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Hurricane Season 2004

For current hurricane information, see the National Hurricane Center's webpage: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

For information on storm preparations, see the Institute for Business & Home Safety webpage: http://www.ibhs.org/newsroom/view.asp?id=362


Hurricane Frances


Texas Tech Hurricane Intercept Team Activation
August 30, 2004

Hurricane Frances
Maximum sustained winds: 120 mph
Minimum central pressure: 956 mb
Motion: W at 12 mph


Hurricane Frances continues to move towards the east coast of the US. The Texas Tech University tower team will leave for the east coast at 3 pm today. Tentatively, The goal is the east coast of Florida. That position will be refined as the storm moves closer and more information is available.


Texas Tech Researchers to study Hurricane Frances

August 30, 2004

Texas Tech University's Wind Science and Engineering Research Center has sent a team of researchers to the East Coast to study Hurricane Frances, a large and potentially damaging hurricane that is expected to make landfall somewhere on the East Coast of the United States.

Texas Tech researchers left for the east coast of Florida on Monday, (Aug. 30). Due to the difficulty in predicting where the hurricane will make landfall, the research team will remain mobile for a few days.

A team of approximately a dozen Texas Tech researchers will use a 30-foot instrumented tower to study Hurricane Frances. The tower is powered by the winds of the hurricane, and researchers hope to learn more about hurricane winds so that engineers may design buildings that are better able to resist hurricane-force gales. The tower will be deployed as close as possible to the area of maximum winds, then the researchers will retreat to a safe distance, leaving the towers and radar to collect their data.

Team members will be available to speak about Hurricane Frances and the Wind Science and Engineering Research Center.

For more information, contact Chad Morris, associate director, Wind Science and Engineering Research Center, Texas Tech University, (806) 742-3479, extension


Hurricane Frances

September 1, 2004

Texas Tech University tower teams are in Jacksonville, FL this morning, and will head south down I-95 towards Melbourne, FL. The radar teams are in Shreveport, LA and will hopefully make it to at least to Tallahassee, FL tonight.

If the intensity forecast does not change, an experimental plan will be used for a major hurricane at landfall, which will spread the towers in hopes of catching the eye wall. A final decision will be made tomorrow morning on which experimental plan to follow based on the forecast and available deployment locations.

The SR's will be placed further north along the coast in the onshore flow unless something changes, but hopefully still on a short baseline within ~10 km of the coastline with at least one tower near by for verification. Radar deployment sights will be actively discussed tomorrow morning.

Tower Team (3 trucks plus rental car):

Becca Edwards
Kirsten Gast
Ian Giammanco
David Kook
Hector Cruzado
John Turner
Frank Lombardo
Greg Crabtree

Radar Team (2 SR's plus scout vehicle-MM):

Dr. Chris Weiss - (SR Driver/SR-2 Operator)
Brian Hirth - (SR-2 Scout)
Jeff Beck - (SR Driver/SR-2 Operator)
Gordon Carrie - (SR Driver/SR-2 Operator)
Sylvie Lorsolo - (Scout Driver/SR-1 Operator)
Mike Biggerstaff - (SR Driver/SR-1 Operator)

Radar Status (Mobile Doppler, Surface Radar 1&2

Both SR-1 and SR-2 are in route to Florida.

Wemite Status

Both WMITE-1 and WMITE-2 are in Florida.


Hurricane Frances

September 2, 2004

Frances continues to head towards Florida as a Cat 4 storm. The Texas Tech University tower teams are in New Smyrna Beach this morning (near Daytona) and will move slightly south and start deploying. The radar teams are in Tallahassee, Florida and will get back on the road and head down the peninsula today. As there is no sign or forecast of Frances weakening, the towers will be spread to try and sample the eye wall and make efforts to keep the radars well north of the eye wall in the onshore flow.

Tower teams will start with a deployment at Melbourne Beach this morning, and then head south for another deployment at Sebastian airport. The plan is to deploy 3-4 towers today. Another tower will be reserved for tomorrow, once Frances’ path is better determined.

The radar teams are making slow progress. Dr. Chris Weiss will head out ahead of the convoy this morning, to make it down the peninsula and scout for deployment sites. If the current forecast track holds for a landfall near Hobe Sound, radar deployments may be considered near the Cape. However, if landfall is slightly north near the Cape, the radar team would need to deploy further north.

TTU Alumni, Rob Howard from University Louisiana Monroe, is also in route to Florida with a tower from ULM.


Hurricane Frances Update

September 2, 2004

Texas Tech University's WEMITE 2 has been deployed at Melbourne Beach. WEMITE 1 has been deployed at Vero Beach Municipal Airport.

The tower team is headed to Fort Pierce for a deployment at St. Lucie County International Airport. Rob Howard will also be deploying a tower there. After the deployment, the team will retreat north and make attempts either later this evening or tomorrow morning to deploy the final tower in the dual Doppler lobe. Currently, we have access for the radars to be placed at Space Coast Regional Airport (Titusville), and Deland airport. Final storm track will dictate exactly where they end up with the radars, but we are currently targeting the region between Titusville, Daytona and Orlando.

The radar team is traveling down I-75, while Dr. Chris Weiss is nearing Orlando for scouting.

The team plans to spend the night in Palm Coast or Kissimmee.


Hurricane Frances Update

September 3, 2004

Both the Texas Tech University tower and radar teams are in Kissimmee, Florida this morning.

The tower teams will go back down the coast to check each deployment site this morning. Power levels will be checked on each tower, since the storm is forecast to make landfall on Saturday afternoon/evening. One final deployment will be made further north.

The radar teams have gained access to Space Coast Regional Airport. Much time was spent yesterday trying to locate a second location in Titusville, which would yield a reasonable baseline. Those efforts will continue this morning. We still have a decision pending at Daytona International as well.

As for Frances, the forecast track has been relatively stable, but the storm weakened significantly overnight. Whether the storm regains some strength prior to landfall remains to be seen.


Hurricane Frances Update

September 4, 2004

Rob Howard's second tower was deployed at Ft. Pierce. He is safe in Seabring.

Josh Wurman and his group are reportedly in Ft. Pierce about to take on the eye wall. I have no other news from them.

The SMART radars have been taking data for about 5 hours now in Titusville. Everything is going well. They are seeing some really interesting fine-scale features in the data like tremendous differences in shear (veering wind with height as times backing wind with height at times as well). The HPBL rolls have been vividly evident from the start. They are also seeing a multitude of smaller-scale rotations resulting from the numerous convective elements to the north of main stratiform precipitation area.

Beyond the great data, they are also seeing a great number of power flashes, but everything is so far so good.

SR locations, coordinates, baseline and DD lobes are shown in the attached file, courtesy of Gordon Carrie - OU.

The radar teams will start taking data around 2-3 PM, and continue until the onshore flow in the DD lobe ceases, unless the eye passes near Titusville. If the later occurs we may take data a little longer.


Hurricane Frances Update

September 5, 2004

Frances continues to move slowly inland.

The SMART radars are still in onshore flow this morning. SR-1 has recently lost antenna control, and is now being taken offline and the team is moving into the airport at Merritt Island for shelter. SR-2 is still operating fine, and will continue to collect SD data over the next few hours before the flow veers to the southeast and onshore flow is lost. Overall, I'm estimating about 9i-12 hours of intermittent DD data was collecting in onshore flow over the coastal interface.

The mobile mesonet, which is being used to help relay information from one SR to another reported a wind gust of about 85 mph about ~8:00 AM EDT, as well as a 70 mph sustained reading as they passed over a bridge in the area. Couple those reports with the 124 mph gust reported at Cape Canaveral and things were getting a little exciting in the area a little while ago. However, the team only reports minor damage in the area so far (trees down, and minor damage to the Merrit Island Airport Hanger). The high wind reports were once again coupled with higher reflectivity elements located well north of the degraded eye wall. There is likely more significant damage further south along the coastline.

The towers should have been hit pretty hard. The Ft. Pierce, Vero Beach, Sebastian and maybe even the Melbourne Beach deployment sites took onshore flow from the eye wall or areas directly N/NE of it. It will be interesting to get back to the sites and start collecting things, but looking at the radar and the slow movement of Frances I doubt that will happen until at least tomorrow.


Hurricane Frances Update

September 6, 2004

Letters from NOAA

"Congratulations to your team...looks like this will be a landmark data set!" from Mark Powell

"Congratulations to you and your TTU team as well as others that you helped coordinate. It has been a fantastic storm for science, and your team's feat is truly remarkable. I know a key element of the success was the keen instincts of Becca and Rob, among others. You have a lot to be proud of." from Peter Black




Hurricane Ivan


Texas Tech Hurricane Intercept Team Activation
September 13, 2004

Hurricane Ivan
Maximum sustained winds: 160 mph
Minimum central pressure: 914 mb
Motion: NW at 8 mph


The Texas Tech University team left Sunday, September 12, for the Gulf Coast for a possible interception of Hurricane Ivan.

They have currently reached the Gulfport-Biloxi area after an overnight stay in Alexandria LA. Deployment locations between Pensacola and Gulfport-Biloxi are being scouted in anticipation of Ivan's landfall. Deployments will likely start tomorrow at some point.


Hurricane Ivan Update

September 14, 2004

The Texas Tech University tower team has deployed its first tower at Gulfport-Biloxi, MS Airport. Additional deployments are planned for Bayou La Batre, AL, Gulf Shores, AL and Okaloosa County, FL airports as the day continues. One more deployment site is being sought, but will be chosen later today or tomorrow morning based on site availability and adjustments to Ivan's forecast track.


Hurricane Ivan Update

September 15, 2004

Texas Tech University deployed four towers yesterday. Some changes to the intended deployment sites occurred as the Bayou La Batre site was fairly inaccessible, and the Wolf Navy NOLF became available with help from the NOAA ET Probe personnel. Fifty percent of the towers are clustered to the right of the forecast landfall position with two other deployments further east/west to flank the currently forecast landfall position. Coordinates for the four deployed towers are as follows:

SBCCOM 23X - Gulfport-Biloxi Airport (KGPT) - 30? 24' 25.8''N / 89? 04' 12.4''W
WEMITE 1 - Gulf Shores - Jack Edwards Airport (KJKA) - 30? 17' 31.2''N / 87? 40' 35.1''W
SBCCOM 5000 - WOLF Airport/NOLF (near Josephine) - 30? 18' 36''N / 87? 33' 36''W
SBCCOM 5000 - Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (KDTS) - 30? 23' 43.5''N / 86? 28' 16.6''W

WEMITE #2 is currently being deployed at the Fairhope High School Athletic fields. Deployment coordinates are: 30? 30' 0.0''N / 87? 53' 6.4''W.

The site is inland about 0.5 km from the coastline. It is open around the school field, but some large school buildings are in the greater area with residential/wooded areas between the school grounds and the coastline.

As soon as deployment is complete, the team will be seeking shelter to ride out the storm.


Hurricane Ivan Update

September 15, 2004

The Texas Tech University crew rode out the storm in Crestview Florida. They report minor damage in the area (signs and carports, etc), and the hotel had considerable water intrusion (under doors, through windows and the roof), but all is well.

It appears as though the Fairhope, AL deployment location (WEMITE 2) may have sampled the northwest eye wall, the Gulf Shores, AL location (WEMITE 1) sampled the north eye wall, and the Wolf deployment location (SBCCOM 5000) caught the northeast and maybe some of the east eye wall.

In terms of extracting the towers, it may be a while. Right now there is a mandatory curfew, so the crew cannot even leave their hotel. Even when they are able to leave the collapse of a portion of I-10 will certainly slow down their efforts.