Using AMSU data to forecast precipitation from landfalling hurricanes

Landfalling hurricanes produce some of the most extreme precipitation events. Forecasts of the amount of rainfall from these storms are essential for public safety. These forecasts are challenging because the storms are often out of range of coastal radars and their precipitation is difficult to capture in numerical models. A technique has been developed to forecast 24-hour rainfall amounts from hurricanes using (1) rain rates retrieved from data from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) and (2) hurricane track forecasts from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Tropical Prediction Center. This technique will be applied to both 1999 storms and (in real time) to storms during the 2000 hurricane season and will be evaluated using rain gauge data. The paper will explain the technique and analyze its usefulness in forecasting.