Rainfall Due to Hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere

1293 Words3 Pages

Hurricane Irene affected the Caribbean and much of the United States' east coast and was one of the most damaging tropical cyclones of the 2011 Atlantic tropical cyclone season. Irene originated east of the Lesser Antilles from a well defined Atlantic tropical wave in that area, and became Tropical Storm Irene on August 20, 2011. Irene reached its highest point as a 120 mph Category 3 hurricane. Irene was ranked the seventh costliest hurricane with damages that cost around $15.6 billion in the United States. Irene produced record breaking rainfall across the mid Atlantic and northeastern United States. The highest rainfall recorded during Hurricane Irene's storm run was in Bayboro, North Carolina at about 15.7 inches of rain. At least half of the deaths that were caused by Irene in the United States were due to fresh water flooding from heavy rainfall.
When passing through the northeastern United States tropical cyclones are restructured by the course of extratropical transition. This is caused by the contact with strong westerlies that are associated with a mid latitude trough and causes an enhance in storm forward motion, vertical wind shear, and vorticity. An increase in storm forward motion also plays a role in the wind speed that is produced by the hurricane. Where the circulating winds and the entire storm is moving in a matching direction, the wind speed is amplified by the forward movement of the storm. In the Northern Hemisphere, the right part of a hurricane, looking in the way of the path in which it is moving forward, has the greater wind speeds and thus is the more dangerous part of the storm. Strong vertical wind shear within the troposphere also reduces tropical cyclone development. This makes the e...

... middle of paper ...

...he 12 tropical cyclones that were looked at in this study. Hurricane Floyd was the tropical cyclone in this study with the most similar track to that of Irene. Floyd had produced the highest rainfall totals over 24% of the study region. The spatial patterns of rainfall differed for all 12 of the considered tropical cyclones but they took similar tracks. This can be explained by looking at where their highest rainfall totals occurred throughout their track. Some tropical cyclones formed their highest rainfall totals in the southern or western part of the study region, while some produced higher rainfall totals nearer to the storm track. Other tropical cyclones had a rain field that widened or became narrow throughout their time as a storm. So, there is no single pattern that can be captured by the 12 similar tracks of the tropical cyclones in this study.

More about Rainfall Due to Hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere

Open Document