Puzzling Electric Hurricanes

SpaceAdmiral writes "Hurricanes seldom have lightning because they primarily consist of horizontal winds (as opposed to vertical winds). However, three of the biggest storms of 2005 (Rita, Katrina, and Emily) had plenty of lightning and NASA has an interesting write-up about it." Bottom line is "we still have a lot to learn about hurricanes."

Comments

Modesty and Knowledge.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Bottom line is "we still have a lot to learn about hurricanes.""

Bottom line: we have a lot to learn about a great deal.

Re:Modesty and Knowledge.

[Y2]

In other news: Scientists admit that they don't know everything.

Which wouldn't be noteworthy, except for the numerous other factions that make no such admission, ever.

Re:Modesty and Knowledge.

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Your theology is sophisticated and admirable; unfortunately, it's also not typical of the people who use religion as a blunt instrument to attack science -- and like it or not, there are a lot of those people, and they have significant political power.

Science could indeed be used as a doctrine of control, but if it were, it would of necessity be warped so far that it would no longer be "science" by any reasonable definition of the word. In fact, there are historical examples: Lysenkoism and Intelligent Design spring immediately to mind, and there are probably others. In order to function, um, scientifically, science requires freedom of both thought and action.

Storms

[fireiceviperhotmail.]

i hate it when they basicly say " we know nothing " after every sience articly i read on
the web. I mean ok we get it we humans know nothing ... but do we have to be reminded of it every time ?

Julien. http://free.hostdepartment.com/8/81fortune/

Pardon my Ignorance

[killkillkill]

I don't know much of anything about the equipment they use, but could it just be that we're seeing more lightning because we're lookinging harder and with better equipment?

Re:Pardon my Ignorance

[Anonymous Coward]

Bravo!

This is an important point that is sometimes forgotten when we study hurricanes. It's always amusing to hear news forcasters say that a certain hurricane is the most violent in 100 years or that it had some characteristic never seen before. How do they know? How do we know if Wilma was bigger than the Galveston hurricane when the Galveston hurricane was out to sea? Heck, how do we even know that the category system of hurricanes is related to energy? Katrina as a Cat 3 made Andrew as a Cat 4 look small. And Tropical Cyclone Tracy--a strong Cat 5--was barely 50 miles across. Then there is Tropical Cyclone Tip that was 1500 miles across. For some reason this seems to me to be like measuring the speed of a car by RPMs of the wheels without taking into account the circumference of the wheels--occasionally a tiny car with 3" tires looks likes its going Mach 3.

Re:Pardon my Ignorance

[windows]

The winds in any cyclone, tropical or otherwise, are driven by the pressure gradient force. Tropical Cyclone Tracy had a minimum central pressure of about 950 mb but because of its compact size, there was a very strong pressure gradient. Typhoon Tip, on the other hand, had a minimum central pressure of 870 mb, but was much larger. Neither size nor central pressure are the sole factor in determining the maximum wind speed in a cyclone; but when considered together along with the influence of friction at the surface, they do control the wind speed. Typically when meteorologists compare the strength of typical cyclones, they look at either the maximum sustained winds or the minimum central pressure. And both are perfectly valid ways of comparing the strength of tropical cyclones.

And for what it's worth, observations are far better today than they were in 1900 when the powerful hurricane hit Galveston. Many of our estimates of the strength of tropical cyclones at sea are based off satellite imagery, which of course did not exist in 1900. However, it is perfectly valid to say that Hurricane Wilma had the lowest minimum central pressure of any cyclone observed in the Atlantic. It is a fact that there has not been a lower minimum central pressure observed.

With regards to lightning, a great deal of tropical cyclones have been observed in the Atlantic and in other basins around the world. The use of hurricane hunter aircraft is nothing new. And the article is merely saying that the three systems mentioned had something different from other systems observed and that meteorologists don't know why. It never said that other tropical cyclones in the past didn't have significant lightning activity like these three. It just said we haven't observed it. And considering that meteorological records are kept rather carefully, we can be pretty confident that we haven't seen such behavior before.

Plug the hole?

[DaveM753]

Judging by this picture, the moon looks just about the right size to plug the hole in this hurricane.
Wouldn't that stop it?

historic in other areas as well

[bechthros]

All historically large and powerful storms.

Emily--Was another rare powerful July hurricane that formed in the Atlantic on the heels of Hurricane Dennis during the week of July 10th, 2005. The storm became the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the month of July after its winds reached a peak speed of 155 mph, and its minimum central pressure dropped to 929 mb, or 27.43 inches of Hg. This just surpassed the levels previously established by Dennis, and was just slightly below Category Five Hurricane intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Although Emily ransacked the island of Grenada, which was still recovering from Hurricane Ivan's impact in September, 2004, the storm mercifully spared the islands of Jamaica and the Caymans as well as weakened before making landfall in the Yucatan. The storm did regain some steam after losing its punch over the plateau of the Yucatan Peninsula, and made a final landfall as a major hurricane in Northeastern Mexico with winds of 125 mph. The storm was responsible for 64 deaths, and initially $300,000,000 dollars in damage. It also contributed to the rise in oil prices by forcing the evacuation of employees of Mexico's primary oil company, PEMEX, from their offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Katrina--Started out modestly on August 23rd, 2005 in the Bahamas as a tropical wave that emerged from the remnants of a tropical depression that had been in the Caribbean. It gradually grew into the season's eleventh named storm and fourth hurricane prior to making landfall in South Florida as a minimal hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, and gusts up to 95 mph. After quickly crossing Southern Florida, Katrina emerged again over water in the Southeastern Gulf of Mexico near the Florida Keys, and strengthened to the 2005 season's third major hurricane before reorganizing into the most powerful storm in the Central Gulf since Hurricane Camille, and third Category Five Hurricane in as many years with winds as high as 175 mph, and a minimum central pressure of 902 mb, or 26.64 inches of Hg. It became the fourth most powerful hurricane of all time ahead of Camille and behind Hurricane Gilbert (1988), the Labor Day of Hurricane of 1935, and Hurricane Allen (1980). After coming ashore as a Category One Hurricane in South Florida, Katrina struck two more times along the Gulf Coast. First in Buras, Louisiana with 140 mph winds, and then near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi with 135 mph winds. It created a 27 foot storm surge in Gulfport, Mississippi and a 22 foot storm surge in Bay St. Louis. Winds as high as 90 mph were felt as far east as Mobile, Alabama, which experienced its worst flooding in 90 years. To make matters worse, part of an oil rig broke away in Mobile Bay and hit a nearby causway possibly causing damage there. Waves as high as 48 feet happened offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Some 50 people were killed in coastal Mississippi including 30 in an apartment complex in Biloxi. Katrina even ripped off part of the roof of the Louisiana Superdome, where 10,000 people were staying in the facility, which was being used as a shelter of last resort. Extensive flooding occurred in New Orleans, which was actually spared the brunt of the storm. The 9th ward in the Crescent City was underwater as well as 80 percent of the city. People fled to their attics to escape drowning and some were rescued by helicopters and boats. So far, the latest death toll is at 1,325 (Louisiana-1076, Mississippi-230, Florida-14, Alabama-2, Georgia-2, Tennessee-1) with damage estimates now ranging from $40 billion to $60 billion. Experts fear that the total cost for the storm could be $200 billion dollars, which would make Katrina the costliest hurricane and natural disaster in United States History.

Hurricane Rita--The seventeenth named storm and fifth major hurricane of the 2005 season, Rita began near the Turks and Caicos Islands as a mere tropical depression on September 17th, 2005. However, as it passed near the Florida Keys

But there is Vertical movement...

[JasperVal]

Major storms, including severe Thunderstorms and Hurricanes are an oddity in atmospheric conditions specifically because there is vertical movement. Normally the atmosphere is in hydrostatic balance and the vertical speed of an air parcel can be ignored. In a thunderstorm there are severe downdrafts that overpower the pressure gradient force and updrafts stronger than the force of gravity. It's only in severe storms when the atmosphere isn't in hydrostatic balance. Hurricanes couldn't develop without vertical movement; the eye in the center is a result of the surface low "pulling" air from the upper atmosphere down and clearing the clouds; the bands are similar downdrafts with updrafts occurring at the eye wall. There's more to the lack of lightning than no movement.

hmm

[mistermicro]

"Generally there's not a lot of lightning in the eye-wall region," he says. "So when people see lightning there, they perk up -- they say, okay, something's happening."

incase the 100mph winds didn't have your attention already..

sigh.. hurricanes and their egos.

Allow me to translate....

[Duncan3]

God is saying...

"You're screwing up my planet, I'm going to kick your ass now."

Re:haarp

[ScrewMaster]

/me loosens tinfoil hat a bit

Forget the hat ... loosen your tie. A little oxygen will help.

Re:Lightning? Not The Result of Global Warming

[bloo9298]

Aliens? That's silly. Don't worry, Pat Robertson will no doubt explain why the lightning occurred soon enough.

Katrina had lightning indeed

[Jon Abbott]

The same day that Katrina was nearing Louisiana, I got a picture of lightning from a feeder band in Jacksonville, Florida -- over 500 miles away. The picture was shot with a Canon Powershot S2 (albeit in video mode -- I cheated by extracting the single frame that had lightning).