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Synopsis of FCMP Deployment
At 1200 UTC on October 13, 1999, Irene reached tropical storm status
in the northwestern Caribbean Sea and kept a general northward track
before slowing down and curving to the north-northeast southwest of
the Isle of Youth, Cuba. The center of the storm crossed the Havana
and Ciudad Havana provinces on the 14th. Irene reached hurricane
status over the Florida Straits before its center moved over Key West
and made landfall near Cape Sable, Florida as a tropical storm. The
cyclone trekked across southeast Florida, eventually reemerging back
over water in northern Palm Beach County near Jupiter at approximately
0000 UTC on the 16th. UF and CU teams arrived in Melbourne Beach prior
to the storm’s arrival on the evening of the 15th, where colleagues
from Florida Institute of Technology and local authorities assisted in
the location of deployment sites. With their assistance, teams were
able to begin acquiring data by 1100 UTC. During the night, Irene
regained hurricane strength and began a northward track paralleling
the Florida east coast heading for the Carolinas. An upper-level
trough, sweeping eastward across the eastern United States, sped its
progress. On the morning of the 16th, teams collected the towers and
caravanned up the I-95 corridor to intercept the storm. Within a few
hours, the convoy was traveling parallel to Irene, where buffeting
winds and unavailability of fuel (gasoline pumps require power to
operate) significantly impeded the team’s progress. At 0100 UTC on the
17th, twenty-five hours after the departure from Melbourne Beach,
teams arrived in Wilmington, NC, where two towers were deployed.
Residential and shoreline exposure were chosen—the shoreline site
would be later reused by Tower T1 in Hurricane Isabel. The FCMP only
succeeded in capturing the outer bands of Irene in North Carolina
because the cyclone veered away from the mainland and brushed the
Outer Banks before moving out to sea.
Participating Team Members
Kurt Gurley, PhD
Krista Hayes
Forrest Masters
Tim Reinhold, PhD
Scott Robinette
Dennis --
Assisting
Jean-Paul Pinelli, Florida Institute of Technology
Spencer Rogers, North Carolina Sea Grant
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