Last week , a squad of intrepid storm pursuer converged near Corpus Christi , Texas to witness the landfall of Hurricane Harvey , the storm that ’s broughtover 50 column inch of rain to the Texas Gulf Coastandmajor flooding to the urban center of Houston . But these investigator collect data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) did n’t just get the usual storm readings . They obtained weather balloon data they say have never before been collect from a hurricane in the account of the agency . Eventually , they hope the information acquired will help us improve forecast models and prevent future disasters like the implosion therapy in Houston .
As these things usually go , the call to head out into the growing violent storm came at the last minute . “ So pretty much any weekend plans or anything that I had croak at work was on hold to drive down there , ” say NOAA ’s National Severe Storms Laboratory ( NSSL ) ramp pursuer and Ph . D research meteorologist Sean Waugh .
On Thursday , August 24 , Waugh hop in a extremely modified blue Dodge Ram packed with weather smell instruments to go and size up Hurricane Harvey , which was still gathering steam in the Gulf of Mexico . He was link up by a team of Oklahoma University meteorologist , including OU prof Mike Biggerstaff , inquiry scientist Gordon Carrie , and Ph.D. student Addison Alford , in a disjoined mobile weather microwave radar truck .
With all the OU squad in one hand truck it was “ a minute cramped , ” said Alford . “ The A / C does n’t act upon either , so that makes it even more uncomfortable . However , we were in near spirits and were excited about the datum we were call for . ”
Waugh and the OU atmospheric condition squad left from the NSSL main office in Norman , OK , and drove seven and a one-half hours to end up to the Mae West of Rockport , Texas , which experienced the brunt of the tempest . They eventually hunker down down and picked a safe spot near Woodsboro , a town of less than 1500 citizenry , to park the radar hand truck . Early reports were already calling the tempest unprecedented for the Gulf Coast region .
At 10 PM local fourth dimension Friday dark , Harvey hit the coast as a Category 4 Hurricane . It go over San Jose Island , and brought 130 international mile - per - hour winds and a 13 - foot tempest surge with it .
By midnight on Friday , it was cleared the team needed a snug look .
Waugh and Alford took off in the Ram and found a parking peck in Refugio , Texas at the junction of Highway 77 and 183 . This was a somewhat tranquil country than the coast where tempest had made landfall about 20 miles away .
It was the start of the unsound rain and flooding the continental United States had ever seen , but the inside information on the full scope of the devastation would n’t be known for a mates day . All Waugh and Alford could do was forestall when the next burst of rain and wind would hit their truck . “ Raindrops at 70 to 80 mph bruise , so you spend most of your clip inside the vehicle , cramped and unable to really kip at all , ” tell Waugh .
“ Watching the storm come in , making certain all of the instruments are still working , making sure that you ’re congeal up in the ripe post for both data collection and safety , you do n’t have time to let your guard down , ” he added .
NOAA refers to a fomite like Waugh ’s modified Ram as a “ Mobile Mesonet . ” Much like the meteorological observance towers found across Oklahoma , it feature a collection of remote - sensing equipment which collect atmospheric condition measurements . It ’s also capable to launch something called a radiosonde , a twist about the size of a poptart box , attached to a massive weather balloon about 6 feet in diameter . Radiosondes can gather up - close-fitting observation of the wind instrument focal ratio , temperature , pressure , humidity and other conditions retrieve inside the hurricane . This data point collection is send for a “ sounding . ”
Waugh had already performed two balloon sounding earlier in the day , but now that the violent storm was practically on top of them , conditions had become well more hostile . Eventually , the two recognise they were going to have to leave the relative safety of their truck . “ I helped Sean to hold the balloon down while he attached the radiosonde . I would n’t call it shuddery launch the balloon , ” sound out Alford . “ The scarey part was driving . Sean did an amazing job and was extremely cautious when driving through the eyewall , where the strongest winds were locate . ”
After finally releasing the balloon at 2:15 AM , Waugh and Alford could not have await the incredible results they got back . It was a bullseye ; the sounding had entered the optic of Harvey and raced along its wall , producing a circular trajectory on their graphs . “ There have been soundings launched into hurricanes but they ’re usually in the outer rainbands , ” say Waugh . This was the first time one was launched from the soil into the eyewall of a hurricane , he say .
During the sounding ’s ascension of over 9 kilometer ( almost 6 miles ) , it incur wind speed of about 70 mph . But what blew the meteorologists away was the amount of precipitable water in the atmosphere .
Precipitable water system is the total amount of water that could potentially fall from a column of air . During sound storm event , the value is typically around one or one - and - a - one-half inches . In the course of affirm what they found , Waugh went back and checked the historic data , “ I think I understand a few extreme height up to maybe two - and - a - half [ inch ] , ” he said , add that even those value were extreme outliers .
During Harvey , Waugh and Alford valuate a precipitable urine value of 3.26 inch . Initially , the team was shocked . Waugh could n’t confirm it without more investigating , but he ’s somewhat convinced that is the largest amount of precipitable water ever recorded in the continental US . Of course , it turn out to be a harbinger of the wettest tropical storm event in US account .
In the end , the weather balloon really encircle directly back over the heads of Waugh and Alford as they observed the effect of the storm on the coast . Even with this incredible datum in paw , their Book of Job was not over yet . “ We break operating at about 9:00 a.m. Saturday morning , ” said Waugh . “ We ’d been up for over 24 square hours at that point . ”
By Saturday morning , Harvey had travel inland and the eye had dust . While Harvey ’s saturation had declined and it was later on downgraded to a tropic storm , it had become remained stationary over the Texas slide , causing rainfall and floodwaters to ramp up in Houston .
As the researchers headed back to their hotel in Beeville , Texas , Waugh and the OU team knew they had something special — get this form of datum raise the scientific understanding of the tempest ’s mechanics . And they believe it will improve our predictive modeling of spartan tropical tempest events in the time to come .
“ Where do [ hurricanes ] derive their energies from ? How is it capable to produce this much rain ? ” Waugh place out that while the forecast model for the most part got Harvey right , the ability to go back and equate those models with data collected in the heart of the tempest “ is a huge welfare . ”
Alford echoed Waugh ’s sentiment . As they combined the data from their radar truck with that of the National Weather Service , they were capable to produce three - dimensional purview of the twist in the eyewall as it made landfall . “ The greatest loss of life during hurricanes is from inland implosion therapy , and we go for our observation will avail extend to improved forecasting of hurricane volume , track , and haste in the future , ” he enunciate .
The storm chasers are now safely back at home in Oklahoma and are swear out what they ’ve learned . “ What this has shown is that — like most thing in atmospheric condition — you go in with one interrogative sentence and come out with 10 more , ” read Waugh .
Repeating the same atmospheric condition reflection in the same environment can lead in different data . “ It ’s going to make us desire to look at other storms . Is this eccentric of pattern consistent or was this one really rare ? ” said Waugh , sounding eager to drive into the next bighearted one .
Brysonis a self-employed storyteller who wants to explore the creation with you .
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