Gulf: Hurricane Karl

[Jack Beven]

Josh and all,

A couple of observations I made while being on duty during the landfall: First, according to the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) data from the airplane, the strongest winds were in the southeastern quadrant of the eyewall. So was the 120 kt flight-level wind I mentioned in the discussion. If the measurements are correct and things didn't change before landfall, it suggests that Josh wasn't far from the strongest winds.

Second, the winds did drop of dramatically outside the eyewall on the south side, and while I can't say for sure I suspect those winds were north of the reporting stations.

Third, as I said in the discussion, I don't have a ready explanation of the filling right before landfall. That will require a lot of post-analysis.

Jack Beven

 

[Josh Morgerman]

I posted the video teaser from my Karl chase:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-biiEZ_VC4

(This is the first time I'm premiering an iCyclone video via YouTube rather than my site, iCyclone.com. My site will have the video up-- complete with the usual cheesy marketing blurb-- this week. )

Not much to say here, except: Yes, the camera is very shaky in parts! I was on my own for this chase, and between driving stick shift, navigating, collecting data, and trying not to get killed, it was a bit challenging to keep the videocam steady-- especially with all the dangerous flying debris.

You'll notice that my location nicked the edge of the eye a little after 12 noon-- you can see that ghostly light on the NW horizon during the lull. But since I was right on the edge of the eye, the lull was uneven, and it was interrupted by some odd, destructive bursts of wind. One of the most interesting parts of the video is at 12:20 pm CDT: the cyclone's backside moves in and the wind very quickly revs up again, tearing parts of the roofs off of two buildings and sending debris flying down the street. That was a scary moment-- things got a bit chaotic.

Below is a map of my location (yellow dot) in relation to the center's track (red dots).

Enjoy!