re: Isaias - Clean Up and Recovery Begin

Of all places, Chimney Rock again.

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Laura is the most powerful one I think we've had this century, in all reality

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Michael, and a few others were bad arse. I means something when they are not only strong, but hold more strength after landfall

Thanks for the info from the east side of the Smokies.
We, on the west side, had predictions of some rainfall (which we got) and our weathermen said the east side was going to get a lot more that wouldn't make it over the peaks. They seem to have been right.

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our weathermen said the east side was going to get a lot more that wouldn't make it over the peaks.

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Interesting post I saw earlier today about the winds of Isaias peaking on the west side of the storm because it was tapping into a sting jet and pulled it down to the surface.

From Facebook Thomas Geboy:

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ISAIAS WINDS EXPLAINED - Here are the Preliminary Wind Reports for #Isaias. I wanted to take a second and expand on what we talked about during our coverage yesterday. As Isaias was approaching the coast, southwesterly wind shear was increasing from an upper low to the west. While the shear was helping to weaken the core of the storm, it set the table for a very dynamic environment on the western side of the storm. We saw what’s called a sting jet develop as Isaias was going from a purely tropical system to a post-tropical storm. Simply put, a sting jet is a narrow, fast moving stream of wind that plunges from high in the atmosphere down to the storm. It comes from dry air wrapping into the developing storm. The dry air leads to more evaporation of the surrounding environment which is a cooling effect. As the air cools, it begins to sink and rushes down to the surface. This process helps explain the swath of 100mph wind gusts we saw in Escambia & Santa Rosa Counties even though the eye made landfall near Destin. Given the small and short-lived nature of these jets, they are hard to forecast for.

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I wonder if there was the same dynamic during Ida because Houma stayed on the west side of the eye and got slammed. Of course Ida was much stronger.

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The earliest satellite imagery of damage post-Ida showed damage much more akin to that of tornadoes. Trees down in all directions, debris such as roofs launched in directions opposite the prevailing wind, and sporadic (this house but not that house) catastrophic damage. What the people who stayed in Houma experienced for hours as Ida made that slow turn was hellish. They never got the relief of the eye, it was all eyewall for them until the storm finally pulled away.

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Gotcha.

I know it was pretty hellish for Ida. I stayed for the storm at my workplace in downtown Houma where we had generator power and fiber internet. House took a beating in South Lafourche but looking at the Post Ida imagery, I could see what you are talking about. You could see streaks of damage and a few feet over little to no damage.

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I'm talking about the 0:58 second video from X that you imbedded. It was a POV video of a plane taking off.

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Do you not understand what a Twitter THREAD is? Click on the post, gramps, and there are a dozen or so more posts with videos and pics.

Anyone know the diameter of Isaias eye wall ?

Friend,

Thank you for this post and for introducing me to the childishly christened sting jet, a term so inelegant that one might reasonably suspect a meteorologist coined it. I believe this was precisely the phenomenon we experienced on Pensacola Beach two days ago on Friday.

Although I wrote on this matter on the night of the storm, found on page 170 of this thread, I wish to record with more precision the afternoon and evening while the particulars remain fresh, for I have never been one to regard details as expendable and my memory is not as sharp as it was.

The early morning was cloudy and by 10 was there was an intermittent drizzle and occasional gusts of wind. By lunchtime, a man might have mistaken the weather for an ordinary gloomy October rain.

Around 4:00, northeasterly winds increased, with occasional gusts near 40 mph. Our pressure bottomed out at 993 mb. With internet service unreliable, I asked Cousin to send radar screenshots every 15 minutes. When we saw that we had cleared the eyewall, we celebrated prematurely, believing the worst had passed.

At 6:40, I stood on the balcony beneath thinning clouds. Sunlight penetrated the gloom. Seagulls resumed their cries in the northeasterly wind blowing at perhaps 20 mph. I contemplated heading down to the beach for seashells. Then, with no antecedent worthy of the name, the wind became terrifying. Within minutes, pressure plunged to 981 mb.

For 15 minutes, winds exceeded 100 mph. Glass popped throughout the building. Though I remained on the leeward balcony, the wind swirled violently into it. The Gulf retreated, waves moving seaward as spindrift streamed southward. The minimal storm surge was negated by this northern wind which pushed the sea back to where it belonged.

What astonished me most was the sky. It remained luminous, almost cheerful, while the wind howled. Then came 15 minutes of nearly continuous intracloud lightning, an immense plasma globe suspended above the Gulf.

As suddenly as it began, around 7:15, the wind and lightning ceased. Pressure rebounded to 995 mb, darkness settled, and the wind diminished.

I have experienced two hurricane eyes, a derecho, a white squall, a sneaker wave, and I drove into an F1 tornado on I-10 at Bonnabel. None surprised me as thoroughly as this Friday’s weather. I never collected my seashells, having more pressing duties around the complex, but the atmosphere had provided a spectacle that no shell could have surpassed.

Yours,
TulaneLSU

In Gulf Breeze, 100% agree this was worse than Sally for tree damage. Lots of healthy trees uprooted or broken in two. We were clocking winds at 99 mph before we lost power at 8:00. Got power back about 4-hours ago.