DataStreme Activity 12A:

HURRICANES

Do Now:

  1. Print this file.
  2. Print the Monday Image 1 and Image 2 Files.
  3. Print (when available) the Tuesday, 4 December 2001, Daily Summary File.

To Do Activity:

  1. Read Chapter 12 in STUDY GUIDE, Part A: Narrative.
  2. Go to STUDY GUIDE, Part B: Applications. Start Activity 12A.
  3. Return here (Monday Activity A File) when told to do so.

Go To STUDY GUIDE - Activity 12A Now


Note

If you did not already fill out the Fall 2001 DataStreme participant questionnaire, please download and print it now. Then complete it and give it to your LIT leader at the final meeting.


WELCOME BACK: Procedure continued from STUDY GUIDE.

The 2001 Hurricane Season in the Atlantic Basin was a mixture of extremes. In terms of the number of storms, it was the fourth most active on record with 15 named storms (tropical storm or hurricane), yet no hurricane made landfall on the US coast. And no hurricane formed until September 8th. Most storms tracked harmlessly across the Atlantic, yet 85 people were killed in the US and Latin America. The deadliest system to affect the US this season was Tropical Storm Allison, the focus of this activity. At 4 PM CDT, 5 June 2001, Allison made landfall on Galveston Island, Texas, with 60 mph winds on the coastline and a storm surge of 3 feet. Four days, 37 inches of rain, and 22 deaths later, the storm became history as the Houston area's costliest natural disaster. For details on the entire 2001 Hurricane Season, see the Monday, 3 December 2001, Supplemental Information File.

Responsibility for the forecasting and warning of tropical weather system activity in the Atlantic and eastern portion of the Pacific Ocean basins resides with the Tropical Prediction/Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. They are one branch of the US National Weather Service's National Centers for Environmental Prediction. The National Hurricane Center's web page: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/, contains the latest information on tropical weather system activity as well as a wealth of historical and other information regarding hurricanes.

  1. Image 1 is the Infrared satellite image at 0015Z 6 JUN 2001, about 3 hours following Allison's landfall near Galveston. The brightest white circle of cloudiness over Houston, near the southeast Texas coast, indicates a compact mass of [(low, warm) (high, cold)] thunderstorm cloud tops. Other thunderstorms can be seen elsewhere across the US at this time. A large area of towering, slow-moving thunderstorms would be expected to produce [(heavy) (light)] amounts of rainfall on the area.

  2. As a tropical storm, Allison's maximum sustained wind speeds of 60 mph were less than the threshold of ______ km (______ mi.) per hour necessary to become a hurricane. [See p. 232 of Part A, Narrative.] These wind speeds would decline rapidly in the few hours following landfall due to increased surface [(Coriolis effect) (friction)] as well as the loss of warm water surface for latent heat via evaporation to sustain the storm. In fact, no lives were lost during the first day after landfall!

  3. Image 2 is the Houston NWS office radar image of storm total precipitation at 2234Z 10 June 2001 when significant rainfall in the southeast Texas area had ended. Total radar estimated precipitation amounts are shown in the shading scale at the left of the image in inches.

    From the scale, the brightest white areas show that total precipitation was estimated to be in excess of [(5) (10) (25)] inches over this four-day period both near Houston and west of Beaumont, both about 30 miles inland. (The "ton" of the Houston label is just visible.)

  4. Of the hazards usually associated with tropical weather systems, particularly hurricanes (destructive winds, coastal storm surge, inland flooding), the most deadly element in the Allison case causing all 22 deaths in the area surrounding Houston was [(destructive winds) (coastal storm surge) (inland flooding)].

You may wish to explore other information provided by the National Hurricane Center's homepage, particularly if you or your relatives live or visit along the Gulf or East Coasts, areas prone to hurricane landfall. The National Hurricane Center page contains an animation of the path of Allison and text messages of public advisories and discussions issued at the time. You can access these by selecting menu choices: under Storm Information, 2001 Advisory Archive, Tropical Storm Allison in the Atlantic listing. Additional radar and satellite images and detailed history of the episode can be found at the Houston NWS homepage, at: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/projects/allison01.htm


DataStreme participants: Your successful completion of the DataStreme course includes 3 graduate semester hours of credit from the State University of New York College at Brockport. The graduate catalog description of the course is:

ESC 675 Real-Time Weather Studies
Principles of meteorology will be developed from analysis of electronically-delivered current environmental data and learning activities. This distance-learning course will rely on computer receipt, analysis, and display of geoscience data with classroom applications.


"ESC" indicates this is a course from the Department of the Earth Sciences and "675" indicates it is a course at the graduate level. You may request a certified transcript with this credit anytime after receiving the letter noting that college semester credit with the grade has been awarded ("unofficial college transcript"), usually in several weeks. To request a certified transcript copy, call Registration and Records at SUNY Brockport at 716-395-2531 or http://cc.brockport.edu/~admweb01/transcrp.html and follow the provided directions.


Hold this activity until you have completed all applications for this week. Instructions for faxing your LIT mentor will appear at the end of this week's Activity B.


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©Copyright, 2001, American Meteorological Society