On 26 August 2020, DOWs 7 and 8 deployed on Hurricane Laura as it made landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border as a category 4 storm. The story of the deployment was recently featured in the Washington Post (link). Below is a slideshow of some of our pictures, radar imagery, and wind observations from the mission. For larger image quality, click on the images.
Karen Kosiba takes a picture of the radar display in DOW7.
Drew Frambach booting up DOW7 before the hurricane.
DOW7 Dual-pol fields in the eyewall and inner rainband. Top-left is reflectivity; Top-right is Rho-Hv; Bottom-left is KDP; Bottom-right is ZDR (offset not applied).
Eye moving away from Lake Charles, as seen by DOW7. Left panel is reflectivity; Right panel is Doppler velocity in m/s.
Eye moving away from Lake Charles. Inner eyewall ~15 km to the northeast. Note the finescale structures along the inner edge of the eyewall. Left panel is DOW7 reflectivity; Right panel is DOW7 Doppler velocity in m/s.
Eye moving away from Lake Charles. Note the various spatial scales of flow in the DOW7 Doppler velocity (m/s).
Wind streaks impacting the DOW7 radar location. The peak 1-second wind gust was 49.6 m/s at ~8 m above DOW level (ADL). Doppler velocity in m/s is shown.
Animated radar loop from DOW7 showing the full evolution of Hurricane Laura as it made landfall. Left panel is reflectivity; Right panel is Doppler velocity in m/s.
Animated radar loop from DOW7 zoomed in on the wind streaks impacting the DOW7 radar location. Doppler velocity in m/s is shown.
Wind streaks impacting the DOW8 radar location, deployed near the radius of maximum winds (RMW). The edge of the eyewall precipitation was ~10 km east of their location. Doppler velocity in m/s is shown.
Inner edge of eyewall at DOW8 showing the small-scale detail inside RMW crenelations visible in pre-failure KLCH imagery. Left panel is reflectivity; Right panel is Doppler velocity in m/s.
Animated radar loop from DOW8 showing the full evolution of Hurricane Laura as it made landfall. Left panel is reflectivity; Right panel is Doppler velocity in m/s.
Animated radar loop from DOW8 zoomed in on the wind streaks impacting the DOW8 radar location. Doppler velocity in m/s is shown.
DOW7 on site following the hurricane.
DOW8 on site following the hurricane.
Observed wind speeds from the DOW7 mast ~10 m above the ground during the passage of Hurricane Laura. Some features of interest have been annotated. Wind averaging for the specified averaging intervals was done using a centered window.
Observed atmospheric pressure from the DOW7 cabin during the passage of Hurricane Laura. Pressure was not corrected to sea level.
Damage in south-western Lousiana following Hurricane Laura.
Damage in south-western Lousiana following Hurricane Laura.
Damage in south-western Lousiana following Hurricane Laura.
Damage in south-western Lousiana following Hurricane Laura.
❮
❯
