KATC StormTeam 3 Weather BLOG

If you have been following our on-air coverage we had Dr. Steve Lyons with the Weather Channel on last night.  He’s the keynote speaker in today’s conference…the first to be held in Lafayette and the LITE Center on the UL Campus.  Topics covered at the conference today included a presentation by Tim Osborn (NOAA/Regional Operations Navigation Field Manager).  Tim indicates that the sea level rise on our coast is about 1 inch per every 30 months based on the latest data…this means that some vulnerable areas along the coast could see a 3 foot rise in the next 50-75 years.  This is problem is further complicated by our coastal subsidence (sinking land).  This is why coastal restoration and preservation is very important for our area…as we will have less and less of a buffer from tropical storms and hurricanes in the future.  Other topics included how local NWS Offices and the National Hurricane Center are planning to better model storms surges from hurricanes on our shores…something that has become of paramount importance in our post Rita and Ike world due to our increased coastal vulnerability.  Dr Lyons talked about the “Footprint of the Hurricane”.  The five toes of a hurricane footprint are wind, rain, waves, water rise and tornado potential.  As Dr. Lyons indicated in our interview last night on KATC (See the video at katc.com), the Saffir Simpson Scale really just relates maximum sustained winds, not size of wind field, nor surge potential, nor rainfall and or tornado potential.  Plus storm categories don’t represent how long a particular area will be affected by a storm or tell you specifically how will it affect your home.  Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike are prime examples as they all produced storm surges greater than their advertised Saffir-Simpson category at landfall.  Each storm is different; speed, angle of approach to the coast and surrounding meteorological conditions can make for very different conditions.  That’s why Dr. Lyons has been making a push at the Weather Channel to delineate the different threats a particular storm may present to an area.  We have tried to do the same at KATC, and hopefully our coverage of Gustav and Ike where we highlighted the wind and power outage threat with Gustav and then the surge issues with Ike was useful to our viewers.  On a personal note, I had the opportunity to spend dinner with Dr. Lyons last night; he is truly a sharp individual who grasps the hurricane problem in the U.S. which has really become almost more of a social issue in recent decades as we continue to build on the coast across the U.S. with and ever increasing damage potential given the same hurricane intensities and activity that we have seen over the last 5o years.  Dr. Lyons also has some keen insight with respect to the insurance industry’s response over the last couple of decades…that’sanolther blog entry!  Steve is also one heck of a nice guy and passionate about the information he transmits and that comes across on-air as well.  He was super-accommodating for our tv schedules and for picture taking with our in-house production personnel!