Real time surface obs for RITA

That's a really cool program. I mean, that chances of max winds being sampled by an ASOS site are pretty slim owing to the paucity of the ASOS network. It's cool to see mobile towers being erected to better fill the gaps in the ASOS/AWOS network. Their blog/update is also pretty interesting.
 
Tower T0 has been set up at SE Texas Regional Airport in Port Arthur.

Lat. 29° 57' 04.3" N
Lon. 94° 01' 19.1" W

Tower T1 has been set up at Hobby Airport in Houston.
Lat. 29° 39' 49.6" N
Lon. 95° 16' 59.3" W

Tower T3 has been set up in Nederland, TX

Lat. 29° 57' 17.4" N
Lon. 93° 57' 15.2" W

Tower T5 has been set up in a field in Orange, TX

Lat. 30° 04' 46.9" N
Lon. 93° 47' 02.7" W
 
This is kind of a NOW ob, but oh well...

Site T5 should be very near the eye per radar. Current pressure reading is 946.9mb, with 3-sec winds of 101mph and 0.1s gust of 115mph.

10m Wind (Vane) Monitor
900.0 Sec 28.8 m/s ( 64.5 mph) @ 39.3° @ 24/08:08:29
600.0 Sec 29.6 m/s ( 66.1 mph) @ 45.3° @ 24/08:10:59
300.0 Sec 30.4 m/s ( 68.0 mph) @ 49.6° @ 24/08:13:22
180.0 Sec 30.9 m/s ( 69.0 mph) @ 49.0° @ 24/08:13:30
120.0 Sec 31.3 m/s ( 70.0 mph) @ 39.1° @ 24/08:08:02
60.0 Sec 32.9 m/s ( 73.5 mph) @ 29.5° @ 24/08:01:48
3.0 Sec 45.1 m/s ( 100.9 mph) @ 17.6° @ 24/08:03:38
2.0 Sec 46.2 m/s ( 103.4 mph) @ 16.5° @ 24/08:03:39
1.0 Sec 49.1 m/s ( 109.9 mph) @ 36.4° @ 24/08:09:50
0.1 Sec 51.4 m/s ( 114.9 mph) @ 28.1° @ 24/08:09:50
Long TI 0.188
Lat TI 0.251
Vert TI N/A - Measures 2D
Roughness (m) 0.049

Mean Temp © 24.4
Mean Humidity (%) 100.2
Mean Pressure (mB) 946.9
Rainfall (mm) -0.7
http://grove.ufl.edu/~fcmp/Rita/T5/NOAA-Ri...24-08-00-59.txt
 
Pressure at T3 and T5 continue to drop, now into the low 940s. The 0.1-1s gusts are generally in the 110-115mph range, with 3s winds of 108mph at T5. I believe NHC considers "sustained winds" to be the average wind over a 10s period. However, the FCMP doesn't report 10s winds, only 3s and 60s surrounding the 10s.
 
Anyone take notice of T0's 0.1 second wind gust to 240 mph, also a 3.0 second gust of 185! Whats with that? Are they generally accurate?
 
Does anybody know the story behind the 185mph gust? I hope they aren't throwing it out just because it seems too high. During the 1938 New England Hurricane (a cat 3) the Blue Hill Observatory 12 miles sw of Boston measured a 186mph gust. It still stands as one of the highest wind speeds ever recorded by a land station.

Is it possible that a tornado passed over the T0 site?
 
Originally posted by B Ozanne
Does anybody know the story behind the 185mph gust? I hope they aren't throwing it out just because it seems too high. During the 1938 New England Hurricane (a cat 3) the Blue Hill Observatory 12 miles sw of Boston measured a 186mph gust. It still stands as one of the highest wind speeds ever recorded by a land station.

Is it possible that a tornado passed over the T0 site?

10-m WM: 3.0 Sec 82.8 m/s ( 185.2 mph) @ 40.7° @ 24/01:59:37

The date/time on that wind ob is 1:59:37 UTC, or 9pm central time. The fact that the 10m wind (vane) monitor recorded that while neither of the other 2 anemometers on that same observation site (the 10m Gill and the 5m Gill anemometers) tell me it's a bad ob.
 
Back
Top