Gabrielle Blows - Sand, Other Photos, Buoys

I maintain my claim from the weekend that Gabrielle was a lame Tropical Storm, much more so than Tropical Storm Beryl, the last storm that I labeled with the derogatory term that Dictionary.com defines as"A person who is out of touch with modern fads or trends, esp. one who is unsophisticated." (or as the AP describes it below: "mostly punchless").

Gabrielle Dusts Carolina - Sept. 9, 2007 - Winds from Tropical Storm Gabrielle blow sand across the road in Hatteras, N.C., Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007. A mostly punchless Tropical Storm Gabrielle washed ashore Sunday in North Carolina, crawling slowly along the state's famed Outer Banks without chasing vacationers from the shore or surfers from the beach. (AP Photo * / Gerry Broome)

After Beryl, I attempted to explain why Tropical Storms (and sometimes Hurricanes) leave us "depressed" by offering up meteorological statistics that are at least one Saffir-Simpson scale [WikiPedia] category lower than what The NHC [JessePedia] claims. In the case of Gabrielle, however, she was clearly lame just looking at the satellite photos.

The best buoy I could find showed winds below Tropical Storm force (sustained at 39 mph), though I was surprised to see Buoy #41025 even show 35 sustained, gusts to 45 mph, and 29.83" Hg pressure with this storm. Other buoy graphs are archived here.

As far as official stations, KHSE Cape Hatteras gusted to 53 mph (decent) but never made it over 29 knots sustained -- according to the data, but in an NWS report they claim that it had a "39-mph 2-minute sustained wind." Unofficial offline stations at Ocracoke also reported gusts to 56 mph and 61 mph.

We did send Jim Kosek down there, here's his latest video report:

In the video, Jim explains the lack of weakening and rainfall:

Rainfall was, in fact, impressive, albeit in a very small area. In fact the amounts from the Doppler-estimate shown above were below reality (which often happens during Tropical systems because the rain is so dense).

The NWS report listed these totals over 7 inches:

HARLOWE (COCORAHS).......8.60 INCHES
6 MI NORTH BEAUFORT......8.30 INCHES
BEAUFORT ASOS............7.43 INCHES
MOREHEAD CITY............7.07 INCHES

Tourists walk through the surf at high tide in Nags Head, N.C., Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007. (AP Photo*)

*Displayed through exclusive agreement with Associated Press, not for redistribution. Did you know? AccuWeather helps the AP sell the AP Photo Archive to schools and universities worldwide.

Report a Typo