -5:00 . So it was five hours prior to landfall. So add an extra hour for the winds to increase.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Done and done... LOL.... Thanks

A2K

[ROCK]

Regardless... still a lot more winds can arrive in a five hour lapse as a hurricane draws closer and winds intensify for those next five hours; certainly more than the eyeball estimates of around 60-70 sustained and maybe 80-90 gusts or thereabouts that some folks have pompously suggested at CPA... I mean the figures show an increase of those gusts bordering on 20 mph over the previous hour, actually less in some cases and yes I know they vary widely--gusts always do...

True, more winds can arrive but she had already made her 1st landfall thus weakening her for the 2nd. Just to clarify, the NHC report shows Gulfport officially had sustained winds of 43mph with gusts to 63. So eyeball estimates of 60-70 w/ gusts to 80-90 are not that far off even if it is incomplete. I don't think anyone was being pompous when they wrote that. It is official data.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Rock said:
the NHC report shows Gulfport officially had sustained winds of 43mph with gusts to 63. So eyeball estimates of 60-70 w/ gusts to 80-90 are not that far off even if it is incomplete. I don't think anyone was being pompous when they wrote that. It is official data.

It's "official data" up to time of instrument failure. Check that NHC report again and you'll see that it was:

a.) footnoted as "incomplete data" --yes you acknowledged that much but failed to mention something more important:

b.) the report shows 40 KT winds or about 46 mph sustained (not 43-- small diff, admittedly but we ARE citing the "official data" and even more importantly, these measures are:

c.) at 1025 UTC which is even before first landfall in Louisiana. and quite frankly, yes, assuming winds some 4-5 hours later would only be 25 mph higher with a high-end Cat 3 hurricane center headed in that general direction could only be described as naive IMO, and decidedly "far off". As far as to the "official data"... I repeat, it was "official" (i.e. about 110 plus miles away from the center of circulation at the time) and more than an hour before first landfall in Louisiana much less the 3 plus more hours before landfall in Mississippi.

The "eyeballing" I was referring to was about winds shown in some of the videos that are clearly higher than 60-70, and not any referred to incomplete data.

For the record, it wasn't any particular individual to whom I was referring but whatever; saying that Gulfport only received sustained 60-70 (not even hurricane 1 status), aside from contradicting known report data, is most certainly naive, definitely "far off" and, if/when presented in a "I know more about it than you because I read some charts/graphs" setting as I'd seen betimes--also quite pompous--at least that's how I see it. The pomposity wasn't supposed to be the focus of the response--the clear error in judgment was-- eye of the beholder thing.

PAX

A2K

[Jim Cantore]

Imagine, the data in those boxes could've had gusts over 135mph

ok I dont wanna make Mark feel any worse

speaking of which Mark did I read correctly that you had a wind gust to 137mph (I read it on the morning of August 29th)

[hurricanetrack]

Yes, the Tahoe had its anemometer still on it while sitting in the parking lot of the Best Western near I-10. The digital read out on the dash showed a maximum gust to 137 mph sometime that morning. I abandoned the Tahoe but left all of the instruments AND the laptop inside and running. You can see the entire video of the landfall as seen from inside the Tahoe by clicking the link below. It is the actual archive video that was streamed live to our new subscriber site, HurricaneLiveNet.com. Mike Watkins had gone inside the hotel while I remained in the Tahoe until part of the roof came off the Hampton Inn right in front of me. Not long after that, I too went in to the hotel. You can hear and see all of this as it happened. Once I take off, the rain clutters up the windshield, but listen to those monster gusts hitting the Tahoe! At some point in there a quick burst to 137 mph hit the Tahoe. The backside was facing the wind since the RM Young anemometer is located towards the back of the roof of the Tahoe. Stacy Stewart suggested to me several years ago that we place the anemometer near the back and take measurements that way- so as to not have the entire length of the vehicle for the wind to travel over and corrupt the flow of air. I did exactly that during Katrina and feel very good about that gust. You can get these huge, but brief, bursts of wind that punch down towards the ground and spread out, like a downburst. I think that is what happened here. I was very lucky in that nothing struck the Tahoe- there were several vehicles in the same parking lot that we destroyed by flying debris.

In any case, watch the video below or download it to your computer and watch it there- you can really hear the wind screaming through after I abandon ship.

And a little FYI- we are now going to have satellite GPS locator devices for the Storm Cases that will allow us to track them if we ever lose them again. Globalstar will provide those to us this season.

http://www.hurricanelivenet.com/kattahoe2.wmv

[Audrey2Katrina]

Nice video there; didn't have time to watch all of it, but I will later... must've been quite an adventure. I did hear you (or someone) say something about one being 109 mph in the early going of the video. So, a 137 mph gust, (a lot higher than 80-90) and this is up by I-10 (understandably so--a lot safer than being on that dangerous beach along 90) and still some 20 miles or so from the actual center of the storm's landfall... amazing! How far away were you guys from the furthest point of surge penetration? Just curious.

Thanks for the video link, and great work.

A2K

[hurricanetrack]

The surge oozed its way up every creek and river it could. The MS coast has what is called an escarpment that rises up like a bluff just north of 90 in most locations. The surge "sloshed" over this escarpment and made its way along the low-lying areas for many miles. Then, as the wind changed direction, the water moved with it. Where Mike and I were, the water came within 1 mile of us. However, most of Hwy 49 was surrounded by water on both sides as the surge spilled over the escarpment and worked its way north. There were areas east and west of us where the surge went past I-10. But the bulk of the destructive surge was south of the main railroad tracks in Gulfport- at least from what we saw. What still amazes me to this day is how fast the water retreated in Gulfport. Granted, it sloshed over the escarpment and drained out differently than it came in, but the worst of it was gone even 2 hours after landfall. During Ivan, it took a whole day for the water to go down enough for me to walk through it to my remote vehicle in Gulf Shores, AL. Just goes to show you that geography and geology can be important in storm surge situations.