So this is a question I recently came up with after seeing how many were talking about it, especially with storms like PTC4, Eta, or Elsa at multiple points in time; I remember how those storms looked very good on satellite causing people to believe they were quite strong when in reality, looking under the hood, scientists did not find as strong of a system.
But this got me wondering: why does this happen? Why do some storms look very good from above when they are much more disorganized or weaker below? What is it about these kinds of systems that make them able to mask their true level of organization?
How is it possible for storms that look very good on satellite to be weaker under the hood?
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How is it possible for storms that look very good on satellite to be weaker under the hood?
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Re: How is it possible for storms that look very good on satellite to be weaker under the hood?
Category5Kaiju wrote:So this is a question I recently came up with after seeing how many were talking about it, especially with storms like PTC4, Eta, or Elsa at multiple points in time; I remember how those storms looked very good on satellite causing people to believe they were quite strong when in reality, looking under the hood, scientists did not find as strong of a system.
But this got me wondering: why does this happen? Why do some storms look very good from above when they are much more disorganized or weaker below? What is it about these kinds of systems that make them able to mask their true level of organization?
Hidden Multiple LLCs? That was the case for Julia despite an impressive CDO.
The reverse of this can also happen, one very strong case for a weak-looking storm only to be found stronger was Ian.
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Re: How is it possible for storms that look very good on satellite to be weaker under the hood?
Category5Kaiju wrote:So this is a question I recently came up with after seeing how many were talking about it, especially with storms like PTC4, Eta, or Elsa at multiple points in time; I remember how those storms looked very good on satellite causing people to believe they were quite strong when in reality, looking under the hood, scientists did not find as strong of a system.
But this got me wondering: why does this happen? Why do some storms look very good from above when they are much more disorganized or weaker below? What is it about these kinds of systems that make them able to mask their true level of organization?
For hurricanes, there is a significant issue with cat 5 storms being expected rather than rare, which they are. Eta was an extremely strong and dangerous category 4 storm, yet there's a number of people who aren't happy unless every 4 is raised to a 5 because it 'looked good'. Elsa and PTC4 never looked good.
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Re: How is it possible for storms that look very good on satellite to be weaker under the hood?
An excellent read which discusses the variance in TC intensties when compared with Dvorak estimates.
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