A comparison of wind prediction models for transitional flow regimes

The Wind Engineering Mobile Instrumented Tower Experiment (WEMITE) successfully gathered high-resolution wind speed data from Hurricane Bonnie as it made landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina, on 26 August 1998, at 21:00 UTC (5:00 PM -EDT). WEMITE was deployed in an open field at the New Hanover County airport near Wilmington, NC. In addition to the WEMITE data, the National Weather Service’s Automated Surface Observation System (ASOS) data was also obtained. Agreement between the WEMITE and ASOS wind speed data was excellent until the wind direction changed with the passing of the hurricane’s eye. This change in direction to a northwest approach is believed to have created a transitional flow regime due to a dense forest located approximately 300 m northwest of the WEMITE deployment site. The literature on computing wind flow over changes in surface roughness differs from writer to writer. The data collected by WEMITE and ASOS allows the various prediction models to be evaluated.