Stormgasm Saves Resident of Orange, TX!

[Simon Brewer]

An incredible, but brief summary of what Simon Brewer and Reed Timmer experienced in Orange, TX during the landfall of Hurricane Rita can be viewed in the link below:

http://www.stormgasm.com/latestnews/latestnews.htm

Simon Brewer

 

[Andy Wehrle]

Congrats, guys. There are a few things you might want to correct in there though:

There have been two category five hurricanes in the same season in the past, it was in another thread. Someone who knows more about hurricane climatology can elaborate, perhaps.

Rita is now a strong Catagory 5 Hurricane with winds sustained at 165 mph and a pressure of 940mb!

That doesn't quite compute. Perhaps you meant 904 mb?

 

[Glen Romine]

Also interesting that they reported the eye passed over Orange Texas, whereas it appears the center of the storm actually passed about 20 miles to the south/west of there. Also, FCMP observations from the same city did not experience calm conditions as the storm passed closest and peak wind only ~80 mph sustained and 3 sec gusts ~100 mph at 10 m (~30ft above the ground), so there must have been some diverse conditions across town.

A nice closeup of landfall track is available here:
http://users.ce.ufl.edu/~fcmp/2005-Rita.gif

Also, surface pressure observations from the ASOS closest to the path at landfall only had 951 mb around 0900Z - so the pressure measurements of 939 mb also seems rather incredible.

Maybe there is some artistic license in the account - or maybe they experienced some truely unique conditions. I wasn't there - so I guess I'll just assume the latter.

Glen

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I can confirm that the eye did pass over them. I had gone to Orange before Rita hit, but I couldn't find a good place to ride out the hurricane, so I left and went back to Beaumont. Orange was about 10-15 miles East of Beaumont and the NW and the W side of the eye wall passed right over me, which would have put them inside what was left of the eye. I was watching XM with GPS the whole time, so I am pretty damn sure on this.

 

[Glen Romine]

Mike, thanks for offering your thoughts from 'ground truth'. I looked more closely at the FCMP obs, and it does appear that the eye must have passed between Beumont and Orange, likely east a bit from the official track from NHC overlayed in the plot above. The pressures are close enough that the 939 mb they measured there is probably in the ballpark as well - which makes more sense with a slight eastward shift of the track.

Glen

 

[Simon Brewer]

I can't confirm the "120mph" sustained winds, but we were on the western Outskirts of Orange and all the damage around us was equivalent to 120 sustained wind damage from many previous hurricanes, also thanks Andy, those earlier pieces of info on the website were typos, but I went back and fixed them; there might be some more misspellings and other small typos on the page, because I typed it up in a hurry.

Glen, I recommend you take your own data for the next hurricanes, so that "artistic" thoughts are not mixed with the "ground truth". And Glen, for "ground truth" purposes, I've just about finished up my BS in Meteorology, Joel Taylor graduated with his BS is METR back in 2002, and Reed is working on his METR PHD.

Simon

 

[Shane Adams]

Originally posted by Simon Brewer

Glen, I recommend you take your own data for the next hurricanes, so that \"artistic\" thoughts are not mixed with the \"ground truth\". And Glen, for \"ground truth\" purposes, I've just about finished up my BS in Meteorology, Joel Taylor graduated with his BS is METR back in 2002, and Reed is working on his METR PHD.

There's no need to get defensive just because someone commented with a different opinion/observation than yours. As for the degrees you mentioned, those have nothing to do with chasing storms successfully, so I'm not real clear why that boast was included in your reply. Seems you guys would do better with business management degrees, regarding your chases.

 

[Glen Romine]

Originally posted by Simon Brewer

Glen, I recommend you take your own data for the next hurricanes, so that \"artistic\" thoughts are not mixed with the \"ground truth\". And Glen, for \"ground truth\" purposes, I've just about finished up my BS in Meteorology, Joel Taylor graduated with his BS is METR back in 2002, and Reed is working on his METR PHD.

The 'ground truth' reference above was in reference to Miichael's observations - as he was aware of his location relative to the western eyewall - and that the eyewall edge was east of the official track and helped fill in some of the inconsistency between your observations, the official track from NHC and those from the towers. Your web account said you were at the Ramada on the north side of Orange - which isn't west of Orange as you later corrected - and that would have placed you very near the tower observations. If you were at the same location as the tower - then I assume you can follow how you would be expected to observe similar weather conditions. Since you now are noting that you were instead west of Orange - then that would make more sense that you were closer to the center of the circulation. A pressure trace and wind direction and speed at the time of lowest pressure would be most useful - but you didn't provide any supporting information - and it seemed to be in contrast to what I considered a more reliable source. Details are important if you want your observations to be taken seriously. As for the degrees earned and those anticipated - I agree with Shane's comments completely. Degrees are useful for getting a job - but don't make personal accounts of weather events any more official.

Glen

 

[HAltschule]

So what happened with this rescue? I don't see any details about it? Am I missing something. When will you elaborate?

Thanks,

Howie

 

[David Schuttler]

Originally posted by HAltschule
So what happened with this rescue? I don't see any details about it? Am I missing something. When will you elaborate?

Thanks,

Howie

They forgot about him while observing everything else at the sametime... :roll:

Simon, Reed and Lela went through intense moments to save this man during the full force of the hurricane!

Simon and Reed measured 939 mb in the Eye of Hurricane Rita!!!