[LTER-luq] Impact of TS Erika - See Jeff Master's Blog on Weather Underground - winds were apparently 60 mph - not 50 on our (north) side of the storm

[Deborah J Lodge]

Hi all,

Apparently the hurricane hunters were measuring 60 mph winds on the north side of Erika Friday, which might explain why we saw so many small to medium branches (0.5-3 cm siam, some 5 cm or larger) on the forest floor yesterday, but I’m not sure when those flights took place. The first line of the Blog is entertaining

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3094

Thumbing its nose at some of the world’s most skilled computer models and forecasters, Tropical Storm Erikacruised relentlessly almost due west through the northern Caribbean on Friday, failing to make a long-predicted northwestward turn toward the Bahamas. The National Hurricane Center placed Erika's ill-defined center at 11:00 pm EDT Friday at 18.5°N, 72.9°W, or about 40 miles west of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Erika’s top sustained winds were set at 45 mph. Hurricane-hunter flights on Friday had found flight-level winds of as high as 55 knots (more than 60 mph) on the north side of Erika.

Erika has been a troubled-looking system, with thunderstorms mostly straggling behind and south of the center due to upper-level northwesterlies producing vertical wind shear (the difference between upper- and lower-level winds) of about 30 mph. Despite the shear, Erika’s large circulation maintained a broad north-to-south oriented region of intense convection through most of Friday before thunderstorms consolidated toward its north end on Friday evening. Most of the core convection passed just south of Puerto Rico, so by and large, the island missed out on the rain that it so desperately needs. San Juan’s Luis Munoz Marin International Airport reported just 0.25” on Thursday and 0.22” on Friday. Heavy rains swept through the Dominican Republic late Friday: a personal weather station in Barahona reported 23.76" of rain between 1 pm Friday and 2 am Saturday, including 8.80" in one hour from 8 pm to 9 pm Friday.
On Aug 28, 2015, at 2:59 PM, McDowell, Bill <Bill.McDowell at unh.edu> wrote:

> Icacos has received 8 inches combined from the two storms…..
>  
> William H. McDowell
> Professor of Environmental Science and Presidential Chair
> Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire
> Director, NH Water Resources Research Center (http://wrrc.unh.edu/)
> (603) 862-2249 bill.mcdowell at unh.edu
>  
> From: luq [mailto:luq-bounces at lists.lternet.edu] On Behalf Of Jess Zimmerman
> Sent: Friday, August 28, 2015 1:13 PM
> To: LUQ-LTER <luq at lternet.edu>; Carlos I Gonzalez Vargas <carlos.gonzalez55 at upr.edu>
> Subject: [LTER-luq] Impact of TS Erika
>  
> I just drove from Cubuy to Luquillo, stopping at El Verde FS along the way.  The major impact is two fallen trees blocking the entrance road to the station.  There is not power at the station.  Hwy 186 is passable, crews having already cleared a scattering of fallen trees.  Streams are already receding from what rain we received.  A check of radar estimates of storm totals indicates that we received 2 - 3 inches of rainfall.
>  
> jess
> 
> Jess K. Zimmerman
> Professor
> Lead PI, Luquillo LTER Program
> Department Environmental Sciences
> University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras
> Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico
> 
> Direct Office Line: 787-350-0350
> Or: 787-764-0000 ext. 1-XXXX-# where XXXX is:
>    LTER Program Office: 2867
>    El Verde Field Station: 4381
> Mobile: 787-380-3311
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