The recently departed East Coast storm underwent extremely rapid deepening overnight, on the order of -3 mb/hr, and has been giving the world's largest oil rig a heck of a ride this morning off eastern Newfoundland. An excerpt from the 12 UTC surface plot from Environment Canada shows the Hibernia platform (VEP717) in the southwestern sector of the deep cyclone, with a sustained 90 knot wind at -5 C (source: http://weather.gc.ca/data/analysis/jac12_100.gif). These oil platforms are of course extremely well engineered for high winds and giant seas, but today's event might pose problems for other reasons. A CBC news story yesterday discussed an unresolved oil leak from the platform that developed late last month. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/hibernia-platform-oil-leak-curbs-production-1.2483448 Here's hoping that this does not turn into an environmental nightmare. Anton ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ Anton and MAP, Am attaching the latest passes from both ASCATs for the time period 1115 to 1434 UTC. These yield a very good representation of the scale of this cyclone. Using the measuring tools in NAWIPS I have estimated the radii of GALE, STORM and HURRICANE FORCE wind fields per quadrant...NE, SE, SW, and NW as a reference. There is a distance scale to 500 n mi in the upper left. GALE 520, 1050, 860, 500 STORM 380, 480, 540, 270 HF 0, 340, 225, 0 Joe ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ MAP: Thought I would share these observations from the satellite altimeters. I realize that marine meteorology for many of you is not necessarily your area of expertise or main interest (Mel, Anton, and I were only ones in discussion yesterday). I do like to use examples such as this to introduce mid latitude extreme events over the oceans to many of you. I also like to illustrate the observing capability we now have due to remotely sensed winds and waves. I hope you do not mind. I know many of you are experts in tropical meteorology and I hope the images from yesterday from the three of us and these images leave an impression. I should say that 95 knots in -5 deg C over the ocean is horrifying to me as are the wave heights described below and the scale of the wind and wave fields this storm is producing. Attached are a few images of altimeter wave heights (significant wave height - average 1/3 highest waves) from late yesterday, overnight, and this morning. Individual waves can exceed 2Xs the significant wave height. The footprint of the altimeters is about 7 km in length with limited width as is a nadir pointing radar. These values represent an average of Hs over that 7 km distance. I have plotted every 4th value for legibility in the first 3 images and every value in the 0723 UTC zoom from ALTIKA. Wave heights are color coded with magenta being 45 ft or greater. Time in UTC is plotted for every minute to the left of the wave heights and are color coded to reflect the satellite source: yellow - JASON2 red - SARAL/ALTIKA purple - CRYOSAT 2 The scale of wave heights of 45 feet or greater is remarkable. Here are the approximate distances of the transects for each satellite pass for 45 ft and greater. 2143 UTC - ALTIKA 290 n mi 0104 UTC - CRYOSAT 2 475 n mi 0723 UTC - ALTIKA 560 n mi 1213 UTC - CRYOSAT 2 415 n mi 560 n mi is about the same distance as NYC to Columbia, SC or Chicago to Tuscaloosa. The 0723 UTC ALTIKA pass shows 11 values of Hs 60 feet or greater over a distance of 130 n mi with several maximum of 62 feet. I do not think I have seen a field of extreme waves on this scale before. It does give validity to the scatterometer winds from the ASCATs and observations from Hibernia we saw yesterday that indeed generated this incredible wave field. The UK, west coast of Europe, and northwest coast of Africa will be on the receiving end tonight and tomorrow. Joe Some references: Hanafin, Jennifer A., and Coauthors, 2012: Phenomenal Sea States and Swell from a North Atlantic Storm in February 2011: A Comprehensive Analysis. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 93, 1825–1832. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00128.1 Evaluation of Contemporary Ocean Wave Models in Rare Extreme Events: The “Halloween Storm” of October 1991 and the “Storm of the Century” of March 1993 V. J. Cardone, R. E. Jensen, D. T. Resio, V. R. Swail, A. T. Cox Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology Volume 13, Issue 1 (February 1996) pp. 198-230 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0426(1996)013<0198:EOCOWM>2.0.CO;2