Hurricane Katrina at 10: Dry Tortugas Stations Destroyed
On August 26, 2005, I reported that the Dry Tortugas weather station (in Dry Tortugas National Park off the SW coast of Florida, and in the path of the storm) was up and running as Hurricane Katrina neared.
Data stopped transmitting in the morning, but picked up later that day, showing 81 mph winds and pressure nearing 29.00" Hg. What I didn't know at the time was that those were sustained winds; continuous wind data showed gusts to 103 mph, according to the archived data, which I have graphed below:
We were fortunate that the station there was able to withstand the storm, but a couple weeks afterwards, it stopped transmitting entirely. Between Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Dry Tortugas National Park lost 21 weather and environmental instruments. From their end-of-year report:
"Together with Hurricane Wilma, the Dry Tortugas National Park took a total loss of 12 weather monitoring stations including the structural components. In addition, 9 other sites were submerged by the storm surge resulting in the destruction of the monitoring equipment housed at these sites."
All My Hurricane Katrina at 10 Blogs:
