hurricane katrina (2005): complex lifecycle of an intense tropical cyclone eyad atallah, ron...

Hurricane Katrina (2005): Complex Lifecycle of an Intense Tropical Cyclone

Eyad Atallah, Ron McTaggart-Cowan, Lance Bosart and John Gyakum

Outline

Focus: External influences on Katrina’s intensity over Florida and the Gulf

1. Ingredients for tropical cyclogenesis:

Persistent troughing over Hispaniola

Transient easterly wave forcing

Remnant TD10 vortex 1800 UTC 23 August 2005

Outline


2. South Florida landfall: Category 2 hurricane

over the Gulf Stream Little weakening over

the peninsula Emerges organized

into the Gulf

0000 UTC 26 August 2005

Outline


3. Rapid intensification: Two periods of rapid

deepening on 26 and 28 August

Increased symmetry and size

Superintense 150 kt Category 5

1200 UTC 28 August 2005

1. Tropical Cyclogenesis

Weekly mean DT pressure (colour) and deep shear (barbs in ms-1) for 17-23 August. Brightness temperature for period is shaded. 850 hPa relative vorticity for 0000 UTC 17 August is shown in red (2x10-5 s-1 intervals)

Midlatitude trough penetrates to 20oN for more than 1 week before Katrina’s development



Downshear QG-forced ascent (still effective at 20oN) leads to a region of persistent convection N of Hispaniola



Remnant TD10 vortex provides lower-level focusing mechanism to organize convection but continues west

21 August



Katrina forms on the mean trough axis and is declared a TD by NHC at 1800 UTC 26 August NE of Cuba


Brightness temperature for 0000 UTC 24 August as Katrina emerges from convective regions over the Caribbean islands

2. South Florida Landfall

During spin-up: SST climbs to

>30oC shear stays

below 10 ms-1

winds increase to 33 ms-1 (Category 1)

PI stays high (near 75 ms-1)


SST (contours) and anomaly (shaded) for 23 to 26 August

Katrina moves over anomalously warm (>30oC) water in the Gulf Stream as it moves northwestward towards South Florida


Miami WSR-88D radar shows Katrina's landfall near 0000 UTC 26 August:

Initial asymmetry despite Category 1 intensity

Dry slot fills in while much of the TC is over Florida

Full eyewall present as Katrina enters the Gulf

Katrina's intensity does not change during the storm's passage of South Florida


Satellite imagery shows that Katrina experiences very little overall decrease in deep convection and loses very little symmetry while crossing Florida

GOES IR brightness temperatures as indicated on the greyscale bar for 0000 UTC 26 and 27 August

How common is Katrina's lack of sensitivity to landfall in South Florida?

2. South Florida LandfallCriteria for an analog study of hurricane landfalls in South Florida:

named storm (implies 1948-present) passes through a 2ox2o box centered at

26oN,81oW crosses South Florida on a zonal track spends 12h or less over land

Eight storms meet these criteria: How (1951)Isbell (1964)Betsy (1965)Dawn (1972)Andrew (1992)Mitch (1998)Harvey (1999)Wilma (2005)

2. South Florida Landfall A Two One-Sided Test

(TOST) analysis is used to check for significant intensity trends during passage across South Florida

Equivalence tests are commonly used in biometical research to test the effectiveness of generic drugs

Equivalence interval is 10 ms-1 (approx one Category)


Null Hypothesis:

“Landfall in South Florida leads to a significant change in TC intensity”

The null hypothesis is rejected by the TOST at the 95% level. This indicates that:

Katrina's lack of sensitivity to landfall in South Florida is consistent with the historical record of such events

3. Rapid Intensification

During intensification: SST stays above

29.5oC shear increases to

15 ms-1

winds increase to 77 ms-1 (Category 5)

PI drops to 69 ms-1

Katrina becomes superintense on 28 August


The central Gulf remains >29oC during Katrina's passage, but is not anomalously warm. Shelf waters are very warm, and may limit weakening as Katrina moves northward on 28 August.

SST (contours) and anomaly (shaded) for 26 to 30 August

3. Rapid IntensificationGOES IR brightness temperatures as indicated on the greyscale bar for 0000 UTC 24 to 31 August

Katrina's organization on 27 August after leaving South Florida is impressive but not unique for this region of the Gulf.

3. Rapid IntensificationGOES IR brightness temperatures as indicated on the greyscale bar for 0000 UTC 24 to 31 August

Rapid increases in intensity and RMW of the storm occur in the absence of anomalously warm SSTs on 27-29 August.


Combined effects of intensity and radius changes lead to a smooth exponential increase in Katrina's power dissipation (directly related to the damage potential of the storm).

Emanuel 2005, Nature

3. Rapid IntensificationSST's near Katrina are uniformly warm; however, satellite altimetry shows that the TC crosses an extension of the Loop Current and a deep warm core ring (WCR) while undergoing its two periods of rapid intensification.

SST and dynamic topography (column thickness corrected for the geoid, tides, pressure and geostrophic currents) during Katrina's passage across the Gulf.Source: Scharroo 2005 (EOS)


Dynamic Topography Data Source: R. Scharroo

Katrina's power dissipation rises in conjunction with the dynamic topography, suggesting that the increased heat content in the WCR is more important than SSTs once mixing is induced by the circulation of the TC.

Discussion

Hurricane Katrina was influenced by external forcings for much of its tropical lifecycle phase:

Development: Persistent troughing and easterly waveFlorida Landfall: Changing lower boundary propertiesRapid Intensification: Passage over WCR

Hurricane Katrina's lack of sensitivity to landfall in South Florida is consistent with the historical record

The rapid intensification and expansion of the TC over the Gulf leads to monotonically increasing power dissipation and is associated with Katrina's passage over a WCR

hurricane katrina (2005): complex lifecycle of an intense tropical cyclone eyad atallah, ron...

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