Prior to the advent of weather satellites and aircraft reconnaissance of tropical cyclones during the mid-20th century, the loss of life due to unexpected, landfalling hurricanes was tremendous. In 2015, hurricane forecasting continues to improve thanks to ongoing upgrades in observational technology (aircraft, dropsondes, tail radar, etc.), computational resources, improved numerical prediction models (model resolution, … Read more
Trends In The Ratio Of Damage To Deaths Caused By United States Land-Falling Hurricanes 24th AMS Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology (2000) Chris C. Robbins and James Gross National Hurricane Center, Miami, Florida We have estimated that, if the pre-reconnaissance trend continued at the time of Hurricane Andrew, approximately 4,354 deaths may have … Read more
A Climatology Of Rapidly Intensifying Tropical Cyclones In The North Atlantic Basin, 1975-2000 25th AMS Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology (2002) Chris C. Robbins and Stacy R. Stewart National Hurricane Center, Miami, Florida 1. Introduction Rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones pose a significant forecast problem for operational meteorologists. Unfortunately, the climatological nature of such … Read more
Mesocyclone-Induced Downbursts Associated With The Landfall Of Hurricane Irene (1999) Over S. FL 24th AMS Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology Stacy R. Stewart and Chris C. Robbins Tropical Prediction Center, Miami, Florida 1. Introduction This paper examines the occurrence of multiple damaging downbursts or “miniswirls” with the passage of Hurricane Irene across South … Read more
May 2015 was the wettest month ever recorded in the United States since record keeping began 121 years ago according to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). The main contributing factor to the nation’s “wettest-May” was the incredible rainfall totals across the Central United States. Meteorologist Chris Robbins posted that May 2015 was the wettest … Read more