Observations on Katrina
By now, I think that most people have had a chance to understand the devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. After watching the news tonight, I am amazed not only at the destruction in Mississippi and Alabama that the storm caused, but at the fact that the predictions made by the weather service for New Orleans seem to have come true.
While the country will have to deal with the effects of Katrina (and everyone is encouraged to contribute to the Katrina Relief effort), there are a few weather-related observations that need to be made:
- The effects of a hurricane can be measured not only by wind speed, but by the barometric pressure at the eye of the storm. When the storm hit New Orleans, the barometric pressure was 915 millibars, or 27.02 inches of mercury. It had been as low as 902 millibars, or 26.64 inches of mercury. With pressure as low as this (”normal pressure” is about 30 inches), it’s no wonder that the storm had such a damaging effect.
- The intensity of the hurricanes this season in general, and Hurricane Katrina in particular, was not caused by global warning, and there wasn’t anything anyone could ‘do’ to prevent it. Hurricanes are Nature’s way of equalizing the temperature differences between the heat of the tropics and the cold of the Arctic. Essentially hurricanes move the heat of the oceans up into the upper atmosphere. As David Chandley explained in a talk at the NFL Luncheon today, were it not for hurricanes, the tropics would be even warmer, and the polar regions would be solid ice.
If there’s any good news to be had on the weather front, it’s that the weather in Atlanta for Labor Day weekend is expected to be wonderful. The heat and humidity of summer is losing its grip. By the weekend, we could be seeing temperatures in the low to mid 80s during the day, and lows in the low to mid 60s, with low humidity.
On the tropical storm front, Tropical Depression 13 has become Tropical Storm Lee as of 5 PM today.
It continues its slow moving path, and is not expected to affect the United States.
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