Hurricane Gustav

8/14/2019 Hurricane Gustav

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Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean:

HurricaneGustav


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Table of Contents:

Introductionpage: 3

Hurricane Gustav: Arise of Gustav page: 4

Wind historypage: 5

Rainfall page: 12

Landfall page: 16

Damage page: 18Appendix page: 20Sources page: 21

Gustav from out of space

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Introduction:

In this summary I am going to tell about Hurricane Gustav of hurricane season 2008.

Gustav was one of the 4 hurricanes which were active at the same time. Gustav was the first

of them which made a landfall. Gustav, Hanna, Ike and Josephine were also active at the same

time. All three hurricanes (Gustav, Hanna and Ike) made a landfall in the United States. In oneweek, the United States was hit hard and damaged by a couple of hurricanes.

Hurricane Gustav just before the coast of Jamaica.

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Arise of Gustav:

Gustav arose from a tropical wave for the West coast of Africa. It began to organise, but a

wind shear prevented the storm system to develop into a new tropical depression. But on 23

August a low pressure area began to interact with the storm system and began to develop as it

moved further on the Caribbean Sea. On 24 August the system was so developed that thesystem became a new tropical depression and rapidly intensified. Just 12 hours later it became

a tropical storm. But it wasnt over and 12 hours later the tropical storm (which was giving

the name Gustav) became a hurricane. This all happened on the 26th of August in the middle

of the Caribbean Sea. Gustav was now heading for Haiti but weakened just before making its

first landfall on 26 August. After the centre of Gustav crossed the south-western of Haiti,

Gustav weakened into a tropical storm. With the same strength Gustav headed for Jamaica

and came ashore on 29 August. But because of its landfall in Jamaica, Gustav now headed to

the North West. On the North West the water was warmer so there Gustav could develop

again. That same day Gustav became a category 1 hurricane. The conditions were so perfect

that Gustav quickly developed even further and on 30th of August Gustav became a category 4

hurricane and made landfall on Cuba, twice.Then Gustav weakened over Cuba and continued its journey over the Gulf of Mexico.

Although Gustav grew in size, it couldnt develop into a major hurricane, just when it was in

the Caribbean Sea. The wind shears in the Gulf of Mexico prevented Gustav from further

development.

Gustav came ashore in the United States as a category 2 hurricane on September 1st in

Louisiana near Cocodrie.

Hurricane Gustav making landfall in the United StatesHurricane Hanna is on the right

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Wind history:

This table gives you the information about the rise and shine of Hurricane Gustav.

Date/Time Latitude

(North)

Longitude

(west)

Pressure

(mbar)

Wind speed

(knots)

Category:

25 / 0000 13.5 67.4 1008 25 TropicalDepression

25 / 0600 14.4 68.5 1005 30Tropical

Depression

25 / 1200 15.1 69.6 1002 35Tropical

Storm

25 / 1800 15.8 70.5 996 50Tropical

Storm

26 / 0000 16.4 71.2 991 60Tropical

Storm

26 / 0600 16.9 71.7 986 75 Hurricanecategory 1

26 / 1200 17.5 72.1 981 80Hurricane

category 1

26 / 1800 18.1 72.8 992 70Hurricane

category 1

27 / 0000 18.4 73.1 995 50Tropical

Storm

27 / 0600 18.6 73.4 999 45Tropical

Storm

27 / 1200 18.7 73.7 998 45Tropical

Storm

27 / 1800 18.9 74.0 999 45Tropical

Storm

28 / 0000 18.8 75.1 999 40Tropical

Storm

28 / 0600 18.1 75.4 995 45Tropical

Storm

28 / 1200 17.9 75.7 984 60Tropical

Storm

28 / 1800 18.0 76.2 984 60Tropical

Storm

29 / 0000 17.8 77.0 987 60Tropical

Storm

29 / 0600 18.0 77.7 990 55Tropical

Storm

29 / 1200 18.3 78.4 989 50Tropical

Storm

29 / 1800 18.8 79.2 984 65Hurricane

category 1

30 / 0000 19.2 80.0 975 75Hurricane

category 1


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Date/Time Latitude

(North)

Longitude

(west)

Pressure

(mbar)

Wind speed

(knots)

Category:

30 / 1200 20.7 81.6 955 110Hurricane

category 3


31 / 0000 22.7 83.4 950 125Hurricane

category 4

31 / 0600 23.6 84.4 960 105Hurricane

category 3

31 / 1200 24.8 85.5 961 100Hurricane

category 3

31 / 1800 25.9 86.7 960 95Hurricane

category 2

01 / 0000 26.9 87.7 953 95Hurricane

category 2

01 / 0600 27.9 89.0 954 95Hurricane

category 2

01 / 1200 28.8 90.3 955 95Hurricane

category 2

01 / 1800 29.8 91.4 961 85Hurricane

category 2

02 / 0000 30.7 92.3 971 60Tropical

Storm

02 / 0600 31.4 93.1 981 40Tropical

Storm

02 / 1200 32.1 93.5 989 30Tropical

Depression

02 / 1800 32.7 93.9 993 20Tropical

Depression

03 / 0000 33.2 93.9 995 20Tropical

Depression

03 / 0600 33.7 94.3 997 20Tropical

Depression

03 / 1200 33.8 94.4 997 20Tropical

Depression

03 / 1800 34.0 94.4 998 20TropicalDepression

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Date/Time Latitude

(North)

Longitude

(west)

Pressure

(mbar)

Wind speed

(knots)

Category:

04 / 0000 34.3 94.1 998 15Tropical

Depression

04 / 0600 34.8 93.4 999 15 TropicalDepression

04 / 1200 36.2 92.3 1000 15 Extra tropical

04 / 1800 38.5 90.7 1000 20 Extra tropical

05 / 0000 40.2 88.7 1002 20 Extra tropical

05 / 0600 42.2 86.5 1002 20 Extra tropical

05 / 1200 43.7 83.8 1004 20 Extra tropical

05 / 1800 absorbed

The track of hurricane Gustav is shown here below. The picture belongs to the data that I just

gave.

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On this page are shown

the wind directions and

the developing of

Gustavs wind force.

This is done with

Quikskat, a programthat the NASA uses to

study hurricanes. I used

this sort of picture in

earlier summaries about

other storms of this

season.

This picture shows

Gustav, just before

making its first landfall

on Haiti. As you cansee, the storm isnt

large, and the wind is

not as developed as it

was later. There isnt a

sort of system in it. You

can see a little eye in

the centre of the

system, but that is it all. But this was only the wind speed. The cloud structure was large, but

cloud structure has little to do with wind speed. When Gustav passed over Haiti, its wind

speed grew and this can we see in the next picture. You may see that the system has developed

further its wind

speed. You can

see a better

defined eye, and

a sort structure

of the eye wall

of Gustav. Of

course Gustav

was stronger

when he came

ashore onJamaica, but

you can see in

these pictures

and the last

picture a short

of genesis of the

rise and

development of

a hurricane.

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The second picture gave an

impression about the

landfall on Jamaica of

hurricane Gustav. The last

picture is a picture of the

landfall on Cuba on the 30th

of August. Now you can

see a better and defined eye

structure of Gustav and also

a whole storm system

which is circling around

this eye structure. This was

a really important change in

the development of Gustav.

Gustav grew bigger, but in

the time that passed Haiti

unto the second landfall onCuba (that is showing on

this picture) you can see,

that the whole storm had a

major development. After it

went over Cuba its

development didnt grow

any further. The only thing

that happened was that the

storm was getting compact,

but the size of hurricane Gustav still grew. When Gustav came ashore, it quickly weakened

and showed of a low development before he came ashore. All this was caused by a wind shear

on the Gulf of Mexico. If this wind shear had not interrupted Gustav, Gustav would have been

a category 3 or even 4 when it would have come ashore.

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On this page we are going to look to the data which is giving by buoys and ships in the

Caribbean Sea which measured Gustav strength. Of course local organisations and companies

gave some data about the wind speed, but most of the time this data is estimated data and

because of that I didnt use it in my summary about Gustav.

Ships:Date/Time

(UTC)

Ship Latitude

(N)

Longitude

(W)

Wind

speed (kt)

Pressure

(mb)

25/1800 Hansa Stockholm 15.9 71.2 43 1008.5

28/0600 Maersk Gateshead 16.1 71.6 37 1008.7

31/2100 Bona Foam 27.8 85.8 68 998.0

01/0000 Bona Foam 27.9 85.7 55 996.0

01/0100 Deepwater Horizon 26.1 90.4 45 1008.1

01/0800 Deepwater Horizon 26.1 90.4 35 1000.4

Buoys:Date/Time

(UTC)

Buoy Latitude

(N)

Longitude

(W)

Wind

speed (kt)

Pressure

(mb)

31/2300 H3VR 25.2 79.9 51 1010.0

30/1500 WDB325 23.8 82.0 44 1007.5

30/2100 WDB325 23.5 80.7 42 1003.4

31/0000 A8MH8 23.4 83.2 60 992.0

31/0300 A8MH8 23.4 83.0 56 991.0

31/1800 C6FM5 27.7 83.4 46 1007.0

As you can see, there are differences between the data. The yellow spots show the highestwind speed and the lowest pressure. But logically you may think: how lower the pressure,

how faster the wind speed in that area. However, the highest wind speed and the lowest

pressure dont match in these tables. This is a great example of how unpredictable hurricanes

can be on sea.

On the next page I am going to explain about the wind history of Gustav during its landfall in

the United States.

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Below the page you can see a picture of the wind speed of Gustav during his landfall in the

United States. The colours in the picture represent the maximum wind speed that was

predicted during his landfall. As you can see, the highest wind speeds are in the area of the

eye track. That is the black line which is drawn in the picture. We can explain this in a simple

way: Around the eye you have the eye wall. This is the most dangerous part of a hurricane. As

soon as the eye came ashore, the wind speed dropped. When a hurricane makes a landfall, itsingredients to live further disappear. There is no more warm seawater, therefore no

condensation of seawater and because of this the hurricane cant make any clouds. Also the

possibility to grow isnt there. The wind shear is very different on land and the chance to form

something as convection is definitely not possible when the hurricane is on land. So the

chances that a hurricane can live further on land are very small. The surface of the land is

however a very important factor which decides of a hurricane may live further. For example,

if a hurricane comes ashore in Cuba, the chance that the hurricane can live and move further

are very high. But when a hurricane comes ashore on Florida, its chances drop and the chance

that it may live further are smaller, because it always weakens on land and as it comes ashore

in Florida the chance is always very high that he moves to the north and makes again landfall

within a couple of hours in the United States. So there isnt time to develop again.

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Rainfall:

During the time that Gustav was active, there was also another hurricane active in the same

area. Hanna was also active in the Atlantic Ocean, but she was on the other side of Cuba.

Hanna was on the north

side and Gustav was on thesouth side of Cuba. These

two hurricanes caused a lot

of trouble in the Caribbean

area. The heavy rainfall that

these two storms caused

was enormous and this is

shown in the picture on the

right.

As you can see, the dark

spots in the neighbourhood

of Haiti represent thehighest rainfall between

August the 25th and

September the 1st .

But as you look to the line

of Gustav, we can also see

the intensity of the

hurricane. We may say that

Gustav didnt have a heavy rainfall during its time as major hurricane. Its highest rainfall is

measured in the time it was a tropical storm as well as the data of Hanna. Both storms were

more dangerous (only because of the rainfall!) as a tropical storm than as a hurricane. But

while both storms were hurricanes they caused a lot of trouble by the wind speeds that they

produced.

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In the upcoming tables I will show the highest measures of rainfall data in every country

which was affected by hurricane Gustav. This data belongs and is giving by the National

Hurricane Center in the preliminary summary about hurricane Gustav. For the download link

please look unto the sources at the end of this chapter about Gustav.

CountryProvince

Place of measuring

Total rainfall in Inches

Domincan Republic:

Barahona 9.71

Haiti:

Camp Perrin 10.75

Jamaica:

Mavis Bank 21.05

Cayman Islands:

Cayman Brac 9.42

Cuba:

Island of Youth:

Cuba-Fracia 8.87

Pinar del Ro:

La Palma 3.98

La Habana:

Bataban 5.43

Matanzas:

Central Ren Fraga 11.70

Sancti Spritus:

Topes de Collantes 6.89

The yellow spots show the country and the green spot is showing the highest amount of

rainfall caused by Gustav. There are very different data of rainfall and between the highest

data and the lowest rainfall data there is a difference of almost 15 inches. That is a difference

of 38 centimetres!

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On this page we are going to look at the rainfall data of the United States during Gustavs

landfall. Luckily Gustav weakened before he made landfall in the United States. But these are

the data of the rainfall that is measured during the time he was active in the United States.

Also just as the previously page I will only show the highest data of Gustav during his

landfall. First a table about the rainfall during Gustavs landfall in the United States. I onlyused the highest measuring of ever state in the United States which was involved with

hurricane Gustav.

State:

Place:

Rainfall in inches:

Lousiana:

Evangeline, Gardner 13.54

Mississippi:

Pike county 8.92

Alabama:

Texarkana 5.26

Florida:

Pensacola 3.62

Arkansas:

Hot Springs 8.76

This picture shows the heaviness of the rainfall during Gustavs landfall in the United States.

How darker the colour in the picture, how higher the amount of rainfall in that area.This is anIR avn picture. This means this is a picture of the amount of rainfall in the clouds of a storm

system.

The next picture shows the path of Gustav compared to the rainfall.

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Landfall:

First landfall: (Haiti)The first time that Gustav came ashore with its eye, it was a category 1 hurricane. But it

caused a lot of damage. There were landslides and mudslides because of the heavy rainfall

that Gustav produced.The next table shows the strength that Gustav had during its first landfall on Haiti:

Date/Time Latitude

(North)

Longitude

(west)

Pressure

(mbar)

Wind speed

(knots)

Category:

26/1800 18.1 72.8 992 70 Hurricane

Category 1

Second and third landfall: (Jamaica)The second time that Gustav made landfall it had weakened into a tropical storm, but the

heavy rainfall caused that the storm was still dangerous.

The next table shows the strength that Gustav had while he was making his second and his

third landfall on Jamaica on August the 28th.

Date/Time Latitude

(North)

Longitude

(west)

Pressure

(mbar)

Wind speed

(knots)

Category:

28/1800 18.0 76.2 984 60 Tropical

Storm

29/0200 17.9 77.2 987 60 Tropical

Storm

Firth and fifth landfall: (Cuba)Also Gustav made landfall on Cuba. But only in Cuba Gustav was a major hurricane as well

as a category 4 hurricane, which was still growing in strength while making landfall on Cuba.

The damage was enormous, but this was caused by the heavy rainfall, the wind speed and the

enormous storm surge.

Date/Time Latitude

(North)

Longitude

(west)

Pressure

(mbar)

Wind speed

(knots)

Category:

30/1800 21.3 82.6 943 125 Hurricane

category 4

30/2200 22.4 83.1 941 130 Hurricane

category 4

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Last landfall: (United States)The last landfall of Gustav was as a category 2 hurricane, but the storm surge and the heavy

rainfall caused a lot of problems in the United States. As you could see on the previously page

with the picture of the United States with the rainfall data, is that Gustav affected a large area.

Moreover there were tornados reported during Gustavs landfall, which caused a lot of

problems in the affected areas.

Date/Time Latitude

(North)

Longitude

(west)

Pressure

(mbar)

Wind speed

(knots)

Category:

01/1500 29.2 90.7 954 90 Hurricane

Category 2

Gustav making landfall to the United States

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Damage:

The damage that Gustav caused was enormous. The heavy storm surges, the heavy rainfall,

tornadoes and the heavy wind gust made Gustav a very dangerous storm. In this chapter we

are going to look to the damage that Gustav caused.

Dominican Republic:The heavy rainfall of Gustav caused landslides in the Dominican Republic and 8 people died

in these landslides. There were more than 1200 houses destroyed by the wind and rain from

Gustav.

Haiti:In total there died 77 people in Haiti by Gustav. Gustav made his first landfall on Haiti as a

strong tropical storm. Gustav caused for landslides, mudslides. These slides killed one person.

The heavy rainfall also caused a lot of trouble and killed 2 people in their home, while the

roof collapsed by the rain.

Jamaica:The damage in Jamaica was enormous. This due to the impact of a category 1 hurricane.

There were floods reported and also some important bridges were damage and collapsed. The

total damage was estimated to 210 million United States Dollars.

Cuba:The Cuba area was hit hard by Gustav. Gustav came ashore with category 4 strength and

caused a lot of trouble in the area of Cuba. There were reports of high wind speed (reports

over the 300 kilometres as wind gust) and also heavy rainfall. The damage was so bad that the

authorities said that the damage by Gustav was the most devastating damage since 1956 in

Cuba.

According to the local news and the authorities there were many injured people because parts

of the Island were flooded by Gustavs storm surge and heavy rainfall. Luckily nobody died

during the storm and that is something amazing considering the damage and the number of

injured people.

The picture here below shows an area in Cuba that was total damaged by Gustav.

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United States:The first thing what was affected by Gustav were the oil platforms which lie in the Gulf of

Mexico. There was one causality on sea caused by Gustav. Luckily the damage of the oil

platforms were not as heavy as expected.

After Gustavs landfall in Crocodrie, the presidents declared Louisiana as disaster area. Heavy

rainfall and tornadoes were affecting the area of Louisiana and Texas. The tornadoes killed 2persons. The heavy winds damaged a lot of houses and caused that trees fell down. This

caused for an electricity blackout and 1.5 million people were left without electricity.

The debris that Gustav made was so much that they had to clean until the end of 2008! That is

more than 4 months after Gustavs landfall.

Luckily Gustav weakened soon after his landfall into a tropical storm but was still moving

forward. This also caused tornadoes in the states of Alabama and Mississippi. Here as well the

damage was high. This was due to heavy rainfall, storm surge, tornadoes and of course the

wind gust which was threatening the area.

If we conclude we can see that the whole mid west of the United States was affected by

hurricane Gustav and this is very well shown on the picture of page 15.

In total there were 53 causalities and the damage in the United States was estimated to be aamount of 4.3 billion dollar.

If we look to the other damage and the other islands the total damage was estimated to be an

amount 8.5 billion United States dollar. Also there were 153 causality caused by the impact of

Gustav.

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Appendix:

This summary gives you an idea of the strength and the devastating power that Gustav had

during his time as an active storm. Gustav will be remembered for its devastating power

shown during its landfalls in Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and last but not least the United States.

Gustav wasnt the strongest storm of this season but was in second place as costliest storms inthe Atlantic Ocean of the season 2008.

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Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gustav_2008_track.png

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2008242-0829/Gustav.A2008242.1825.2km.jpg

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/271146main_iss017e015046_high.jpg

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/270839main_GOES_gustav_20080901_lg.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/269512main_gustav_wind_HI.jpg

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/270138main_gustav2inf_20080828_HI.jpg

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/270926main_gustavjpl_20080902_HI.jpg

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/272325main_gustav_hanna_HI.jpg

http://www.sciam.com/media/externalnews/2008-08-

26T174432Z_01_NOOTR_RTRIDSP_2_SCIENCE-STORM-GUSTAV-DC.jpg

http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/tropical/rain/gustav2008filledrainwhite.gif

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2008245-0901/Gustav.A2008245.1900.250m.jpg

http://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2008/08/31/19/190-

WEBgustavcuba.standalone.prod_affiliate.91.jpg

http://images.publicradio.org/content/2008/08/29/20080829_space_gustav_33.jpghttp://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/03/xin_5420905031328859871326.jpg

http://images.publicradio.org/content/2008/08/29/20080829_gustav4_33.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gustav_2008_track.pnghttp://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2008242-0829/Gustav.A2008242.1825.2km.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/271146main_iss017e015046_high.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/270839main_GOES_gustav_20080901_lg.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/269512main_gustav_wind_HI.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/270138main_gustav2inf_20080828_HI.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/270926main_gustavjpl_20080902_HI.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/272325main_gustav_hanna_HI.jpghttp://www.sciam.com/media/externalnews/2008-08-26T174432Z_01_NOOTR_RTRIDSP_2_SCIENCE-STORM-GUSTAV-DC.jpghttp://www.sciam.com/media/externalnews/2008-08-26T174432Z_01_NOOTR_RTRIDSP_2_SCIENCE-STORM-GUSTAV-DC.jpghttp://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/tropical/rain/gustav2008filledrainwhite.gifhttp://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2008245-0901/Gustav.A2008245.1900.250m.jpghttp://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2008/08/31/19/190-WEBgustavcuba.standalone.prod_affiliate.91.jpghttp://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2008/08/31/19/190-WEBgustavcuba.standalone.prod_affiliate.91.jpghttp://images.publicradio.org/content/2008/08/29/20080829_space_gustav_33.jpghttp://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/03/xin_5420905031328859871326.jpghttp://images.publicradio.org/content/2008/08/29/20080829_gustav4_33.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gustav_2008_track.pnghttp://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2008242-0829/Gustav.A2008242.1825.2km.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/271146main_iss017e015046_high.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/270839main_GOES_gustav_20080901_lg.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/269512main_gustav_wind_HI.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/270138main_gustav2inf_20080828_HI.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/270926main_gustavjpl_20080902_HI.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/images/content/272325main_gustav_hanna_HI.jpghttp://www.sciam.com/media/externalnews/2008-08-26T174432Z_01_NOOTR_RTRIDSP_2_SCIENCE-STORM-GUSTAV-DC.jpghttp://www.sciam.com/media/externalnews/2008-08-26T174432Z_01_NOOTR_RTRIDSP_2_SCIENCE-STORM-GUSTAV-DC.jpghttp://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/tropical/rain/gustav2008filledrainwhite.gifhttp://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2008245-0901/Gustav.A2008245.1900.250m.jpghttp://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2008/08/31/19/190-WEBgustavcuba.standalone.prod_affiliate.91.jpghttp://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2008/08/31/19/190-WEBgustavcuba.standalone.prod_affiliate.91.jpghttp://images.publicradio.org/content/2008/08/29/20080829_space_gustav_33.jpghttp://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/03/xin_5420905031328859871326.jpghttp://images.publicradio.org/content/2008/08/29/20080829_gustav4_33.jpg

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Hurricane Gustav