Hurricane Jimena

[Brian Osburn]

Out of curiosity, why did you stop at Todos Santos?

It's a fairly long and interesting story, but the short version is that the Americans that offered to give me a ride up the coast were unwilling to go the rest of the way as their knowledge of Baja only extended to La Paz.

When darkness fell, they decided to turn around and head back to Cabo.

I had traveled to Cabo alone...I was lucky to get as far north as I did.

Glad to see Jim is feeling good enough to communicate. When I saw him at the airport, I knew he had somehow had a mega-dose of Mexican water. I only had a small amount in the form of ice in a Mohito...but that was enough for me to get the you-know-whats...I didn't suffer near as bad as he did, though.

 

[cdcollura]

Good stuff, Jim...

Glad you are feeling better ... Hurricane chasing is never anything about "comfort"!

 

[Josh Morgerman]

It's a fairly long and interesting story, but the short version is that the Americans that offered to give me a ride up the coast were unwilling to go the rest of the way as their knowledge of Baja only extended to La Paz.

When darkness fell, they decided to turn around and head back to Cabo.

I had traveled to Cabo alone...I was lucky to get as far north as I did.

Well, I can understand the hesitation. I chased Jimena alone and I'd never been to the Baja either, so it definitely wasn't the easiest chase and I was a bit nervous at times. Driving up the Peninsula from Cabo San Lucas, I had no idea what to expect-- literally none. But I just used common sense-- kept the tank full, had extra gasoline in the trunk, drove cautiously and during daylight hours, and acted very politely toward the locals-- and got up to Puerto San Carlos without incident.

This was my second solo chase in Mexico-- my first was Dean-- and in both, I found Mexico to be a friendly and hospitable place. It gets a bum rap from folks who've never really been there, but overall, it's cool and I like it. And of course they get really good hurricanes.

Knowing some Spanish really helps. If you don't know any, it can make life hard in the less touristy areas. I got past a military checkpoint talking only in Spanish, which surprised me-- but overall my Spanish is not great. This chase has inspired me to really work on it-- a better grasp of the language will make one less obstacle for future chases to remote corners of the country where people really don't speak English.

 

[Brian Osburn]

Well, I can understand the hesitation. I chased Jimena alone and I'd never been to the Baja either, so it definitely wasn't the easiest chase and I was a bit nervous at times. Driving up the Peninsula from Cabo San Lucas, I had no idea what to expect-- literally none. But I just used common sense-- kept the tank full, had extra gasoline in the trunk, drove cautiously and during daylight hours, and acted very politely toward the locals-- and got up to Puerto San Carlos without incident.

This was my second solo chase in Mexico-- my first was Dean-- and in both, I found Mexico to be a friendly and hospitable place. It gets a bum rap from folks who've never really been there, but overall, it's cool and I like it. And of course they get really good hurricanes.

Knowing some Spanish really helps. If you don't know any, it can make life hard in the less touristy areas. I got past a military checkpoint talking only in Spanish, which surprised me-- but overall my Spanish is not great. This chase has inspired me to really work on it-- a better grasp of the language will make one less obstacle for future chases to remote corners of the country where people really don't speak English.

You and I should never go "alone" again. Especially in a foreign land. Let's stay in touch and if we both go to a next one, let's agree to work together and split costs.

 

[Brian Osburn]

Interesting Weather Data from Hurricane Jimena:

I was just reviewing my weather data from my Hurricane Jimena intercept and ran across a very very interesting reading I took while standing on the beach at 10:30 AM local time (MDT) (circa: Associated Press interview)

My barometer, which is part of an extremely nice Kestler 4000, measured an astounding 1022 mb with the storm just offshore to the west of Cabo San Lucas.

Later, at Tados Santos, I measured an equally impressive 1021 mb at 4:00 PM local time (MDT).

Isn't that amazing! I've described to this blog that a high pressure system, if it could be seen with the human eye, would look like a mountain, with ridges and valleys.

What these readings indicate is that the area of Baha I was located at was basically under the influence of industrial strength high pressure, like a sheer-faced mountain, the type that rock climbers like to scale.

Rainy, windy, lots of waves...yeah...but also high pressure in the 1020s...Amazing!!!!

 

[Josh Morgerman]

iCyclone Video Teaser: Jimena in Puerto San Carlos

The video teaser from my Hurricane Jimena chase is now live on the homepage of my Website-- check it out: iCyclone.

Like my other teasers, it gives a fast chronological overview of the cyclone's passage, including the front side, lull, and backside-- all in under five minutes!

Some quick notes (all times MDT):

* Nighttime shooting. The cyclone approached the coast late at night, and the eyewall and eye reached Puerto San Carlos in darkness. You guys all know what a challenge nighttime shooting is, and I had to get creative with lighting and camera angles to convey the energy of the eyewall.

* Audio. This is a great example of how the wind's sound can actually help you judge relative intensity. Immediately after the cyclone passed, I felt the backside had been as severe as the front. But, reviewing the footage, you can hear that the front eyewall sounds a bit angrier-- especially from 04:57 am through to the lull a little after 06:00 am. The backside was definitely solid, but I think now that the front was a bit fiercer. It sounds much harsher.

* Front Eyewall. You'll notice from the footage that the town got really pounded for a good hour-- from a little before 05:00 am to a little after 06:00 am. The severest conditions seemed to be around 05:38-05:39 am. You can't see the tops of the palms, unfortunately-- which were really getting blasted-- but notice the shrieking sound of the wind and the small tree at street level (to the left) that's flailing like nuts.

* Lull. Notice how fast the wind died down as the eye reached the town just after 06:00 am-- it was really fast. It just died. The lull was surprisingly long for such a small hurricane-- the better part of two hours.

* Backside. The wind started tugging again around 07:40 am was back up to destructive speeds by perhaps a little before 08:00 am. My camera died from water exposure a little after 08:30 am, but I'd say the wind started to lessen a bit by 09:30 am, and I felt the worst had definitely passed by 10:00 am.

* Event Duration. Jimena wasn't a microcane, but it was a rather small cyclone. The total duration of the main effects (gales and heavy rain) seemed to be no more than about ~7 or 8 hours (~03:00 am to 10:00 or 11:00 am), with the really heavy conditions lasting no more than ~2 hours on either side of the lull (~06:05 am to ~07:40 am).

Enjoy!

 

[Bryan Stokes]

Awesome footage Josh! It's cool comparing the front side to the back side...

Bryan

 

[Josh Morgerman]

Awesome footage Josh! It's cool comparing the front side to the back side...

Bryan

Hey, thanks, Bryan-- glad you liked it!

Yeah, I'm always glad when I get in the eye, because I definitely like to compare the two halves of the cyclone, to assess the quality and symmetry of the system's structure. I feel sometimes like I'm judging thoroughbreds.

 

[Josh Morgerman]

How many major hurricane eyes (cat #3 or greater at landfall) have you experienced?

Please detail the parameters you used to analyze the symmetry and structure of said major hurricanes you experienced the eyes of.

Which one of these same major hurricanes did you find most uniform? And which one did you find most asymmetric?

Gee, Rich--why limit it to Cat-3 hurricanes? I'm sure you know that even a Cat 1 can have a nice, round structure, whereas a Cat 4 can be highly asymmetric-- so this isn't a discussion about intensity-- although, obviously, stronger hurricanes tend to have better structures.

As for "parameters"... I've been in plenty of hurricanes and it isn't exactly rocket science to tell the difference between a nice, symmetric cyclone and one that isn't. I don't carry an anemometer, so of course my opinion is going to be fairly subjective.

* Asymmetric: major effects on one side of the eye last longer/are noticeably more severe than on the other side. Two examples that stick in my head: Gloria 1985 on Long Island, NY and Gustav 2008 in Morgan City, LA. For both these storms, there was plenty of heavy rain and wind on the front side and almost nothing on the back side-- almost no rain and no higher than a stiff breeze after the eye passed.

* Symmetric: major effects conditions on both sides of the eye last about the same length and are about as severe. Two examples would be Bret 1999 in S TX and Ike 2009 in Texas City, TX-- both of which seemed to pack about as strong and long a punch on either side of the center.

If you want more information Re: chases I've been on and what I observed in them, check out my Website. Especially read the Wilma 2005 chase study. I documented that chase in particularly minute detail, and I talk about structure a bit. (That one felt very asymmetric in the sense that the winds at our location (Naples & Everglades City, FL) were noticeably more severe after the eye had passed.)

What would be your examples of symmetric and asymmetric, Rich? I'm sure with your big resume, you'd have plenty of interesting examples to share.

 

[Josh Morgerman]

P.S. Too bad I missed Dean 2007's eye on the Yucatan-- by only a few miles-- because it would have been interesting to judge that one's symmetry from the center. According to the HRD's surface-wind analysis (ftp://ftp.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/pub/hwind/2007/AL042007/0821/0730/AL042007_0821_0730_contour02.png), the cyclone was relatively symmetric as it came ashore-- with at least Cat-4 winds in all quads and really decent wind maxima both N and S of the center. Unfortunately, I was just S of the core and missed the highest winds by a hair. Grrrrrrr. But from what I experienced just S of the core, it seemed pretty nice-- with the decent effects lasting for quite a bit after the center passed to the N.

The other Cat-5 landfall that year, Felix (which of course I didn't chase), is a good example of how "intense" doesn't necessarily equal "symmetric". This one's wind field looks highly asymmetric-- especially for such an intense storm: ftp://ftp.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/pub/hwind/2007/AL062007/0904/1200/AL062007_0904_1200_contour02.png

 

[Josh Morgerman]

Probably the most beautifully structured landfalling American hurricane since Andrew had to be Charley 2004. It looked totally sweet on radar and I'll always kick myself for missing it. Ugh!!

Rich, I know you missed the center on that one, but several chasers here did manage to hit the bull's eye in Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, and I'd be interested to hear their observations from on the ground-- like, how good was the backside compared with the front side?

Sorry to bring the thread off topic a little-- I enjoy this subject, obviously.

 

[Josh Morgerman]

You used the word thoroughbreds; so I assumed you were referring to major hurricanes.

Interesting that you were in the eye of Bret. Exactly where were you when you intercepted the eye of that cat. #4 hurricane? It had been previously thought that only Tim Marshall (founder of Stormtrack) was the only chaser to have braved the pitch of night to intercept the eye in the middle of the nowhere of the King's ranch. Tim, if I recall, parked in the "cover" of a traffic/agricultural-check lane on the highway and had his rear window knocked out, which I am sure enhanced the excitement of that chase. Did you run into him? We saw Tim drive by us just after dark in the small of Sarita, just north of Kenedy county, and wondered where he might find shelter in that barren county where the tiny eye of Bret came ashore.

I was not in the eye of Bret-- I missed it a little to the N. (I was at the Kenedy Co. border.) However, I noticed that as the center passed to the S, the duration and speed of the winds was quite constant and went on for quite a while well after the center had moved to the W. (Should have been clearer about that.) Also, the visible satellite imagery and radar showed a very nice storm.

P.S. Bret was a minimal Cat 3 at landfall in the USA, with winds of 100 kt as it crossed S Padre Island. It was nothing near a Cat 4 at landfall.

 

[Josh Morgerman]

As far as Charley, every chaser in the world, I thought, intercepted that one's core, except me and my chase partner. (The bust of all busts for us.) We checked into the Holiday Inn in Punta Gorda, right on Charlotte Harbor just after noon. We then looked at the radar and saw the eye had jogged NE, so we drove down to Ft. Myers and got stuck there when the eye jogged back north. Afterward, we drove up to Punta Gorda and saw that the whole hotel wing of the Holiday Inn we left had totally collapsed; so we missed that fun.

Were you in Pt. Charlotte, or were you in Punta Gorda?

That must have been an exquisitely painful bust-- to miss one that good from so close. I felt pretty bummed about missing Dean's eye, although looking back, I feel I made reasonable decisions and just have to live with it. The cyclone was too strong and the terrain too unfamiliar for me to be driving around trying to fine-tune my location in the last few hours before landfall. And a nighttime landfall without portable Internet didn't help. (Listen to me: excuses, excuses. )

Why do you ask where I was in Charley? I said in my post that I will always kick myself for not chasing it. (I was living in Europe at the time and couldn't get over to the USA.)

Also, I have bored this forum with my chase accounts over the years; I am sure they don't want to hear those again.\

That's never stopped you before. Please share-- you've been in so many cyclones, I'd really like to know which one you felt had the best structure-- like, a nice core, a good eye, severe conditions on both sides of it, etc.

 

[Josh Morgerman]

By the way, here's why I brought up Bret. Although it had weakened significantly by this point (100 kt, down from 125 kt), it really looked very nice and symmetric as it came ashore-- much better than a lot of other Gulf-coast landfalls of the last decade.

If Tim stumbles upon this thread, I'd be curious to hear what he experienced from his bull's-eye hit:

 

[Josh Morgerman]

Back to Jimena...

Structurally, it felt pretty decent on the ground-- a nice, solid calm, with solid punches on both sides of it (see my video teaser, above). However, it actually didn't look so hot on the infrared imagery as it crossed the Puerto San Carlos area. There seemed to be a bit of a dry slot or something just NW of the center, although I did not notice its effects on the ground (it rained hard up until the center arrived). I was actually slightly disappointed when I saw the imagery afterward: