Congratulations, you are completing the last of 24 DataStreme Atmosphere investigations which have involved Internet-delivered data. We hope you have enjoyed the challenge of DataStreme Atmosphere participation as you have learned the fundamentals of meteorology with the excitement of current environmental data. We hope that you will share what you have learned with your colleagues and your students. DataStreme Atmosphere will continue to assist you.
In addition to being the starting point for weather sensing, analyzing and forecasting in the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides a wealth of weather safety and environmental information via their webpages. For example, http://www.education.noaa.gov/tweather.html has links to weather-related NOAA activities and opportunities of interest to teachers and others.
Another NOAA webpage is specifically devoted to hurricanes is http://hurricanes.noaa.gov/. Under the side menu item Hurricane Awareness, click on "Be Prepared". On this Hurricane Preparedness page, along the left menu panel, click on Storm Surge (the 4th item). It has specific information on the storm surge and animations of storm surge flooding, historically the most deadly threat of hurricanes. The third paragraph has a link to the SLOSH model (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/surge/slosh.shtml), used as a valuable forecasting tool and warning device. The example (select "124 kb" or "348 kb") shows the animation from the model of surge height for a storm with a track similar to Hurricane Katrina. The height of a storm's surge is dependent on both central pressure and winds as the storm makes landfall. Take a few moments to explore the depth and breadth of information available through these pages.
SLOSH is the NOAA acronym for: [(Submersion of Land Overtopped by Strong Hurricanes) (Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes) (Soggy Lands Or Shores Harmed)]. Such input is crucial for emergency planners to order evacuations and prepare for possible destruction.
The most devastating storm of 2008 and the estimated third costliest hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. was Ike. "IKE WAS A MAJOR CAPE VERDE HURRICANE THAT CAUSED EXTENSIVE DAMAGE AND MANY DEATHS ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN AND ALONG THE COASTS OF TEXAS AND LOUISIANA." (NHC September 2008 Monthly Summary) Ike developed to a major category 4 hurricane with peak winds of 145 mph on 4 September. Ike later made two landfalls on Cuba before heading into the Gulf of Mexico to strike Galveston Island as a category 2 storm. In its rampage across the region, Ike left 74 dead from flooding and mud slides in Haiti, 80% of the homes damaged on Great Inagua island in the Bahamas, 7 deaths on Cuba and finally 8 confirmed dead (6 coming from the storm surge) on Bolivar Peninsula east of Galveston. Several hundred were reported missing as well. Several dozen deaths occurred later when Ike's remnants passed across the lower Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. For perspective, the U.S.' deadliest hurricane occurred in 1900 when an estimated 8000 died on Galveston Island.
Wind patterns in hurricanes are seldom concentric about the eye, particularly when they approach land. At 0710Z (2:10 a.m. CDT) 13 September 2008, Ike made landfall on Galveston Island, Texas. Image 1 (courtesy of NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory) is the color-coded plot of maximum 1-minute sustained surface wind speeds in knots as determined by a U.S. Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft shortly after that time. The eye of Ike is centered in the plot with west longitude along the horizontal axis and north latitude along the vertical. The distance between marks along the vertical and horizontal scales is 0.1 degree or approximately 6 n. mi. The irregular outline of the Texas coast is seen diagonally bisecting the image. (You might also wish to look back at the Monday, Current Weather Studies 12A, Image 1 of 2008 hurricane tracks showing Ike.)
Wind speeds are color coded with isotachs at intervals of 5 knots. The highest wind speeds are shaded magenta and orange on-screen (darkest in a black and white print) east of the center. The unlabeled 65 kt isotach is shown as the distorted heavy black line that makes a wave pattern across the image (onshore to the northeast and southwest of the eye and just offshore to the eye's southeast). The 50-kt isotach is the heavy black line between blue-green (on-screen) shadings surrounding the 65-kt yellow area forming a "teardrop" around the eye and also curving around the western portions of the area. A heavy isotach denoting 35 kts immediately surrounds the much calmer central eye. Highlight and label the wavy 65-kt isotach that marks the threshold of hurricane wind speeds. Thin white arrows show the circulation of winds about the eye while a heavy white arrow from the cyclone's center denotes the storm movement at that time, to the north-northwest at 10 mph.
The highest observed surface wind speed is given in the caption below the image as _______ kts.
According to the caption, this was located 37 n. mi. ______ (direction) of the center of the eye (where the dashed lines cross).
At this time the minimum sea-level pressure (mslp), in the caption above the image, was ______ mb.
The surface wind speeds increase from near calm in the center of the eye to hurricane strength (65 kts, the heavy isotach nearest the eye region to the southeast) in about [(6) (12) (18)] n. mi. (Recall: one division (0.1°) along the latitude and longitude scales equals about 6 n. mi.) This change of wind speed implies an incredible horizontal air pressure gradient!
However, from the eye's center, the storm's highest wind speed isotach (80 kts) is first reached to the east-northeastward of the eye at about [(27) (33) (39)] nautical miles.
Given Ike's forward movement as shown by the central arrow in the eye, the highest winds and therefore the highest storm surge were [(to the left of) (at) (to the right of)] the advancing eye's landfalling position on the storm track. Bolivar Peninsula where most of the deaths from the storm surge occurred can be seen jutting toward Galveston Island from the northeast.
Northeast of the eye, the wind directions as shown by the white arrows, are directed [(onshore) (offshore)]. (Land is to the upper left of the irregular shoreline.)
The effects of rough land versus smoother ocean on the wind speeds can be seen in the wind pattern. For example, observe the wind speeds as depicted by their shadings over the ocean and over the land at the centers of the highest speeds just onshore to the northeast of the eye and just offshore to the southwest. At points near the shore, the wind speed is [(less) (the same) (greater)] on the land side compared to the ocean side. This change is brought about by the increased frictional drag of the rougher land surface.
Additional NOAA pictures and information is at: http://www.noaawatch.gov/2008/ike.php. There is an extensive NASA report on Ike at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2008/h2008_ike.html. This report contains several satellite views of Ike. The article on Ike in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike) contains more images and describes the local conditions before and after Ike's passing. Nearly 200 confirmed deaths were attributed to Ike. Ike even had an impact into Canada.
Another valuable document for teachers is http://www.climate.noaa.gov/education/hurricanes/stormsurge.pdf. This brochure was produced by Beth Jewell, an Einstein Fellow serving at NOAA's Office of Education during the 2005-06 school year, and a DataStreme LIT leader. It provides a classroom activity involving the storm surge and its effects.
We welcome communications from you. You may contact us via the email address near the bottom of the DataStreme Atmosphere website or Junction website. If you have teaching or other ideas that promote the use of current weather information across the curriculum, please let us know. We are especially interested in hearing of (a) how DataStreme Atmosphere led to inquiry-based learning in your classrooms, (b) how you have used your DataStreme Atmosphere learning experiences to teach other content skills, such as technology, arithmetic, graphing, and communications reinforcement, and (c) how you are assisting your colleagues and schools as DataStreme Atmosphere Weather Education Resource Teachers. Also, if you have instances where you have included DataStreme Atmosphere Project or weather materials in your district or state curricula or frameworks, we would appreciate knowing details.
Congratulations on your completion of the DataStreme Atmosphere course and best wishes for your future Weather Education Resource work.
Record your responses to items in CWS Activities 12A and 12B on the
CWS Answer Form for transmission to your course
mentor.
Instructions for Communications with Mentor:
After completing this week's applications, take to your final course meeting or
transmit the following work to your LIT mentor by Monday, 21 April 2008, or as
coordinated with your mentor:
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©Copyright, 2008, American Meteorological Society
