Major Hurricane Melissa - 892mb - 185mph Jamaica landfall

[BooneWX]

Also


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[Interstate]

Looks like she is starting to extratrop

[NorthHillsWx]

As expected the wind damage where the eyewall came ashore is extreme. There are areas where well built structures appear to have been flattened by wind, not surge. With elevation in play I am confident assessment will find ground verification of 200+ mph gusts. Honestly some of the damage looks akin to a very high end tornado. I cannot wait to hear Josh’s take on it as he went through the worst of both this and Dorian 

[Coach McGuirk]

16 minutes ago, NorthHillsWx said:

As expected the wind damage where the eyewall came ashore is extreme. There are areas where well built structures appear to have been flattened by wind, not surge. With elevation in play I am confident assessment will find ground verification of 200+ mph gusts. Honestly some of the damage looks akin to a very high end tornado. I cannot wait to hear Josh’s take on it as he went through the worst of both this and Dorian 

Obviously it's going to be bad.  It's a little weird to me that he always goes to hurricane disasters.  But that's kind of our thing as weird weather freaks.  He just does it. 

[hawkeye_wx]

Josh has a new post

https://x.com/iCyclone/status/1983730201860206979

I can't figure out how to embed an X post.

[WEATHER53]

1 hour ago, olafminesaw said:

Part of Black River : completely wiped away:

https://x.com/WxNB_/status/1983630143647289414

Wasn’t there a Black River hospital with videos early on?

[WxWatcher007]

36 minutes ago, Coach McGuirk said:

Obviously it's going to be bad.  It's a little weird to me that he always goes to hurricane disasters.  But that's kind of our thing as weird weather freaks.  He just does it. 

I can't speak for any other chaser, but I've followed wx all my life and the first time I went on a chase (for snow) I knew it was going to be a core piece of my life for as long as I could make it so. 

Yes, there is something a little crazy about traveling thousands of miles to chase wx and be in disaster zones, but it goes well beyond just experiencing the overwhelming power of nature, though I suspect none of us would do it if that wasn't first.

I'm never more focused in my life than when I'm on a chase, especially tropical. Days before a storm even arrives I'm forecasting, figuring logistics, and preparing. It's all consuming and there's a peace to be found in that.

There have been very few storms where I wasn't spontaneously needed either, especially as I became good at chasing. Whether it's comforting an elderly couple in Helene, telling a hotel manager when to lock things down in Laura, helping staff check on hotel occupants in Beryl as the windows were blowing in, spending hours digging a man out of a snow bank in an epic LES event, or carrying kids from a car stuck in water in Florence, knowing what to do and how to respond to the people impacted is meaningful too. Sometimes you're the only one who can (safely). Respect the storm, respect the people, and don't make yourself the story. Ever.  

9 minutes ago, hawkeye_wx said:

Josh has a new post

https://x.com/iCyclone/status/1983730201860206979

I can't figure out how to embed an X post.

 

[Coach McGuirk]

6 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

I can't speak for any other chaser, but I've followed wx all my life and the first time I went on a chase (for snow) I knew it was going to be a core piece of my life for as long as I could make it so. 

Yes, there is something a little crazy about traveling thousands of miles to chase wx and be in disaster zones, but it goes well beyond just experiencing the overwhelming power of nature, though I suspect none of us would do it if that wasn't first.

I'm never more focused in my life than when I'm on a chase, especially tropical. Days before a storm even arrives I'm forecasting, figuring logistics, and preparing. It's all consuming and there's a peace to be found in that.

There have been very few storms where I wasn't spontaneously needed either, especially as I became good at chasing. Whether it's comforting an elderly couple in Helene, telling a hotel manager when to lock things down in Laura, helping staff check on hotel occupants in Beryl as the windows were blowing in, spending hours digging a man out of a snow bank in an epic LES event, or carrying kids from a car stuck in water in Florence, knowing what to do and how to respond to the people impacted is meaningful too. Sometimes you're the only one who can (safely). Respect the storm, respect the people, and don't make yourself the story. Ever.  

 

Chasing snowstorms is fun, chasing cat 5 hurricanes and extremely strong typhoons is dangerous.  

[Roger Smith]

This is what Josh recently posted on X ... 

... "This was the strongest of the 83 hurricanes I have encountered" ... with two pictures, one looking out at the eyewall and one inside the hotel kitchen as he references below ... 

My location (Crawford, a tiny beach town in St. Elizabeth Parish #Jamaica) took the full force of the inner right eyewall and may have seen the peak winds in this historic, record-smashing hurricane. First pic: as it started to get scary. Bone-rattling gusts were making roofs explode into clouds of lethal confetti. The grand palm tree out front was starting to bend obscenely—in a way I found unnatural. Second pic: after we bolted the door shut because it was getting too dangerous even to watch the storm. (I'd randomly ended up in the hotel's kitchen with a local family.) The hurricane's inner eyewall was a screaming white void. All I could see through the cracks in the shutters was the color white—accompanied by a constant, ear-splitting scream that actually caused pain. (Notice the woman in the pic holding her ears.) The scream occasionally got higher and angrier, and those extra-screechy screams made my eardrums pulse. Meanwhile, water was forcing in through every crack—under the floor and between the window slats. I remember shuddering at the thought of what was happening to the town—what this screaming white void was doing to people, homes, communities. My fears were well-founded. The impact in this part of coastal St. Elizabeth Parish is catastrophic. Wooden structures were completely mowed down and in some cases swept from their foundations. Some concrete structures collapsed. The well-built ones—like my hotel—survived, but even they had major roof, window, and door damage. The landscape has been stripped bare—the trees just sticks. The roads are blocked with rubble and utility poles. Nearby Black River—a unique old historical town right on the water—was smashed beyond recognition: historical sites destroyed, main streets filled with rubble, the town market twisted like a pretzel, even the regional hospital destroyed. It's a good thing I wasn't in my hotel room during the storm because one of the windows blew out, showering the bed with glass and wood. The hotel lost most of its roof, and several third-story rooms were smashed open. But in the lower flooors, those grand old concrete walls protected us. And so far I'm aware of only two deaths in Crawford—a fellow who had a heart attack at the school next door (his body was still in his car and unclaimed the next morning, a sad and disturbing sight), and a woman who drowned in the storm surge in Gallon Beach. While walking down the devastated streets of Black River, I ran into the Jamaican Member of Parliament for this region,

@floydgreenja

. He's a great dude and I appreciate that he already has a gameplan for turning this catastrophe into an opportunity—to build this region back better. And I vowed on the spot that I'm going to make it my mission to spread awareness of this catastrophe and get that aid flowing in. I'll be talking about MELISSA a lot over the coming months—because it is both a fascinating meteorological event and a human disaster that demands an international response. (And I swear an epic video is coming out of this.)

= (location according to a respondent on X was Sandy Ground Hotel west of Crawford towards White House) 

 

[WxWatcher007]

Just now, Coach McGuirk said:

Chasing snowstorms is fun, chasing cat 5 hurricanes and extremely strong typhoons is dangerous.  

Yes, yes it is. Doesn’t change anything for me, though I wouldn’t fly around the world for it. 

[Nibor]

I think on journalistic level there is an importance to storm chasing. I can overlook some of the narcissism that comes with it (incoming cliche) as that's pretty much baked into every aspect of society nowadays due to social media.

[WEATHER53]

Got to go on the epic Tug Hill Feb 2007 chase. 

[Coach McGuirk]

I remember he was chasing a very strong Typhoon that hit Taiwan.  The hotel he was in got blown out and his friend got serious cuts on his arm. 

[Windspeed]

I remember he was chasing a very strong Typhoon that hit Taiwan.  The hotel he was in got blown out and his friend got serious cuts on his arm. 

I think what you are describing was when Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall near Tacloban, Philippines. Come to think of it, that means Josh has been in the most intense Pacific landfall and the most intense Atlantic landfall in the satellite era.

[Coach McGuirk]

2 minutes ago, Windspeed said:

I think what you are describing was when Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall near Tacloban, Philippines. Come to think of it, that means Josh has been in the most intense WPAC landfall and the most intense Atlantic landfall in the satellite era.

No it was Taiwan probably 10 years ago. 

[Windspeed]

No it was Taiwan probably 10 years ago. 

Ok, hrmm... I might be getting some of his old footage mixed up. I think I'm confusing that with when Reynolds was chasing with him.

[Coach McGuirk]

5 minutes ago, Windspeed said:

Ok, hrmm... I might be getting some of his old footage mixed up. I think I'm confusing that with when Reynolds was chasing with him.

Maybe it was Morokat after all.  I thought it was later. 

[Coach McGuirk]

It was a direct hit on Taiwan as a cat 5 in hurricane terms.  I can't believe this storm has been scrubbed.  Josh was there. 

[OrangeCTWX]

20 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Yes, yes it is. Doesn’t change anything for me, though I wouldn’t fly around the world for it. 

It seems like it takes a special breed lol Reed Timmer with tornados, Josh with hurricanes etc.  

 

[GaWx]

 

[Coach McGuirk]

I think it was this typhoon.  He deleted the part when his friend was injured and the glass blew out. 
 

 

[GaWx]

For much of the time hurricane force winds extended outward only 30 miles. Now it is up to 60 miles while TS force extend about the same as they’ve been:

From NHC 11PM advisory:

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 60 miles (95 km) from the
center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 185 miles
(295 km).

[Coach McGuirk]

Mellissa was a tiny hurricane, most cat 5s are that way. 

[Windspeed]

Huge thanks to Brian McNoldy at the Rosenstiel School of Ocean and Atmospheric Science at Miami for editing the full loops together for which I sourced these. I am posting these for posterity. Rarely do we have radar loops that show full eyewall mergers instead of eyewall replacement cycles. I will post both the short range and long range. Keep in mind the short range has limited/degraded echoes due to distance. But you can still make out the moat and concentric outer band/eyewall that was organizing in Melissa prior to the inner eyewall becoming dominant and absorbing them. The only other intense hurricane that we have radar evidence of this phenomenon is Irma prior to its landfall in the Lesser Antilles. There is much to be learned about these type of events and how they occur. Most likely, when environmental conditons are near to perfect/pristine and an inner eyewall reaches a certain degree of stability, it will not succumb to outer concentric banding, but pull those bands in and absorb them. As we can see Melissa do in these loops, the dominant eyewall becomes extremely intense after the final merger before it goes on to become a sub 900 hPa hurricane. There is probably a doctorial degree for someone here. It just requires extensive research.

Short range:



Long range: