ISAAC S TORM 02 - St. Lawrence...

Envs, Geol, Phys 112: Global Climate Name ____________________

ISAAC’S STORM 02

Read pp. 57 – 134 of Isaac’s storm. As your read each chapter, reflect and make notes on the following (not a COMPLETE list!!) Galveston: Dirty Weather What was Isaac’s daily schedule in Little Rock? Why did Isaac get a medical degree? What were Abiiene and Sweetwater Texas like in Isaac’s day? What was Isaac’s journey to Fort Concho like? What unusual weather phenomena did Isaac experience in Fort Concho? How did Isaac’s life change in Abilene? What was wrong with the weather service, including the Galvestion station? What was Galveston like when Isaac arrived? What were its hopes? How did Isaac’s family change in Galveston? What contest did he enter and how did he do? How did his brother do? Characterize Greely, Harrington, Morton, Dunwoody and Moore. How did they help and/or hurt the weather service? When and where did Isaac encounter his first hurricane? What was it like? How did Isaac fare? Describe the blizzard that hit NY in 1898 and the one that hit the west in the following January. What did Isaac and Joseph observe? What happened to Gaveston Bay? The Storm: Thursday, August 30, 1900 What were the precursors and effects of the storm in Antigua? Use the following table to record the times, locations & observers of the storm’s pressures

Date Time Location Observer Pressure (In Hg)

Envs, Geol, Phys 112: Global Climate Isaac’s Storm 02 AOD 3/8/2013

Galveston: An Absurd Delusion What did Isaac not know about weather and climate that we now know? What did he think he knew about hurricanes? How did the hurricanes in Indianola contradict this and how did he classify them? What response to the Indianola hurricanes did Galveston first plan? Why were those plans not carried out? The Storm: Spiderwebs and Ice When did the storm enter the Carribean? Why did the plume “rocket through the troposphere”? What made it rise? Why did the plume then fall and how did this cause large raindrops to form? How does this usually deplete storms? What is different in hurricanes that prevents their depletion? How is the rain from hurricanes different from normal storms? Compare the rain amounts from Claudette, the Philippine typhoon and Camille. The Levy Building: Isaac’s Map What direction did the thunderstorm come from? Does this fit with the winds shown on the weather map for September 4 on the next page? (or T:/Global Climate/Isaacs Storm/). Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy spanned almost 1000 miles at its largest. On September 4, 1900, the Galveston Hurricane was about over the middle of Cuba. Given the distances shown on the map on the next page, do you think the thunderstorm on the morning of the 4th could have been an outer band of the hurricane? http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/sandy-another-giant-storm-20121027 How did the thunderstorm change the weather in Galveston. Have you had this experience? What does it tell you about the possible cause of the thunderstorm? How was the daily weather map created in Galveston on September 4th? Who is Mr. Young and what in the “play of isobars and wind” suggested to him that there was a cyclone south of Florida? Cuba: Suspicion Where is the Belen Observatory? Read more about Fr. Beito Vines at http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830906172.html. What had Fr. Vines learned about hurricanes? Why do you think Moore, Stockman and Dunwoody disregarded Fr. Vines’ successor at Belen? Characterize William Stockman What caused the chasm between the US and Cuban meteorologists? Who was Julio Jover? Why did Western Union cooperate with Moore? Characterize the difference in the Cubans’ and Americans’ approaches to weather data. What did Father Gangoite get right about the storm?


250 mi

100

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750 mi

1000

Distances from

Galveston

Gulf portion of Daily Weather Map (dwm) for 09/04/1900. Available at http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/dwm/1900/


New Orleans: Captain Halsey’s Choice How did the Weather Bureau reinforce “… the bravado of sea captains like Halsey”? Why did many mariners resist following the warnings of the Weather Bureau? When did the Louisiana enter the Gulf? What was the pressure? Record it in the table on p. 1. What direction was the wind and where did it indicate the low was? What did Halsey know about the storm? Straits of Forida: A Matter of Divination What did the Weather Bureau predict about the storm on Wednesday (9/5)? What did Hulio Jover predict about the storm and how did Stockman react? What happened in Key West over the course of the day? What was forming the eye of the storm? What was Stockman’s “grave mistake” and how did it effect fishermen in New Jersey? What did Moore tell the fishermen? In their meeting after the Galveston Hurricane, what did Jover tell Dunwoody and how did Dunwoody reply? Key West: M is for Missing Record the Galveston pressure at 7 am on Thursday, September 6 on p. 1. Why were Isaac and Joseph reassured by the clear weather? The map discussed on p. 115 is reproduced on the next page. Identify the features described in the text. You can also look (and zoom in on) a pdf of the map in the Isaac’s Storm folder on the T Drive. Read the text of the “Weather Conditions and General Forectast” on the map to see the predictions for the storm. Larson claims that the temperatures for Key West are missing on the morning map. I find Key West present, though Larson claims the telegraph was knocked out. Jupiter, however, is missing. (Where is Jupiter, Florida?)


Gulf of Mexico: The Devil’s Voice The Louisiana was headed to the southeast across the Gulf (to go around Florida on its way to New York). The “Smoke from her stack blew forward over the starboard rail in a long black smudge..” The Starboard rail is that on the right as see on the boat facing forward. For the boat below, sketch the position of a low pressure system that would blow smoke forward over the starboard rail (say, 60 ° starboard from directly off the bow). What direction is this wind blowing?

Daily Weather Map (dwm) for 09/06/1900. Available at http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/dwm/1900/


Gulf of Mexico: The Devil’s Voice (continued) Record all the pressures Halsey measures (and their times) on p. 1 What was the lowest pressure Halsey had seen? What were Halsey’s estimates of the wind speeds? What was the evidence that the storm had formed an eye by Thursday evening? What is “explosive deepening” and what was known about it in 1900? What and where is the Loop Current and what influence might it have had on the hurricane? Google “Loop Current Katrina” to learn what influence the current had more recently. How high does the surface of the sea lift for each inch of barometric pressure decline? Superstorm Sandy had a minimum pressure of 27.76 mb. How does this compare with the Galveston Hurricane and Hurricane Gilbert? What might have linked the typhoon and earthquake in Japan in 1923? What is “75th meridian time”? Record Isaac’s barometer reading in Galveston on p. 1. The Storm: Swells How is the maximum height of a wave related to the wind speed? Other factors maximizing the size of the waves is the duration of the wind and the fetch, the area over which the wind is blowing. All were large for the Galveston Hurricane. Both the height of the waves and their wavelenths are maximized … the long wavelengths are what Isaac saw as slow swells. Galveston: Heat Why did Captain Simmons take the Pensacola out of the safety of the harbor? Why did Moore have Isaac change the warning flag? What did he thing the storm was doing? Why was Captain Hix concerned? Record the times and pressures noted by Simmons on the Pensacola on p. 1. Why did Simmons “stay the course” and what did he experience on the Pensacola? What convinced Dr. Young that a cyclone was approaching? Record Joseph’s pressure readings and times on p. 1. Cuba: Who is Right? Why was Stockman so proud of his reply to Dungwoody? What was the evidence Gangiote cited to support his idea that the storm was in Texas? Find Abilene and Palestine Texas on a map. What current largish city did Gangiote guess the storm was near? With a storm in Texas, why would cirrus clouds in Cuba be moving SW? -- “Moving from the West by North” means the wind was from the west, but moving north of east, hence winds from the SW.

ISAAC S TORM 02 - St. Lawrence...

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