A new world record wind gust: 253 mph in Australia's Tropical Cyclone Olivia
The 6,288-foot peak of New Hampshire's Mount Washington is a forbidding landscape of wind-swept barren rock, home to some of planet Earth's fiercest winds. As a 5-year old boy, I remember being blown over by a terrific gust of wind on the summit, and rolling out of control towards a dangerous drop-off before a fortuitously-placed rock saved me. Perusing the Guinness Book of World Records as a kid, three iconic world weather records always held a particular mystique and fascination for me: the incredible 136°F (57.8°C) at El Azizia, Libya in 1922, the -128.5°F (-89.2°C) at the "Pole of Cold" in Vostok, Antarctica in 1983, and the amazing 231 mph wind gust (103.3 m/s) recorded in 1934 on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. Well, the legendary winds of Mount Washington have to take second place now, next to the tropical waters of northwest Australia. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has announced that the new world wind speed record at the surface is a 253 mph (113.2 m/s) wind gust measured on Barrow Island, Australia. The gust occurred on April 10, 1996, during passage of the eyewall of Category 4 Tropical Cyclone Olivia.
Figure 1. Instruments coated with rime ice on the summit of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. Image credit: Mike Theiss.
Tropical Cyclone Olivia
Tropical Cyclone Olivia was a Category 4 storm on the U.S. Saffir-Simpson scale, and generated sustained winds of 145 mph (1-minute average) as it crossed over Barrow Island off the northwest coast of Australia on April 10, 1996. Olivia had a central pressure of 927 mb and an eye 45 miles in diameter at the time, and generated waves 21 meters (69 feet) high offshore. According to Black et al. (1999), the eyewall likely had a tornado-scale mesovortex embedded in it that caused the extreme wind gust of 253 mph. The gust was measured at the standard measuring height of 10 meters above ground, on ground at an elevation of 64 meters (210 feet). A similar mesovortex was encountered by a Hurricane Hunter aircraft in Hurricane Hugo of 1989, and a mesovortex was also believed to be responsible for the 239 mph wind gust measured at 1400 meters by a dropsonde in Hurricane Isabel in 2003. For reference, 200 mph is the threshold for the strongest category of tornado, the EF-5, and any gusts of this strength are capable of causing catastrophic damage.
Figure 2. Visible satellite image of Tropical Cyclone Olivia a few hours before it crossed Barrow Island, Australia, setting a new world-record wind gust of 253 mph. Image credit: Japan Meteorological Agency.
Figure 3. Wind trace taken at Barrow Island, Australia during Tropical Cyclone Olivia. Image credit: Buchan, S.J., P.G. Black, and R.L. Cohen, 1999, "The Impact of Tropical Cyclone Olivia on Australia's Northwest Shelf", paper presented at the 1999 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, 3-6 May, 1999.
Why did it take so long for the new record to be announced?
The instrument used to take the world record wind gust was funded by a private company, Chevron, and Chevron's data was not made available to forecasters at Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) during the storm. After the storm, the tropical cyclone experts at BOM were made aware of the data, but it was viewed as suspect, since the gusts were so extreme and the data was taken with equipment of unknown accuracy. Hence, the observations were not included in the post-storm report. Steve Buchan from RPS MetOcean believed in the accuracy of the observations, and coauthored a paper on the record gust, presented at the 1999 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston (Buchan et al., 1999). The data lay dormant until 2009, when Joe Courtney of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology was made aware of it. Courtney wrote up a report, coauthored with Steve Buchan, and presented this to the WMO extremes committee for ratification. The report has not been made public yet, and is awaiting approval by Chevron. The verified data will be released next month at a World Meteorological Organization meeting in Turkey, when the new world wind record will become official.
New Hampshire residents are not happy
Residents of New Hampshire are understandably not too happy about losing their cherished claim to fame. The current home page of the Mount Washington Observatory reads, "For once, the big news on Mount Washington isn't our extreme weather. Sadly, it's about how our extreme weather--our world record wind speed, to be exact--was outdone by that of a warm, tropical island".
Comparison with other wind records
Top wind in an Atlantic hurricane: 239 mph (107 m/s) at an altitude of 1400 meters, measured by dropsonde in Hurricane Isabel (2003).
Top surface wind in an Atlantic hurricane: 211 mph (94.4 m/s), Hurricane Gustav, Paso Real de San Diego meteorological station in the western Cuban province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba, on the afternoon of August 30, 2008.
Top wind in a tornado: 302 mph (135 m/s), measured via Doppler radar at an altitude of 100 meters (330 feet), in the Bridge Creek, Oklahoma tornado of May 3, 1999.
Top surface wind not associated with a tropical cyclone or tornado: 231 mph (103.3 m/s), April 12, 1934 on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire.
Top wind in a typhoon: 191 mph (85.4 m/s) on Taiwanese Island of Lanya, Super Typhoon Ryan, Sep 22, 1995; also on island of Miyakojima, Super Typhoon Cora, Sep 5, 1966.
Top surface wind not measured on a mountain or in a tropical cyclone: 207 mph (92.5 m/s) measured in Greenland at Thule Air Force Base on March 6, 1972.
Top wind measured in a U.S. hurricane: 186 mph (83.1 m/s) measured at Blue Hill Observatory, Massachusetts, during the 1938 New England Hurricane.
References
Buchan, S.J., P.G. Black, and R.L. Cohen, 1999, "The Impact of Tropical Cyclone Olivia on Australia's Northwest Shelf", paper presented at the 1999 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, 3-6 May, 1999.
Black, P.G., Buchan, S.J., and R.L. Cohen, 1999, "The Tropical Cyclone Eyewall Mesovortex: A Physical Mechanism Explaining Extreme Peak Gust Occurrence in TC Olivia, 4 April 1996 on Barrow Island, Australia", paper presented at the 1999 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, 3-6 May, 1999.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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I'll be on my way....L8R
Oss, to me it seems this is just a campaign against a scientist. Presented in a pretty lame and confusing way.
Hey! I haven't been on here all day!
;)
NEAR TERM /UNTIL 6 AM FRIDAY MORNING/...
-- Changed Discussion --AS OF 700 PM THURSDAY...THE DRY COLD FRONT WILL SWEEP RAPIDLY
THROUGH EASTERN NC THIS EVENING AND SHOULD BE OFF THE COAST BY
MIDNIGHT. HIGH CLOUDS WILL CONTINUE STREAM INTO EASTERN NC AHEAD
OF ADVANCING STREAM UPPER TROUGH. ALTHOUGH THE ATMOSPHERE WILL BE
MIXED BEHIND THE FRONT AND THE HIGH CLOUDINESS WILL LOWER...STRONG
COLD ADVECTION SHOULD OFFSET THIS SO I LOWERED MINIMUM
TEMPERATURES A COUPLE OF DEGREES TOWARD THE COLDER MOS NUMBERS.
A FEW RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE UPCOMING WINTER WEATHER SITUATION:
WHAT IS MAKING THIS FORECAST TOUGH IS THE WARM NOSE WHICH IS
FORECAST BY THE MODELS AROUND 750-800 MB ON SATURDAY. THIS IS WHY
THE FORECAST 850-700 MB THICKNESS VALUES ARE HIGHER THAN YOU WOULD
EXPECT IN A SNOW SITUATION. PARTIAL/CRITICAL THICKNESS VALUES THAT
HIGH USUALLY SIGNAL A MIXTURE WITH SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN. THE
NAM-12 SOUNDINGS IN THE ADVISORY AREA LOOK MAINLY LIKE A
SNOW/SLEET MIXTURE WHICH WOULD CUT DOWN ON SNOWFALL
ACCUMULATIONS. THE 1000-850 MB THICKNESS IS CERTAINLY COLD ENOUGH
TO SUPPORT SNOW. ANOTHER CONCERN IS FOR THE AREAS JUST SE OF THE
ADVISORY AREA AT THE ONSET OF THE EVENT. VERY DRY AIR IN THE
800-900 MB LAYER WILL PROMOTE EVAPOARTIVE COOLING AND IT LOOKS
LIKE THERE WILL BE SUFFICIENT LIFT AND MOISTURE EARLY FOR HEAVIER
PRECIPITATION TO OCCUR WHICH WILL MAXIMIZE THE COOLING AND ALLOW
TEMPERATURES TO BRIEFLY DROP TO AROUND FREEZING. THUS A PERIOD OF
FREEZING RAIN/SLEET/SNOW COULD OCCUR IN PLACES AS FAR SOUTH AS
KINSTON AND NEW BERN BEFORE CHANGING TO A COLD RAIN. THE NORTHERN
OUTER BANKS WERE ANOTHER AREA OF CONCERN. THICKNESS VALUES WERE
COLD ENOUGH FOR WINTRY PRECIPITATION BUT THE LOW LEVEL ENE FLOW
OFF THE WARMER OCEAN WATERS SHOULD HELP TO KEEP THE SURFACE
TEMPERATURES ABOVE FREEZING. HOPEFULLY THE NEXT MODEL RUN WILL
HELP ADDRESS THESE ISSUES.-- End Changed Discussion --
Your comments are completely uncalled for.
It's all your fault anyway. hahahahahaha
(just trying to help you feel better, in my own spirited way) :)
LOL, U betcha
Post #597 was for my entry,and I kinda had to modify it here..
Who Dat Nation arises for sure in Miami.
One can call in toll-free and also ask questions thru the Live StormChat
Bob Brookens receiving a Special Award from Max Mayfield for his Broadcasting and Hurricane Awareness work.
Analysis of actual U.S. data disagrees with Anthony Watts' primary conclusion.
My guest blogger today is one of the best meteorologists around, Dr. Jeff Masters, former Hurricane Hunter and now Director of Meteorology for the Weather Underground. There’s so much damn stuff to blog on, I didn’t get around to the amazing new study that, as DotEarth’s Andy Revkin put it, “throws cold water on the allegation that bad weather stations have amplified America’s warming trend” — allegations made by former TV weatherman Anthony Watts who runs the anti-science website WattsUpWithThat.
We knew that the “good or best” weather stations provide data that matches the overall U.S. temperature record (see Must-read NOAA paper — Q: “Is there any question that surface temperatures in the United States have been rising rapidly during the last 50 years?” A: “None at all.”). But as Revkin explains, “In essence, the paper, On the Reliability of the U.S. Surface Temperature Record (pdf), concludes that the instrument issues, as long acknowledged, are real, but the poor stations tend to have a slight cool bias, not a warm one.” Like Revkin, I first saw this on Masters’ Wunderblog, and he gave me permission to excerpt it at length here.
Read full article
http://climateprogress.org/2010/01/28/watts-not-to-love-new-study-finds-the-poor-u-s-weather-statio ns-tend-to-have-a-slight-cool-bias-not-a-warm-one/
Earlyer they had a discussion with StormW on tropical storm danny?
That is about the most sensible thing I've read
in a dogs age. How did the planet warm and melt the 100,000 yr. glaciations prior to the INDUSTRIAL revolution, how did
Greenland melt down for Erik the Red to explore the North American east coast. Most likely Solar
variation. My theory at least till someone comes up with a reasonable alternative.
NFL halting sales of 'Who Dat' merchandise-NOLA.com
Local Text Forecast for
West Palm Beach, FL (33409)
Jan 28 Tonight
Partly cloudy skies. Low 61F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
Jan 29 Tomorrow
Partly cloudy skies. High 74F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.
Jan 29 Tomorrow night
Mostly cloudy skies. Low 67F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Jan 30 Saturday
Mostly Cloudy. Highs in the low 80s and lows in the low 60s.
Jan 31 Sunday
Some sun with a few showers possible. Highs in the upper 60s and lows in the low 60s.
Feb 1 Monday
Showers possible. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the mid 60s.
Feb 2 Tuesday
Showers possible. Highs in the mid 70s and lows in the low 60s.
Feb 3 Wednesday
Occasional showers possible. Highs in the mid 70s and lows in the low 60s.
Feb 4 Thursday
Mostly Cloudy. Highs in the mid 70s and lows in the low 60s.
Feb 5 Friday
Showers possible. Highs in the mid 70s and lows in the upper 50s.
Feb 6 Saturday
A few clouds. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 50s.
WOW Well, good luck with that. If this actually stops people from selling them, I GUARANTEE there will be more hand made items than you can even imagine. And if I know my NO, finding someone to enforce something like that on the behest of the NFL will be, errrr, difficult.
I am in StormChat.
You propose the rivival of the caveman ;)
We have the power to destroy earth and at the same time we have the power to save the earth.
On second thought, not going there...
I think we will be forced to adapt to clean energy.
It started already, now it is a matter on how fast we can phase out the biggest polluter. Wait 2 month it will be a total diffrent situation, because each of us starts to see and feel the change which goes on with the earth climate/weather.
GREAT WORK GUYS.
Who dat owns who dat. NFL is not who dat.
portlight.org
I understand the copyright laws, which is why I stated "If this actually stops people from selling them, I GUARANTEE there will be more hand made items than you can even imagine".
And I'm pretty sure the NOPD will be too busy to waste time raiding stores. And if the NFL pursues this, they are going to open a can of worms as to ownership. Wikipedia article.
And I find it a little interesting that after all these years, they wait until now. Can you say greedy NFL!!!!!
Here she comes...
Link
Tornado Watch 14 remains in effect until 1000 PM CST for the
following locations
TX
. Texas counties included are
Bandera blanco Burnet
Concho Edwards Gillespie
Kendall Kerr Kimble
Kinney Llano McCulloch
Mason Menard real
San Saba Schleicher Sutton
Uvalde Val Verde
"Note - older image does not show snow."
Ah the good ol' days, when eskimos could hula around near nekkid in their little grass skirts...
...oh wait...that was three days ago.
RUN!!! RUN!!! The glaciers are coming! The glaciers are coming!
Well at least we won't hafta argue about anthropogenic GlobalWarming anymore, what with man and all his works being buried under glaciers by next Monday.
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