bssthound
Enormous Member
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2001
- Posts
- 541
It's not uncommon for us to find 200 mph gusts in Cat 5 storms. I've personally seen it a few times. We fly the storms at 10,000', penetrating the eyewall with the standard altimeter, 29.92, set. Pretty neat ride since it's a pressure altitude. As we hit the pressure center of the eye the absolute altitude (agl) will drop down more than 2,000', depending on the pressure. With Katrina's super low pressure I'm sure it's that much. Last night, when I flew it we saw the pressure drop from 940 to 934 millibars. We fly "alpha patterns;" entering the storm on intercardinal tracks (135, 225, 045, 315) and flying 105 nm legs from/to the eye on those tracks. As with my flight last night, we often don't encounter a lot of turbulence on the really strong storms since their winds are uniform. It's when they're just getting going and when they're weakening that we get a lot of turbulence since the windfield is uneven.
As far as the Superdome goes, it shouldn't have much trouble. It is a massive building and is round, which should bode well for wind deflection. The city can pump water out, true, but it's pumped into the Mississippi River, which stands a good chance of being flooded during the storm. It's gonna be a mess, regardless.
As far as the Superdome goes, it shouldn't have much trouble. It is a massive building and is round, which should bode well for wind deflection. The city can pump water out, true, but it's pumped into the Mississippi River, which stands a good chance of being flooded during the storm. It's gonna be a mess, regardless.
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