Weekend Tropical Roundup: New View of Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Supercomputers Go Online, and Pump Upgrades Coming to Combat South Florida Flooding

No tropical development expected across the Atlantic into next week

The Atlantic remains under the influence of dry, stable air this weekend, which will keep any organized activity at bay into next week.

In today’s newsletter, we review some tropical stories you may have missed in recent weeks, including a new view of Hurricane Andrew as it made landfall across South Florida 30 years ago next month.

New view of Andrew making landfall

Hurricane Andrew radar from 9:14 PM ET Sunday, August, 23, 1992 to 4:48 AM ET Monday, August 24, 1992. Radar loop credit: Brian McNoldy, University of Miami/RSMAS.

Brian McNoldy, Senior Research Associate at University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS), maintains an extensive archive of radar loops from historic landfalling tropical cyclones on his website. He recently pieced together the last radar images of Hurricane Andrew as it came ashore during the early morning hours of August 24th, 1992. The last picture of Andrew on radar was captured at 4:38 AM local time as it rolled into Elliot Key, before its strong winds ripped the radar dish off the roof of the National Hurricane Center, then located on the 6th floor of Gables One Tower on US 1 across from the University of Miami.

Though there’s some artificial reduction of the eye diameter as the storm gets closer to radar (the radar beam looks higher up farther away, making the eye appear larger), all available data at the time, including hurricane hunters flying the hurricane, showed the eyewall contracting as the hurricane rapidly re-strengthened to a Category 5 storm with winds of 165 mph on landfall over Elliot Key and then near Homestead, where its pressure bottomed out at 922 mb. On the radar loop, you’ll also notice little filaments curling inside the typically circular eye, indicating distinct mesovortices just inside the eye which are often associated with extreme, tornado-like winds. It’s an impressive reminder of the dangers that lurk inside the otherwise calm eye of the hurricane.

Major upgrade to U.S. supercomputers to usher in new hurricane forecasts for 2023

Dogwood, one of two new NOAA supercomputers, is pictured here at its Manassas, Virginia, location. Image credit: NOAA.

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the parent agency of the National Weather Service, flipped the switch on twin supercomputers – nicknamed “Dogwood” and “Cactus” – that operate three times faster than previous supercomputers and rank as the 49th and 50th fastest computers in the world. The supercomputers will not only allow for a major upgrade to the primary U.S. weather forecast model (the American GFS model), but they will also usher in a new high-resolution hurricane forecast model named HAFS –for Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System – which is set to go online operationally for the 2023 hurricane season. HAFS will be the successor to our main hurricane-specific HWRF model. You can find experimental HAFS forecasts for the 2022 hurricane season on NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory’s Hurricane Model Viewer.

Big plans to add new pumps to combat flooding and sea-level rise in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties

The South Florida Water Management District, the regional government group that maintains water resources from Orlando through the Keys, released its draft 2022 Sea Level Rise and Flood Resiliency Plan last month which details its plans to combat the impacts of climate change on South Florida water resources. The plan is open for review and public comment through next Friday. Included among the ambitious projects are two new pump stations – one near the mouth of Snake Creek Canal in North Miami Beach and another farther south adjacent to Little River in Miami – at the tune of approximately $200 million. Early work has already begun on the new pump stations, which will not only increase pump capacity to protect against sea level rise, but also reduce the risk of destructive saltwater intrusion. The pump stations are scheduled to be completed by the end 2026.