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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Say goodbye to electricity.
How's that drought going? Can we assume it is going? Away?
Beam me up Scotty.
love ya Oz man! :)
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEMPHIS TN
932 AM CST FRI JAN 29 2010
.UPDATE...HAVE UPGRADED THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY ACROSS A
PORTION OF NORTH MISSISSIPPI...AND REMAINDER OF COUNTIES ACROSS
NORTH MISSISSIPPI TO A WINTER STORM WARNING THROUGH 12Z SATURDAY.
METAR OBSERVATIONS AND SPOTTER REPORTS ACROSS NORTH MISSISSIPPI
IN THE 60 TO 90 MINUTES HAVE BEEN IN THE FORM OF SLEET/FREEZING
RAIN. AT THIS TIME THINK...AREAS IN NORTH MISSISSIPPI HAVE THE
POTENTIAL TO RECEIVE BETWEEN ONE HALF TO THREE QUARTERS OF AN INCH
OF ICE ACCUMULATIONS THROUGH THIS EVENING.
There is a small craft advisory for tomorrow, but you know there will still be thousands of boaters anyway.
The Tampa PD, and the Coast Guard have a meeting scheduled at 2 PM today to discuss.
Link
Is it going to be gone by the time you leave?
Add to that the fact most boaters will be 'making merry with ye olde meade' during the invasion...
I hope it stays in north MS and does not come to central MS. But if it does at least I have gas heat.
doubt it, but we have a newer 4 wheel drive truck lol
As I'm sure you well know though, nothing works on ice. Was just wondering though. Through middle Tennessee could be, uhhhh, challenging.
you underestimate us Indiana drivers haha but yeah, should be interesting, although I think the interstate will be the best bet by far
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/13/foreign-oil-tea/
India Plans Manned Space Mission
???? any works?
well like research papers, things like that
For example
Watts not to love: New study finds the poor weather stations tend to have a slight COOL bias, not a warm one
Analysis of actual U.S. data disagrees with Anthony Watts' primary conclusion.
Oh, you mean like for papers on human behavior in a non face to face environment. ;)
JF originally said: "He is no more a professional scientist in the field than I am."
This guy is physics. Those laws do apply across all fields of science. I do concur that this fellow has no formal climatological education, apparently, but seems well-equipped to handle the physics.
And, yes, is a bit closer to a professional scientist in the field than JF...
:)
I would respectfully suggest that all scientific and engineering disciplines must have voice in the GW debate. Continuous discussions add clarification for all and moves the science forward. All minds are opened and more a better information becomes available for all. And yes, there will be on going discussions, discussions that will be fruitful for all.
However, some have less to offer than others as noted in this recent story;
" Bin Laden blasts US for climate change, calls for boycott of US goods, dollars
2 hours, 55 minutes ago
By Salah Nasrawi, The Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming, according to a new audiotape released Friday.
In the tape, broadcast in part on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden warned of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to stop it is to bring "the wheels of the American economy" to a halt.
He blamed Western industrialized nations for hunger, desertification and floods across the globe, and called for "drastic solutions" to global warming, and "not solutions that partially reduce the effect of climate change."
Bin Laden has mentioned climate change and global warning in past messages, but the latest tape was his first dedicated to the topic. The speech, which included almost no religious rhetoric, could be an attempt by the terror leader to give his message an appeal beyond Islamic militants.
The al-Qaida leader also targeted the U.S. economy in the recording, calling for a boycott of American products and an end to the dollar's domination as a world currency.
"We should stop dealings with the dollar and get rid of it as soon as possible," he said. "I know that this has great consequences and grave ramifications, but it is the only means to liberate humanity from slavery and dependence on America."
He argued that such steps would also hamper Washington's war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The new message, whose authenticity could not immediately be confirmed, comes after a bin Laden tape released last week in which he endorsed a failed attempt to blow up an American airliner on Christmas Day."
Yikes !!
Outlook for the Atlantic, Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico
Hurricane Who Dat is predicted to make landfall on the Florida coast in the vicinity of Miami on 7 Feb 2010 at approximately 2200Z (5:00 PM EST). This extremely powerful hurricane is expected to produce damaging Shockey waves and a Category 5 Brees. Reports from shipping indicate that this unstoppable storm has blown a huge flock of Cardinals all the way to Arizona, and that it has sunk a replica Viking longboat, the Brettigfǻvren. Livestock, in particular young horses or colts, will be in severe danger of being decimated. Predictive damage estimates are unavailable at this time, but they are expected to be significant.
All interests in and near the Miami area are advised to prepare for a storm surge of catastrophic proportions as Hurricane Who Dat begins to arrive in approximately 10 days.
Next advisory 07 Feb 2010 at 0300Z (10:00 PM EST).
Unpredictable snow could hurt resorts, local economies
* Variable snow-and-melt cycle challenges road maintenance
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Extreme winter weather in the northern United States shows that climate change can have severe effects, even when it doesn't warm things up, the National Wildlife Federation reported on Thursday.
Climate change is expected to bring shorter, milder winters overall, but some U.S. areas will have more intense snows, with more disruption to such activities as skiing and ice fishing, which depend on predictable conditions, the report said.
"More oddball winter weather is terrible news for skiers," the federation's Chip Knight, a former U.S. Olympic slalom skier, told reporters.
Mountain snow sports that require reliable snow conditions provide about $66 billion to the U.S. economy; without them, local communities are vulnerable, Knight said.
He pointed to extreme efforts under way to get snow to sites at the Vancouver Winter Olympics as "a startling example of what's at stake."
In the northern United States, spring now arrives 10 to 14 days earlier than it did 20 years ago. However, some areas are expected to have more heavy snowfalls as winter storm tracks shift northward. For example, reduced ice cover on the Great Lakes is likely to result in more lake-effect snows.
Strange winter weather is likely to strain local budgets if overall milder winters are interrupted by heavy snowstorms that require snow removal and road maintenance, said Sheldon Drobot of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Extreme variability from one winter to the next makes planning for maintenance difficult, he said.
The current season has offered sudden temperature swings that, among other things, stranded a flock of brown pelicans that failed to migrate south during a mild period in late fall. They're spending the winter indoors in Maryland after suffering frostbite, said the federation's Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist.
Cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that spur climate change is "an essential first step," Staudt said. However, she added that climate change is already occurring and must be dealt with.
"It's clear that we're already seeing some impacts and we need to start preparing for the new climate realities," she said. "We can't continue to plan based on what the historical trends have been."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2810491220100128?type=marketsNews
I like it.
:)
The sea level in China late last year hit a record high for the past three decades, threatening the safety of thousands of people in the coastal areas, the national ocean agency said yesterday.
The average rise in sea level for the past three decades occurred at a rate of 2.6 mm a year, much higher than the average rate of 1.7 mm annually across the world, a report on the sea-level rise in China for 2009 released by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) showed.
"Last year, the sea level was 8 mm higher than 2008 with the rise in sea level in Hainan Province reaching 113 mm, the highest across the country," Lin Shanqing, director of forecast and disaster relief department of the SOA, said yesterday.
Extreme weather like high temperatures and monsoons play an important role in the rise in sea level, Lin said.
In mid August last year, high temperatures hit most parts of southern China, causing the sea level in September to become about 180 mm higher than the previous year and pushing the oceanic temperature to 28.5 C, the second highest record in the past three decades, the report showed.
Experts estimate that the sea level, along the country's coastal areas, will keep rising and a maximum of 130 mm a year is very possible in the next three decades.
Full
http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2010-01/28/content_19320075.htm
Gunny stays motivated Amy.
...Oooh Rah!
That's a good one, I like it too.
:)
This being the key statement of that article.
He argued that such steps would also hamper Washington's war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He is starting to loose and using cowardly war tactics to shift the pendulum in his direction.
What a coward he is.
thanks (:
played a game of football with about seven 12 year-olds yesterday, and of course, one was wearing a Yankees hat, and I had my Red Sox hat on :P
I chase storms to provide Fuel for Generators and you guys are much better than any other news sourse I have ever used. Usualy i am first on the ground and know what to expect and where the most damage is thanks to you guys.
Just heard from Paul, and he asked that I convey news of the NBC piece. They taped at the warehouse in Atlanta for an hour and a half yesterday while goods were being loaded. Interview with him went very well.
Will NOT be on TV tonight. NBC is going to follow the story through to the landing, and distributing to the folks of Haiti through the Portlight contacts on the ground there. He was told he would get a day or two's notice as to when it would be broadcast, and that he would come to tell all when that happens.
Remember, no matter how small or how large the donation or any in kind offering, it's all good for those who have lost all. Support the mission of Portlight in any way you can please, you never know when the need will be in your back yard.
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