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Tropical Major Hurricane Laura

Dewpoint Dan said:
Yeah usually when a hurricane is falling apart at landfall it doesn't do as much damage right ? I would much rather it be weakening at landfall than strengthening
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Oh most definitely

In fact I remember a long list of northern Gulf hurricanes that were falling apart at landfall Katrina was just one of many Ivan Rita Opal Dennis all of them were weakening

And then Michael and now Laura happened
 
TWC just said that the Lake Charles hospital was expecting 6 feet of water surrounding it, but new estimates are at 9 feet....☹??
 
snowlover91 said:
Much of the surge has to do with the size of the wind field. A 125mph hurricane with a large wind field like Katrina will push in a lot more water than a really small 145mph hurricane. Unfortunately here with the way the coast is so flat here in LA there will be water pushing inland up to 40 miles like the NHC is calling for... I hope people have heeded the warnings and evacuated.
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Somewhat correct, fetch, contour of coast line, coastal and inland elevation, and size/magnitude of wind radii are all variables. Katrina generated a Cat 5 surge based on these, and the fact her Cat 5 surge was generated well before landfall.
 
BHS1975 said:
Those mesovorts is whats makes a RI hurricane at landfall deadly.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Not correct, inland flooding kills ~60% based on NHC studies, Katrina which was previously brought up, an order of magnitude more people were killed by flooding than wind/tornado. Unless you are the 1/10 of 1/10% in the path to get clipped by a meso, the impact specifically deadly is mute.
 
WeatherNC said:
Somewhat correct, fetch, contour of coast line, coastal and inland elevation, and size/magnitude of wind radii are all variables. Katrina generated a Cat 5 surge based on these, and the fact her Cat 5 surge was generated well before landfall.
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Yeah there are tons of variables, but all things being equal a smaller 145mph storm will have less surge than one like Katrina that is 125mph with a much larger wind field. Here's a good paper written on the subject after Katrina which provides additional details.

journals.ametsoc.org

The Influence of Storm Size on Hurricane Surge

Abstract Over the last quarter-century, hurricane surge has been assumed to be primarily a function of maximum storm wind speed, as might be estimated from the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale. However, Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that wind speed alone cannot reliably describe surge. Herein it...
journals.ametsoc.org journals.ametsoc.org
 
snowlover91 said:
Yeah there are tons of variables, but all things being equal a smaller 145mph storm will have less surge than one like Katrina that is 125mph with a much larger wind field. Here's a good paper written on the subject after Katrina which provides additional details.

journals.ametsoc.org

The Influence of Storm Size on Hurricane Surge

Abstract Over the last quarter-century, hurricane surge has been assumed to be primarily a function of maximum storm wind speed, as might be estimated from the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale. However, Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that wind speed alone cannot reliably describe surge. Herein it...
journals.ametsoc.org journals.ametsoc.org
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Maybe we should just drop the categories since they can often be deceiving ?
 
Dewpoint Dan said:
Maybe we should just drop the categories since they can often be deceiving ?
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Categories are still useful, storm surge is just something which has a lot of variables which affect how much surge pushes into an area and how large the area affected is. In this instance we have a powerful cat 4 with a decent sized wind field coming into an area that is extremely flat which is why the NHC is forecasting surge to go up to 40 miles inland. Hopefully people heeded the warnings and evacuated.
 
At this point will history really remember her as a Cat 4 or Cat 5? I remember the names of storms and the damage they do and leave behind. That’s my memories. Not what Cat rating. This hurricane already is making a name for itself. The storm surge alone is telling.
 
snowlover91 said:
Categories are still useful, storm surge is just something which has a lot of variables which affect how much surge pushes into an area and how large the area affected is. In this instance we have a powerful cat 4 with a decent sized wind field coming into an area that is extremely flat which is why the NHC is forecasting surge to go up to 40 miles inland. Hopefully people heeded the warnings and evacuated.
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I just fear that sometimes people don't take lesser categories that seriously when they can often be the most deadly especially inland.
 
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