Ike Prelim Radar Analysis

Now that power has finally been restored to my house, I have had the opportunity to download all of the raw level2 radar data from the hurricane. After driving around for only about 10 min and looking at the damage left by the storm, I started to notice some interesting patterns in the damage. You would see streets where most of the homes received light to moderate roof damage right next to other streets that received little to no roof damage. As was the case on my street, this pattern was played out on a more local level, where my neighbors house had significant roof damage while I managed to only lose a couple of shingles.

This type of pattern suggested that there were likley strong localized downburst events within the western eye wall which was characterized by unusually deep convection while it moved across the central and western sections of the Houston metro areas. Below are some prelim findings from analyzing some of the 88D radar data.

The screen shots below illustrate the local wind maxima (brighter blue streaks in the base velocity data) which occured throughout the western sections of Ike.