Yesterday on Twitter, Chip Knappenberger coined the term “landicane” to describe the low pressure center that has been gyrating over the northeastern Gulf of Mexico for days has now dropped very heavy precipitation over southeastern Louisiana. Dr. Roger Pielke Sr. has added in the exchange that his previous research points out that wet and marshy area (of which much of Louisiana Bayou is) can sustain tropical development. The only thing missing from this system is well defined rotation and an eye. Otherwise it might actually pass for a tropical storm.
NASA/JAXA/Hal Pierce
NASA Goddard has been using the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, or GPM core satellite, gathered rainfall data on the system and looked at it in three dimensions.
Up to 10 inches (254 mm) of rain since Thursday, Aug. 11, has already caused flooding in parts of the state. Today, Aug. 12 the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for many parts of southeastern Louisiana. Much of the New Orleans area is under a flood watch until Saturday morning, Aug. 13.
The GPM core observatory satellite flew directly above some very intense Louisiana storms on Aug. 11 at 10:26 p.m. EDT (Aug. 12, 2016, at 0226 UTC). Rainfall estimates in these storms were calculated using the satellite’s Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments. GPM’s radar (DPR Ku band) measured rain falling at a rate of over 3.9 inches (100.1 mm) per hour in one intense downpour.
At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a 3-D image and animation were created using the GPM data. The 3-D structure of rainfall within the Louisiana thunderstorms during the evening of Aug. 11 was measured by GPM’s Radar (DPR Ku Band). DPR found that a few storm tops were reaching heights of over 9.9 miles (16 km). The GPM core observatory satellite gave further evidence of the power within these storms when it found that radar reflectivity values of over 53 dBZ were returned by some intense showers.
GPM is a joint mission of NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
For updates on the area forecasts, visit the National Weather Service website: http://www.weather.gov.
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I’m going to start calling this endless sunshine over Southern California a “Solarcane!” Maybe then I can get some attention.
LA is mostly swamp for a reason. This is a monsoon.
Most coastal gulf state homes are on stilts near the shore. They do so for a reason. Storm surge. Also good for flooding. If you notice the homes in Hawaii (big island, south shore) every home is on two-foot stilts. One is probably for bugs and snakes and termites. The other is probably for the rain. It is called having a brain and knowing how to use it.
The phonic similarity between hurr- and her- was picked up on aeons ago, although I don’t think it led to the use of female names for these storms inthe 1950s. So when they started naming every other storm after “dudes” we had himicanes
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Himicane
and then, stretching the pun beyond all reasonable limits, we had…
Neutercanes !!!
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/A18.html
Then there was the Huronicane up in the Great Lakes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Lake_Huron_cyclone
If one of these storms leaves your neighborhood comfortably numb, perhaps you could name it a…
Lidocaine
But don’t forget that the good folks at big Pharma are ages ahead of weather geeks at finding clever names…
http://www.medicinenet.com/benzocaine_topical_spray/article.htm
“BRAND NAME: HurriCaine”
Here are a few links to follow the rain from the system:
QPF forecasts(including good forecast discussion at the bottom):
http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/qpf2.shtml
Excessive rainfall forecasts:
http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/excess_rain.shtml
Regional radar loop:
http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/southmissvly_loop.php
By Monday, you’ll want to exclusively use the regional radar loop that’s just north of that one:
http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/centgrtlakes_loop.php
That radar loop farther north, currently shows the activity from a stalled front, just north of the Ohio River. There is already a connection to tropical moisture flowing northward into the front being established. The tropical low along the Gulf Coast will slowly get pulled north, on the backside of the Bermuda High in the Southeast US(and an upper trough in the Midwest).
By late Mon/Tue, the remnants of the tropical low may show us as a surface wave along that front.
I lived, worked and traveled over the flood area there for three decades. I recall an overnight event in the marsh where we had something over a foot of rain. Filled up a small boat. The 1899 Texas event I referenced above was reported to be 30 inches over 2000 square miles.
Our house was high up on the western high edge of the Atchafalaya (Holocene Mississippi) flood plain. An old-timer around 1970 told us that the 1927 flood came up to the base of our plateau. This formerly flooded area is now full of houses on slabs, even one with a submerged living room. The north shore of Lake Pontchartrain east of Baton Rogue is similarly developed. This will be an unusual occurrence, but the careless development, just as in Katrina and Rita, is a lot of the problem. Save us from those that want to save us.
Half the time the rain is above average. And half the time the rain is below average.
😉
The system passed over my house near Bay Saint Louis, MS (about 15 miles from the LA line) over the last few days, sky finally mostly clearing today. Over the last few days we had lots of rain, but no, repeat no wind to speak of. We had some flooded roads in the area, but nothing like a real hurricane.
I noted the radar indications of very heavy rain over in Louisiana. The terrain there is VERY flat (even flatter than Mississippi!) so not much slope to help the rainwater run off.
The folks who got flooded can use all of our help.
Amen, brother.
Tropical storm Fay dropped over 28 inches of rain on Palm Bay, Fl in a day and a half. It spun over us with 60 mph wind gusts the whole time.
Calling south Louisiana, roughly south of the interstates, land is a misnomer. Most of it, especially the eastern half, is water. The term ‘land loss’ is commonly used, but most is marsh converted to open water a meter or so deep. One old school geologist noted “…’walking in marshes’ would hardly be engaged in by one with good sense..” There are no bicycle marathons across there. From the Mississippi State line to Galveston is essentially a parallel to the coast estuary, bigger than Chesapeake Bay. The Chenier Plain marsh west of Lafayette is higher but still about half open water.
It is a remarkable, unusual, complicated and badly misunderstood place. Every time somebody tells you they know how it works something like this happens.
I would like to thank all the Meteorologists here for giving me a good education about weather over the years.
Last Monday, I was in Orlando, Florida, watching a slow moving rain maker near the panhandle. Needing to be in California via car “soon”. Looked at the maps and projections, saw massive rain in my future path, and left 3 days early.
I am now safely in California, mostly dry the whole way. Despite driving (the temporarily closed in the storm) I-10 and I-15.
For those who have not done it, note that long sections are an elevated bridge over mostly-water. To call this a “land”anything is to demonstrate a profound lack of geology knowledge of Louisiana. Mud-cane maybe….
Once again, thanks for getting me to the point where I could accurately predict future flooding and rain, storm track and speed, and safely “bug out” with a 24 to 36 hour margin of safety. I owe y’all one!
Has anyone looked at Bangladesh for evidence of the same phenomena?
Yes. It happens every summer. It is known as “monsoon”. Very occasionally, mostly in El Nino years, it doesn’t happen. Then there is mass starvation.
This video was rated most compelling on Twitter worldwide for the last two days.
What’s more, at least on guy on the rescue crew had to be rescued himself the next day, as the flood waters stranded and flooded his family home south of where they saved this women and her pet.
https://youtu.be/5zDtb33BUds