8/13-14/04 REPORTS: Charley

[rdale]

Good thing you picked a day it was still "calm" ;>

"We dropped about a 1000 ft. in about a second."

Are you guessing or was that measured? That would indicate a 700mph downdraft?

"The pilot had to apply double the force (physic's equation E=m x v2) to stay in the air."

Not sure I understand that?

 

[William Coyle]

TS Charley Funnel and Rope tornado.

I had just returned from shooting video at the oceanfront of Virginia Beach and was inside my home when my wife told me the cloud were moving funny and kind of low to the ground, we were in what was left of the center of Charley. There was a tornado warning for my area but I dismissed it as scud when I went and looked. Once more she called me over to the door to take another look and this time I went outside with the video camera only to take video of what I thought was scud clouds. As I looked on I noticed that these were not scud and that there were funnels in the air and a wall cloud just above my head at my front door. I turned on the video without a tripod which I like to use but did not have time to get it and began videoing the rotation. The wall cloud did drop a couple of ropes but I think the middle one which is in the middle of the video touch down. The link to the video is below..Enjoy

Link here: http://valightning.com/clips/ropenader081404.rmvb


William Coyle
www.valightning.com

 

[John Gnuechtel]

I live just about 7 blocks outside the heart of Orlando, and roughly 2 miles west of their Executive Airport (the small one). The eye of Charley passed over my place at 9:24 according to my watch. The winds peaked at that time, and then died within the span of a minute. They came back up from the opposite direction 7 minutes later, but the violent winds on the back side of the storm lasted no more than 20 minutes.

Winds at that airport were clocked at 107 according to radio reports here, registering Charley as a category 2 when it passed over Orlando. I checked out the airport myself the following morning, and found about 2/3 of the planes there were on their backs, and just about every tower-like structure bent over in the same direction. This would seem to rule out the damage being tornado-related, but I'm sure flight surveys over the area will make more sense of that than me. Most noteably, a vintage DC-3 had broken its moorings, and slid into another hangar, destroying itself and the hangar's contents in the process. That couldn't have been cheap.

My neighborhood looks like a bomb hit it. Trees on the propperty I live on have fallen on houses on both sides of me (glad I rent!). The trip out of my subdivision that normally takes 5 minutes now takes 20 on account of large oak trees blocking almost every residential street (even 3 days after the fact). My biggest concern right now is the streets. Orlando drivers are some of the worst in the country, and with so many traffic lights out, it is very dangerous out there. You would think people would be more careful, but then you watch them drive straight through lights that are not opperating like they weren't even there. I can't even imagine how bad this problem is in the areas heavily populated by tourists.

We have had two deaths in Orange County attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning due to an impropperly placed generator. I believe that qualifies for "dumbest hurricane-related fatality" so far. A whole lot of people here believed Orlando was too far inland to be struck by a hurricane. At least I won't have to hear that again.

I will post pictures when my power comes back.

 

[Zach Bailey]

Originally posted by John Gnuechtel

Winds at that airport were clocked at 107...

Is that knots or mph? Sustained or gust?

I hope you can get everything cleaned up and your power comes back soon! Good luck with everything. Can't wait to see those pictures, too.

 

[John Gnuechtel]

That's the peak gust in mph. Last I heard, sustained winds at the main airport were 93mph (with a gust of 105).

 

[Andrew Geil]

Originally posted by John Gnuechtel

We have had two deaths in Orange County attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning due to an impropperly placed generator. I believe that qualifies for \"dumbest hurricane-related fatality\" so far.

I think the guy who CNN reported stepping outside to smoke a ciggarette (and thus was killed) wins that award.

 

[Zach Bailey]

Originally posted by Andrew Geil
I think the guy who CNN reported stepping outside to smoke a ciggarette (and thus was killed) wins that award.

Wow...just wow. Darwin award nominee?

 

[Ken Johnson]

We actually dropped around 800 ft. It felt like it dropped that fast in a second, but it actually happended over a few seconds.

 

[Jeff Gammons]

Here are a few more video clips from the eye of hurricane Charley in Punta Gorda, Florida.

http://www.weathervine.com/hurricanes/charley/


Jeff Gammons
http://www.weathervine.com

 

[Jack Beven]

Originally posted by Jeff Gammons
Hello Everyone,

We are home and getting caught up on some sleep after 4 days of chasing first tropical storm Bonnie and then monster Hurricane Charley. Here is a short update and more will follow soon.

We intercepted Charley in downtown Punta Gorda, FL at the county court house just off of SR41. Our lowest pressure reading was 943MB during the eyewall passaged that lasted all of 3 minutes due to the very small eye.

A question on the 943 mb pressure - was it measured during the calm inside the eye, or during the eyewall winds?

I'll note here that the last pressure measured by the Hurricane Hunters just after the eye crossed Cayo Costa was 941 mb. The chaser pressures from the eye have all been near 943, which is nicely consistent with that.

Jack Beven
[email protected]

 

[Jeff Gammons]

Jack,

I belive the pressure reading was during the short-live lighter winds in the eye. After looking back at some of the DV tape I noted that I say to Chris " Wow the winds look calm" and then Chris says kinda over me at the time "pressure is 943MB" Then he gets out and shoots that video of the eye looking up with a little sun light coming through before the winds shift. This all took place over 2-3 minutes top.

Below are a few graphics from the software chris designed to work with the WXlab on the roof of his car. The anemometer was under cover from the building at the time so there is no wind data.


[Broken External Image]:http://www.bnvn.com/weathervine/charley/WXLab02.gif

[Broken External Image]:http://www.bnvn.com/weathervine/charley/WXLab01.gif

Jeff Gammons
http://www.weathervine.com

 

[Jack Beven]

Jack,

I belive the pressure reading was during the short-live lighter winds in the eye. After looking back at some of the DV tape I noted that I say to Chris " Wow the winds look calm" and then Chris says kinda over me at the time "pressure is 943MB" Then he gets out and shoots that video of the eye looking up with a little sun light coming through before the winds shift. This all took place over 2-3 minutes top.

Below are a few graphics from the software chris designed to work with the WXlab on the roof of his car. The anemometer was under cover from the building at the time so there is no wind data.

This data looks quite impressive. We'd like to use your pressure in our post-storm report if that's OK with you. If so, we'd like to have the pressure to the nearest tenth of a millibar and the time of occurrence if you have a record of that.

Jack Beven
[email protected]

 

[Anthony Petito]

I found a couple of Hurrican Charley eye pics... I heard they were few
and far between but stumbled upon them when viewing an Air Force
site....

Enjoy (56k beware, large pics)!

http://www.af.mil/media/photodb/photos/040...F-3231D-215.jpg
OVER FLORIDA -- This view of the outer wall of the eye of Hurricane
Charley was taken from a C-130H aircraft Aug. 13 at 3 p.m. With the
information the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron collected, the
hurricane was upgraded to a Category 4 storm Aug. 13. (U.S. Air Force
photo by Tech. Sgt. Tracy L. DeMarco)

http://www.af.mil/media/photodb/photos/040...F-3231D-139.jpg
OVER FLORIDA -- As Hurricane Charley approached the Florida coast,
wind speeds increased to a top speed of 148 knots (170 mph) while the
diameter of the storm's eye decreased to an intense 5 miles. This view
of the outer wall of the eye was taken from a C-130H aircraft Aug. 13
at 2:55 p.m. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Tracy L. DeMarco)

For other pics and site link visit:
http://www.af.mil/photos/story_photos.asp?...oryID=123008410