LIVE FROM THE STORM program 1
The Who, What, Where, When and Why of Weather
March 7, 2000 13:00-14:00 El Niño, La Niña
NARRATION AND ANNOUNCER IN CAPS
sync in lower case
WILL IT RAIN TODAY?
WILL IT BE SUNNY?
IS THERE SNOW IN THE FORECAST?
WILL A HURRICANE CLOSE SCHOOL?
WEATHER AFFECTS THE WAY WE LIVE OUR LIVES, EVERY DAY.
WILL THIS WINTER BE DRY OR WET?
SHOULD WE EXPECT FLOODS NEXT SPRING WHEN THE SNOW PACK MELTS?
WILL FARMERS IN AMERICA FACE DROUGHT?
WILL FISHERMEN OFF SOUTH AMERICA FIND FEAST OR FAMINE IN THE SEA?
GLOBAL CLIMATIC EVENTS LIKE EL NIÑO AND LA NIÑA SHAPE THE SEASONS, THE YEARS, THE DECADES IN WHICH WE LIVE.
THESE PROGRAMS LOOK AT SOME OF THE MOST EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS—HURRICANES, TORNADOES, AND WINTER STORMS—AND THE UNDERLYING FORCES WHICH SHAPE ALL EARTH'S WEATHER...
THE SUN, THE WAY THE OCEANS STORE AND RELEASE HEAT, THE GEOGRAPHY OF WHERE WE LIVE.
IN THEM YOU'LL SEE SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES COME TO LIFE.
HOT AIR RISES THROUGH CONVECTION—AND WARM AIR IN VIOLENT UPWARD MOTION TRIGGERS THUNDERSTORMS AND LIGHTING.
CONCEPTS LIKE "THE CONSERVATION OF ANGULAR MOMENTUM" MEAN SMALLER STORMS LIKE TORNADOES PACK FASTER WINDS THAN HURRICANES.
IN THE NEXT HOUR YOU'LL SEE MORE THAN WILD WEATHER AND THE FORCES WHICH POWER IT... YOU'LL MEET THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO TRAVEL OUR NATION AND AROUND THE PLANET TO UNDERSTAND THEM BETTER.
THEIR MISSION? TO TRANSFORM RESEARCH INTO FORECASTS THAN KEEP US SAFE, DAY BY DAY, SEASON BY SEASON.
TITLES (00:45) [02:43]
music and natural sounds of weather
announcer:
"PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE" AND "MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY" PRESENT "LIVE FROM THE STORM", AN EXCITING LOOK AT THE SCIENCE, PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY THAT HELP US LEARN MORE ABUT THE UNPREDICTABLE FORCES OF NATURE THAT CREATE SEVERE WEATHER…
AND NOW, PROGRAM ONE
"THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND WHY OF WEATHER."
PROGRAM SET UP (02:30) [05:13]
THIS VIDEO IS PART OF THE PASSPORT TO WEATHER AND CLIMATE PROJECT WHICH ALSO OFFERS ONLINE RESOURCES AND HANDS-ON EXPERIENCES.
(sound effect)
WHEN YOU SEE THIS ICON, YOU'LL KNOW YOU CAN GO ONLINE TO THE LIVE FROM THE STORM WEBSITE AND FIND OUT LOTS MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE JUST BEEN WATCHINGŠ
USING INTERACT YOU CAN SEND E-MAIL TO MANY OF THE RESEARCHERS YOU SEE ON CAMERA, AND GET BACK INDIVIDUAL ANSWERS.
IN CLASS OR AT HOME, YOU CAN BRING WEATHER AND CLIMATE TO LIFE THROUGH MORE THAN 30 HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES THAT ARE BOTH FUN AND INFORMATIVE.
male student:
The orange things are clogging.
MAKE CLOUDS... OR LIGHTNING... OR A TWISTER IN A BOTTLE!
TEST A MODEL HOUSE AGAINST HURRICANE FORCE WINDS...
BUILD A DOPPLER RADAR IN A SHOEBOX...
IN THIS VIDEO YOU'LL RIDE THROUGH A HURRICANE AND GO BEHIND THE SCENES AT NOAA'S NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER...
GO ON LOCATION OFF AFRICA AND IN THE MID-PACIFIC TO SEE HOW NOAA AND NASA ARE TRYING TO WIRE THE WORLD TO BRING YOU BETTER FORECASTS...
AND VISIT THE AMERICAN WEST TO EXPERIENCE "OPERATION MOUNTAIN STORM."
super:
James
Baker
Administrator,
NOAA
Baker:
Weather and climate,
the ocean and the atmosphere and all the living things are very important
to society, and as population grows and as we use more energy to improve
our standard of living, we’re all affected by the environment.
super:
National
Weather Service Forecast Office, Norman, OK
NOAA’s responsible for providing weather forecasts and climate forecasts and other kinds of changes, and we do this in what we call an "operational system", that is we provide these forecasts everyday on a routine basis.
We have people that are operating… looking at the surface of the Sun all the way down to the bottom of the ocean.
super:
GOES
satellite
We fly satellites around the Earth to give us a picture of the atmosphere and we also have measurements in the ocean routinely available right up there on the Internet, so you can look at them yourself, and they are part of the forecast.
We have all kinds of researchers, men and women, who work in our research labs to help us understand what’s happening in the atmosphere and the ocean.
We had researchers working for a couple of decades to try to understand what was happening in the tropical Pacific, and then they discovered that what happens in the tropical Pacific actually changes the position of the jet streams. So the forecasters were very interested in using that to forecast the position of he storms. And so we add that information in.
We also have been able to do a much better job of forecasting the landfall of hurricanes…
Because if you can say where a hurricane is going to hit land you can prepare in that area and not have to prepare in other areas, saves a lot of money, about a million dollars per mile we save, of accurate forecasting of where the hurricane is going to make landfall.
I’d like to invite
all of you to use the NOAA resources to learn more about the ocean and the
atmosphere and all the living things there to get involved with the environment,
and really understand it, and be better citizens as a consequence.
WILD WEATHER #1 (00:50) [06:03]
ALL NATIONS EXPERIENCE WILD WEATHER, BUT THE UNITED STATES IS HOME TO JUST ABOUT EVERY KIND OF SEVERE STORM.
HURRICANES SWEEP UP THE EAST COAST...
EL NIÑO'S FLOOD THE WEST.
AN AVERAGE YEAR BRINGS THE WORLD'S STRONGEST TORNADOES, IN RECORD NUMBERS.
THERE'S ARCTIC COLD AND MAJOR BLIZZARDS... AND TEMPERATURES OF MORE THAN 100 DEGREES.
WHY ALL THIS "WILD WEATHER"?
AMERICA IS THE BATTLE GROUND FOR BOTH TROPICAL AND POLAR WEATHER SYSTEMS, AND SITS BETWEEN TWO MIGHTY OCEANS, EACH BRINGING VAST AMOUNTS OF MOISTURE TO THE CONTINENT.
WITH ALL THIS WORLD-CLASS
WEATHER AT OUR DOOR, LET'S LOOK AT "WHAT'S MAKES EARTH WEATHER."
WHAT MAKES EARTH’S WEATHER #1? (04:06) [10:09]
super
Marshall
Shepherd
Research
Meteorologist, NASA Goddard SFC
THE "SPACE AGE" AND THE "INFORMATION REVOLUTION" HAVE GIVEN WEATHER SCIENTISTS TOOLS TO SEE THINGS PREVIOUS GENERATIONS WOULD HAVE BELIEVED IMPOSSIBLE.
FROM SPACE, WE CAN GIVE HURRICANES A "CAT-SCAN" AND SEE THE CLOUDS THEY'RE MADE OF...
COMPUTERS LET US TEST IDEAS ABOUT WHAT MAKES THUNDERSTORMS AND TORNADOES...
AND LET US SEE TURBULENCE IN CLEAR AIR.
THE SEASONS PASS IN SECONDS, AND WE CAN SEE OUR EARTH AS A LIVING, BREATHING ORGANISM, A PLACE WHERE LAND, AND OCEAN, OUR PLANET AND LIFE ITSELF ARE SYSTEMS JOINED IN A SEASONAL DANCE.
POLAR CAPS GROW... AND SHRINK...
GREEN PLANTS BLOOM EACH SUMMER...
EVEN THE OCEANS BLOOM WITH MICROSCOPIC ORGANISMS...
MARSHALL SHEPHERD IS A RESEARCH METEOROLOGIST AT NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER. HE WORKS ON THE US-JAPANESE "TROPICAL RAINFALL MEASURING MISSION", KNOWN AS TRMM (TRIM)
Marshall Shepherd
My job responsibilities
include using new types of satellite, aircraft and other innovative instruments
to study mesoscale weather processes. Now when I say "mesoscale" weather
processes, I mean weather systems that have sizes from, say 10 to 200 miles.
So things like, hurricanes, thunderstorms and cold front systems which produce
tornadic activity.
Super:
What
forces shapes the Earth’s weather?
Marshall Shepherd
Well it’s
interesting to look at the Earth from a space-based perspective. You can
really see the global circulation and the weather generating machine at
work.
For instance, most of the heating from the sun is incident on the Earth near the equator at what we call the tropical region of the earth. Because of this excess heating this generally rising air which typically forms clouds, so you’ll notice a great deal of cloudiness near the equator or the tropics.
Now this rising air is often replaced by cooler air from the polar regions, the north and south pole so what you in effect generate is a circulation. The rotation of the Earth, the Coriolis Effect causes deflection of this general circulation to the west or the east depending on what latitude you’re living in.
So, for instance, in the western and northern hemisphere, you’ll notice streaming white patterns or clouds along the northern part of the globe. These are manifestations of cold fronts, jet streams, high pressure systems and low pressure systems which create cold fronts and warm fronts which produce weather. So in effect these large scale weather systems have their origins or birth in this large scale imbalance of heating at the equator.
super:
What’s
the Water Cycle?
Marshall Shepherd:
Watching the evolution
of a hurricane as it moves from the tropics to the northern hemisphere is
a perfect example of the water cycle in action.
The water cycle is an illustration of how water is transferred from gas to liquid to solid in our environment. Now in a hurricane water from the ocean is evaporated and provides water vapor in its gaseous phase to the atmosphere. This water vapor in turn condenses and releases energy. And it’s this energy released by condensation which forms clouds in the hurricane which provides the energy that drives the hurricane itself. In addition, great amounts of water vapor are condensed and form rainfall in the hurricane which in turn rains out and falls to Earth.
And we’ve seen one complete circuit of the water cycle.
BUT HURRICANES ARE MORE THAN SCIENCE IN ACTION. THEY’RE DEADLY STORMS WHICH THREATEN CENTRAL AMERICA, THE CARIBBEAN AND THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES EVERY SUMMER AND FALL.
THIS IS THE STORY OF
HOW NOAA STUDIES HURRICANES IN ORDER TO MAKE EVER-MORE ACCURATE PREDICTIONS
OF WHERE AND WHEN THEY’LL STRIKE…
HURRICANE DENNIS—BLOW BY BLOW (13:33) [23:42]
Super:
ATLANTIC
OCEANOGRAPHIC AND MARINE LABORATORY, OAR/NOAA, MIAMI, FL
Shirley Murillo giving
briefing sync
The Hurricane
Center put out watches for Chicateague, VA…
LATE AUGUST, 1999.
MONTH 3 OF A BUSY HURRICANE SEASON.
THE DAILY BRIEFING BRINGS TOGETHER VETERAN SCIENTISTS AND RECENT GRADUATES.
THEY'VE BEEN WORKING ROUND THE CLOCK, BUT THEY LOVE THEIR MISSION... UNDERSTANDING HURRICANES BETTER BY STUDYING THEM CLOSE-UP.
super
Mark
Croxford
Hurricane
researcher, AOML/OAR/NOAA
Mark, sync
Flying storms...
that’s great! We love doing that, that’s our favorite thing here.
We were struck by lightning twice in the plane. And we hit about a 25 mph
updraft, and that was extremely exciting.
super
Shirley
Murillo
Hurricane
researcher, AOML/OAR/NOAA
Shirley, sync
Every storm is
different and they’ve got their own characteristics, and you think
that OK, every time you go you’re gonna see a clear eye… and sometimes
you don’t
Mark, sync
I could see the
south swell, the swell heading towards Texas, just lines, like corduroy
lines, just leaving the storm, just gorgeous.
HURRICANES FROM ABOVE MAY BE BEAUTIFUL…
DOWN HERE ON EARTH, THEY’RE DEADLY.
WINDS OF UP TO 150 MILES PER HOUR SHRED BUILDINGS.
STORM TIDES OF OVER 20 FEET, POWERED BY WAVES AND LOW PRESSURE, KILL BY FLOOD.
BEACHES DISAPPEAR…
BUILDINGS CRUMBLE…
PROPERTY DAMAGE RUNS INTO THE BILLIONS.
…AND OVER PAST DECADES MORE AND MORE AMERICANS HAVE MOVED TO THE COASTS IN SEARCH OF SEA AIR AND SUMMER FUN.
THIS IS THE STORY OF ONE TROPICAL STORM, HOW IT BEGAN AND DEVELOPED INTO A CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE.
THIS IS ALSO THE STORY OF THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO STUDY HURRICANES UP CLOSE, IN ORDER TO MAKE EVER-MORE ACCURATE PREDICTIONS, AND SAVE LIVES.
SOME OF THEM WORK FOR THE AIR FORCE, AND NOAA’S HURRICANE RESEARCH DIVISION.
THEY PUT THEIR OWN LIVES ON THE LINE AND INVESTIGATE HURRICANES BY FLYING THROUGH THEM, IN SEARCH OF ESSENTIAL DATA TO ENABLE MORE ACCURATE PREDICTIONS ABOUT WHERE THE STORM WILL GO, AND HOW INTENSE IT WILL BECOME.
read on text over AOML exterior
NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER, NWS/NOAA, MIAMI, FL
OTHERS WORK DOWN ON THE GROUND, AT THE WEATHER SERVICE’S NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER.
HERE THEY’RE SURROUNDED BY A CYCLONE OF INFORMATION, A SURGE OF DATA, WHICH THEY MUST TRANSFORM INTO TIMELY AND PRECISE PREDICTIONS FOR EMERGENCY MANAGERS AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC.
THIS IS SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AS HIGH ADVENTURE, AND WEATHER FORECASTING AS LIFE AND DEATH DRAMA.
montage of satellite images
ATLANTIC HURRICANES ARE BORN AS THUNDERSTORMS OFF THE COAST OF AFRICA...
MOVING WESTWARD, SOME OF THEM PICK UP ENERGY FROM WARM TROPICAL WATERS AND DEVELOP INTO "TROPICAL STORMS" WITH WINDS OF OVER 39 MILES PER HOUR.
SOME KEEP ON GROWING, DEVELOPING DEEP CONVECTION... "CIRCULATION"... AND AN EYE, BECOMING FULL-FLEDGED HURRICANES, WITH WINDS OF MORE THAN 74 MILES PER HOUR
THIS ONE IS GIVEN THE NAME PRE-ASSIGNED FOR THE 4TH STORM OF THE 1999 SEASON--"DENNIS."
AUGUST 25TH…
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECASTER JOHN GUINEY REPORTS FOR WORK AT THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER IN MIAMI.
A HURRICANE WATCH HAS ALREADY BEEN CALLED FOR THE BAHAMAS…
AT THE AIRPORT, NOAA’S NEW GULF STREAM 4 JET AND ITS CREW OF RESEARCHERS ALSO GO TO WORK.
WITH NO PERMANENT WEATHER STATIONS OUT IN THE OCEAN, PLANES ARE THE BEST WAY TO GET >THIS< HURRICANE’S VITAL STATISTICS.
super:
Hugh
Willoughby
Director,
Hurricane Research Division, AOML/OAR/NOAA
Hugh, sync:
"You’ve got
to know something about this storm, not about every storm
and not about an average storm, but this particular storm.
FLYING AROUND THE STORM, IT’S BRIGHT, CLEAR AND SUNNY.
BUT DOWN BELOW YOU CAN SEE THE THUNDERSTORMS THAT TRANSFORM HOT OCEAN WATER INTO SWIRLING CLOUDS AND VIOLENT WINDS.
super:
Stan
Goldenberg
Hurricane
researcher, AOML/OAR/NOAA
Stan, sync:
A hurricane is
really in a sense a collection of hundreds or thousands of these clouds,
organized into bands. And they release tremendous heat. It’s the release
of that latent heat in the center of the storm that starts to warm the column
in the center, and as that column warms the pressure drops. And as the pressure
drops the hurricane gets stronger.
super:
Neal
Dorst
Hurricane
researcher, AOML/OAR/NOAA
Neal Dorst sync:
OK, we’re
looking back at Hurricane Dennis. Right now we’re passing over the
cumulus streaks which are feeding bands into the storms. And if you look
back aft you can see the thunderstorms and the high cirrus clouds which
constitute the hurricane itself. But they are slowly curving, it’s
kind of hard to tell, we’re on the periphery of the storm, but they
are slowly curving into into the storm.
THE PLANE FLIES A SPECIAL PATTERN TO GET DATA ON WINDS ALL ROUND THE HURRICANE, TO HELP FIGURE OUT WHERE IT’S GOING…
super:
voice
of Jack Parrish
Flight
Director, NOAA Corps
Jack Parrish:
This is a flight
track screen that shows where we’ve gone so far today. We left from
Miami, went down by Cuba and then out to the Bahamas, and then up north
on the east side of the storm which is actually right up about there. And
now we are up just a bit due north of the storm. The little vectors you
se are the winds. So we see very healthy outflow from the storm which is
just what you would expect to see in a decent hurricane.
TO GET TO KNOW THIS HURRICANE IN DETAIL, NOAA'S PLANES SEND SPECIAL SENSORS DOWN THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE…
super:
Jeff Smith
Systems
Engineer, NOAA Corps
Jeff Smith:
This is a GPS
dropwindsonde which is for measuring temperature and humidity from this
sensor here, and we launch this from the aircraft and it falls down to the
surface…
super:
dropwindsonde
super:
Capt.
John Gordon
Air
Force Reserve
John Gordon:
The guy in the
back releases this button… BOOM… comes out of the aircraft, 2500
feet a minute, deploys a parachute, comes back down, ya got temperature
instruments in here, dew point, pressure and wind, and it constantly goes
back on an antenna right back to the aircraft…
Stan Goldenberg:
And we get all
the sonde data and just open and process it and we’re gonna send it
out…
John Gordon:
We send it right
here to this computer, and the person here quality controls it, and sends
it right to the National Hurricane Center, which is right down the hall…
super:
Shirley Murillo
Hurricane
researcher, AOML/OAR/NOAA
Shirley Murrillo:
So we are getting
reports from all these different stations, and sometimes there are ships
out there, and we go ahead and we analyze this…
super:
Pete
Black
Hurricane
researcher, AOML/OAR/NOAA
Pete sync:
And so the forecasters
can take that and as they’ve done here in red and blue sketch in the
critical wind speeds.
What the forecasters
here always want to know is the winds at the surface. That’s where
people live, people play and work, and that’s where they want to know
where the winds are.
Shirley sync
It’s one
of the first times we can actually get different winds from different locations
and actually put it together as one picture.
P2Klink graphic
Stan:
Literally anybody
in the world can see this data in a very short time. It goes over the Internet
and people can access it and they do it.. maybe 10 minutes after I send
this out.
THE LEAD FORECASTER’S JOB IS TO TAKE ALL THE DATA, CHECK OUT ALL THE COMPUTER MODELS, AND THEN ADD HUMAN JUDGMENT.
THE HURRICANE CENTER THOUGHT DENNIS WOULD CURVE EASTWARD, AWAY FROM LAND... BUT AT THIS POINT WIND SPEEDS WERE STILL BUILDING.
FOR HUNDREDS OF MILES UP THE COAST, RESIDENTS WERE ALREADY LISTENING CAREFULLY TO THE LATEST ON TELEVISION.
MANY COMMUNITIES WERE BOARDING UP AND HEADING OUT.
TV weather report: Anchorman
in studio:
What’s the
latest in your location?
Reporter on the coast:
Well right now,
very, very stiff winds, I’d say gusting close to 50 miles per hour…
BACK IN MIAMI AT THE HURRICANE CENTER, HUMANS HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN COMPUTER MODELS PREDICTING SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT OUTCOMES.
super:
John
Guiney
Lead
Forecaster, NHC/NWS/NOAA
John sync…
Our forecast says
it will turn in 12 hours to be east of 78 West, so that’s key…
super:
voice
of Hugh Willoughby
Hugh, voice over
The forecasters
earn their money by worrying about these situations. There’s a real
cost when you warn the coast line and people have to take action.
NHC staffer:
The Hurricane
Warning remains in effect from Cape Lookout, North Carolina from to the
North Carolina-Virginia border…
HURRICANES ARE DYNAMIC AND ERRATIC, EVER-CHANGING.
THE FORECASTERS NEED PRECISE AND CURRENT DATA…
Super:
Max Mayfield
Deputy
Director, National Hurricane Center, NWS/NOAA
Max Mayfield sync
Although the hurricane
is still moving northwards… about 13 miles per hour. We’re forecasting
it to turn off to the North East and just skirt the coast of the Carolinas.
It’s not showing that turn yet. So we’re very, very concerned,
if it doesn’t do that, then the storm surge will be vastly different
here on the North Carolina coast. If it parallels the coastline that will
only ass 2-4 feet of storm surge. But if it plows in, they could add 8 feet
or even higher in some areas.
BERMUDA, AUGUST 26.
RESORT HOTEL, BUT THIS WAS NO VACATION FOR THE CREW FROM THE HURRICANE RESEARCH DIVISION.
THEY’D ARRIVED LATE THE NIGHT BEFORE, GRABBING COLD SNACKS, AND A FEW HOURS REST.
EARLY NEXT MORNING, THEY JUGGLED FLIGHT LOGISTICS.
super:
Frank
Marks
Hurricane
researcher, AOML/OAR/NOAA
Frank Marks sync:
Do we just go
ahead and bring this crew on to McDill (Air Force base) and not worry about
Miami so we don’t have to fly 2 crews up to Miami?
super:
voice
of Hugh Willoughby
Hugh Willoughby (on
phone)
I think that makes
a lot of sense… we should just make reservations for you guys up there…
Frank:
OK
THEY MIGHT NOT KNOW WHERE THEY’D LAND…
BUT THEY DID KNOW THAT THEIR MISSION WAS ONCE MORE TO FLY THROUGH "DENNIS" IN SEARCH OF THE LATEST DATA.
INSTEAD OF THE SPORTY G-4 JET, THIS TEAM WOULD WORK ON BOARD A 30-YEAR OLD TURBOPROP P-3, NICKNAMED "KERMIT".
THOUGH OLDER THAN MANY OF THE RESEARCHERS, KERMIT’S AIRFRAME IS STRONG, AND ITS ENGINES KEEP ON WORKING IN TORRENTIAL RAIN…
JUST RIGHT TO PENETRATE THE EYE OF A HURRICANE…
pilot’s voice on
intercom:
Looks like it’s
205… OK… 205…
super:
voice
of Hugh Willoughby
voice over, Hugh Willoughby,
on turbulence…
We get into moderate
turbulence—moderate turbulence is kinda where the other passengers
on the airplane get to be visibly nervous on a commercial airline flight—we
get into that fairly often. And then every once in a while, we get into
severe turbulence which really gets your attention. The pilot loses control
of the airplane for brief intervals…
super
P2K links bug during Jack’s
sync
Jack Parrish to camera
About once every
10 years we get a profound scare on the airplane. We get some weather that
you really should not try to tangle with. Sometimes there’s just no
way to detect you’re about to encounter it. When it happens, you just
have to hang on ’til you get through it.
super
Hugh
Willoughby
I think we do this in a safe way. The airplanes are well maintained, and flown by people who really know what they are doing…
super:
voice
of P-3 pilots
Phil Kenul & Dave Tennyson
We’ve got a visible hole coming up ahead…slightly to the right of the aircraft… Ah, there we go, kinda soupy but we’re in… not that photogenic, but it’s clear aloft.
super
voice
of Hugh Willoughby:
Willoughby:
The airplane can
fly into the center of the closed circulation. Wind blows around in a circle
and there’s a point right in the center where it’s calm. And that’s
the position you see on the Advisory. It’s actually a "Center Fix."
And they also notice how strong the wind is blowing, how low the pressure
is.
MORE DROPWINDSONDES.
PRESSURE IN THE EYE WAS LOW.
INSTRUMENTS PEERED DOWN AT THE WAVES, ASSESSING WIND SPEEDS...
THE OCEAN AHEAD OF THE STORM WAS VERY WARM, NEARLY 30 DEGREES CENTIGRADE.
DENNIS HAD PLENTY OF FUEL TO FEED ON IN THE COMING DAYS.
Female NHC staffer
But the wind direction
is…
John Guiney
Just keep everything
the same… 165, that’s correct
Female forecaster
Very confused…
John
That’s alright.
AT THE NHC, THEY’RE ALSO IN THE EYE OF A STORM.
THERE’S PRESSURE NOT TO EVACUATE TOO MANY MILES—NOR CAUSE STATES TO CANCEL SCHOOL UNLESS IT’S REALLY NECESSARY.
NHC staffer:
Steve England
just called, he’s working with the state of South Carolina.
Max
OK
NHC staffer (continues)
What they’d
like, if it’s possible to drop everything from Eddystone South, along
the south Carolina coast at 11 o’clock tonight. They can have the schools
go tomorrow.
THIS IS THE PLACE FROM WHERE, AT TIMES LIKE THIS, ALL THOSE HURRICANE BULLETINS YOU SEE ON TV ARE BROADCAST LIVE…
super, Max Mayfield, as before…
Maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour, we think that it does have some change to strengthen and become a category 3 hurricane…
super:super:
voice of John Gordon
It does get
very tiresome. For most of the crew… long, long hours. When we fly
a storm at 1500 feet it’s very hot, The air conditioning does not work
very well. You are 500-1500 feet off the water, any old thunderstorm could
throw you down in the water, so you have to be very careful. You are hot
…drink a lot of water. I may drink about a gallon to a gallon and a
quarter of water on a flight and go to the bathroom once. You can’t
keep up with the pressurization and the humidity…
BY THE END OF AUGUST, HURRICANE DENNIS LOOKED TO BE HEADED OUT TO SEA…
BUT FIRST IT STALLED AND APPEARED TO WEAKEN…
THEN IT RE-GATHERED STRENGTH AND MADE LANDFALL AS A TROPICAL STORM…
BRINGING 20 INCHES OF RAIN AND RESULTING IN 43 MILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF DAMAGE TO NORTH CAROLINA ALONE.
A FEDERAL EMERGENCY WAS DECLARED… THOUGH FORTUNATELY NO-ONE DIED.
DOWN IN MIAMI, NOAA’S FORECASTERS AND RESEARCHERS, AND THE AIR FORCE HURRICANE HUNTER CREWS, HAD DONE THEIR JOBS.
ACCURATE PREDICTIONS WERE MADE AND PRECAUTIONS HAD BEEN TAKEN UP AND DOWN THE COAST.
EXPERIMENTAL INSTRUMENTS ALLOW RESEARCHERS TO CALCULATE SURFACE WINDS FROM HIGH ABOVE.
AND EACH NEW STORM PROVIDES NEW DATA, BETTER FORECASTS AND NEW ADVENTURES…
John Gordon, sync:
I thrive on this.
My blood pressure, my adrenaline gets cranking… I just love to fly
the storms. I’d like to be out there right now.
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO STUDY HURRICANES, CHECK OUT THE LIVE FROM THE STORM WEBSITE…
IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT HURRICANES, OR THE PLANES AND SATELLITES WE USE TO STUDY THEM, GO TO INTERACT AND FOLLOW LINKS TO "ON-AIR" OR "RESEARCHER Q&A"…
WHETHER IT’S HURRICANE SEASON OR NOT, "PASSPORT TO WEATHER AND CLIMATE" WILL BRING YOU ANSWERS…
Supers ONLY (no narration)
20th c. U.S. hurricane records
costliest
Andrew, 1992, $30.5 billion
greatest storm surge
Camille, 1969, 24 feet
longest lasting
Ginger, 1971, 21 days…
deadliest…
unnamed, Galveston, 1900… 6-8,000 killed
UNDERSTANDING WEATHER AND CLIMATE IN NEW WAYS TAKES SATELLITES…
AND SHIPS…
AND PLANES…
AND BALLOONS…
COMPUTERS, SMALL AND LARGE…
AND SOPHISTICATED NEW VISUALIZATION TOOLS…
AND—MOST IMPORTANTLY—DEDICATED MEN AND WOMEN TO KEEP THEM OPERATIONAL.
MEET ONE OF NOAA’S HURRICANE HUNTER PLANES… AND ONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO KEEPS THEM FLYING!
super:
Juan Carlos Pradas-Bergnes
Electronics
Technician, NOAA
Hi, my name is Juan Carlos Pradas. I’m an electronics technician with the Department of Commerce, NOAA. And I’d like to introduce you to the aircraft, the WP3 aircraft. This aircraft flies through hurricanes. Now I’d like to show you some of the interesting features of this aircraft…
This is one of three radars we have on this aircraft. This aircraft goes through hurricanes horizontally. It has a range of about 300 kilometers and is one of the best things we have in this aircraft. They give a view of where we are going and how big the hurricane is.
We have 4 turboprop engines. The good thing about these engines is that they are propeller and they are jet engines at the same time. And they can take a lot of water and they will not shut down and that is very important to fly into the eye of a hurricane.
In this aircraft we have several probes. We probe the particles, the charge, the temperature and many other pressures in the atmosphere.
For example this is the charge probe that probes the electrical charges inside the clouds and the atmosphere.
In this aircraft we have several ejectable probes. For example, we drop dropsondes from here and all these different holes…we can put sonobuoys that basically measure the temperature of the water.
We have experimental radars like this one that send frequencies down to the water surface. As they bounce and come back to the aircraft they can tell us, for example, the wind direction and the wind speed in the surface.
This is our NEX-doppler radar. They go through the hurricane basically vertically and give us the wind forces and the direction of the wind in the eye of the hurricane.
In NOAA we have had the chance of flying to many countries and flying many hurricanes. Here is from 1976… Bonnie was the first hurricane we flew… to now 1999, Brett. Each one represents a hurricane, each one represents a country this aircraft has been.
The particle measuring system that we have here basically measures particles like rain particles, snow particles…they will tell us a lot about what is the components of the clouds. As you can see this aircraft suffers a lot. Those are marks created by ice and rain as we go through the eye of the hurricane.
We have many probes and ways of testing the atmosphere with the aircraft. For example this is a gust probe that measures the pressure in the aircraft, temperature in the aircraft and we have a nose radar right here that basically tells the pilot what kinds of weather they’re going to encounter and how to get away from that weather.
Another instrument that we have here is the liquid content indicator. As the water hits the different cables, that changes the temperature of the cables and gives us an indication of how much water is in the cloud and how much water is around the hurricane.
This may look like a very simple aircraft, but in reality is a very complex scientific tool designed to help save lives in a hurricane.
THIS IS A COMPUTER MODEL OF THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION OF THE CLOUDS AND WATER VAPOR…
JET STREAMS SWEEP ACROSS THE GLOBE, TRAVELING FROM ASIA TO AMERICA…
WE’RE ALSO ALL CONNECTED.
THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION OF AIR MEANS THAT IN EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE, YOU INHALE AT LEAST A FEW MOLECULES THAT ONCE WERE BREATHED BY JESUS, MOSES AND MOHAMMED… AS WELL AS NAPOLEON AND GHENGHIS KHAN.
NO SURPRISE, THEN, THAT THE STORY OF WEATHER AND CLIMATE KNOWS NO NATIONAL BOUNDARIES…
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