Role of Anomalous Warm Gulf Waters in the Intensification of Hurricane Katrina

Authors

Menas Kafatos, Chapman UniversityFollow
D. Sun, George Mason UnivFollow
Ritesh Gautam, ICAR CIARIFollow
Z. Boybeyi, George Mason University
Ruixin Yang, George Mason UniversityFollow
G. Cervone, Pennsylvania State University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2006

Abstract

The year 2005 experienced several strong hurricanes intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall that severely damaged the Gulf States, especially Hurricane Katrina. Remarkable similarities between sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) and major hurricane (categories 3 and higher) activity over the Gulf are identified. However, the intensification of individual hurricanes may not necessarily be temporally and spatially coincident with the distribution of warm waters or high sea surface temperature (SST). High SST values are found in advance of significant intensification of Hurricane Katrina. We emphasize that high SSTA which occurred at the right time and right place was conducive to the hurricane intensification. In particular, high SSTA in the northeastern quadrant of the storm track induced significant increases in surface latent heat fluxes (LHF) contributing to the rapid intensification of Katrina. We also compared and verified model simulations with buoy observations.

Comments

This article was originally published in Geophysical Research Letters, volume 33, in 2006. DOI: 10.1029/2006GL026623

Recommended Citation

Kafatos, M., Sun, D., Gautam, R., Boybeyi, Z., Yang, R., Cervone, G. (2006) Role of anomalous warm gulf waters in the intensification of Hurricane Katrina, Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 33, L17802, 2006. doi:10.1029/2006GL026623

Peer Reviewed

1

Copyright

Wiley