An analysis of the of the mean decay rate and decay abnormalities of tropical cyclones over land in the North Atlantic Basin

While coastal towns and settlements along the US Atlantic and Gulf Coasts have become accustomed to dealing with landfalling hurricanes and tropical systems, settlements further inland can often be surprised by powerful storms that retain their strength further inland than expected. The focus of this study is to analyze the particular characteristics of a storm and the synoptic setup surrounding the storm that allow it to maintain strength while traversing a landmass. The mean decay rate (in terms of pressure and wind decay) of US landfalling Hurricanes between 1948 and 2006 is determined empirically once the storm makes landfall along the coastline as a function of the time that it has spent over land. The size, structure, and strength at landfall of storms that exhibit an abnormally slow decay rate will be analyzed to see what it is about a particular storm that enables it to retain its own strength. Composite maps of the synoptic setup behind all of these slowly decaying storms, normalized to the point of landfall, will lend insight into how the environment contributes to their slow decay.