26th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology

Tuesday, 4 May 2004: 9:00 AM
A record wind measurement in Hurricane Isabel: Direct evidence of an eyewall mesocyclone?
Napoleon III Room (Deauville Beach Resort)
Sim D. Aberson, NOAA/AOML/HRD, Miami, FL; and M. L. Black, M. T. Montgomery, and M. Bell
Poster PDF (1.0 MB)
On 13 September, 2003, a dropwindsonde deployed in the eastern eyewall of Hurricane Isabel measured winds of approximately 102 m/s at a height of about 1400 m above the surface. At the time of this measurement, the dropwindsonde was suspended by a strong updraft of over 20 m/s, rose over 100 m and stayed suspended at a nearly constant altitude for about 90 s. The location of the observation closely corresponded to a strong protuberance (one in a series) of high reflectivity in the eastern eyewall as seen by airborne radar, and these features were translating along the inner edge of the eyewall at approximately 80 m/s. An in-depth look at this extreme feature using dropwindsonde and airborne Doppler radar data will be presented.

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