You are on page 1of 21

Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean:

Hurricane Gustav
Table of Contents:

Introduction
page: 3
Hurricane Gustav:
• Arise of Gustav page: 4
• Wind history
page: 5
• Rainfall page: 12
• Landfall page: 16
• Damage page: 18
Appendix page: 20
Sources page: 21

Gustav from out of space

2
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 one
week, the United States was hit hard and damaged by a couple of hurricanes.

Hurricane Gustav just before the coast of Jamaica.

3
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 the
system became a new tropical depression and rapidly intensified. Just 12 hours later it became
a tropical storm. But it wasn’t 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 couldn’t 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 States


Hurricane Hanna is on the right

4
Wind history:

This table gives you the information about the rise and shine of Hurricane Gustav.
Date/Time Latitude Longitude Pressure Wind speed Category:
(North) (west) (mbar) (knots)
Tropical
25 / 0000 13.5 67.4 1008 25
Depression
Tropical
25 / 0600 14.4 68.5 1005 30
Depression
Tropical
25 / 1200 15.1 69.6 1002 35
Storm
Tropical
25 / 1800 15.8 70.5 996 50
Storm
Tropical
26 / 0000 16.4 71.2 991 60
Storm
Hurricane
26 / 0600 16.9 71.7 986 75
category 1
Hurricane
26 / 1200 17.5 72.1 981 80
category 1
Hurricane
26 / 1800 18.1 72.8 992 70
category 1
Tropical
27 / 0000 18.4 73.1 995 50
Storm
Tropical
27 / 0600 18.6 73.4 999 45
Storm
Tropical
27 / 1200 18.7 73.7 998 45
Storm
Tropical
27 / 1800 18.9 74.0 999 45
Storm
Tropical
28 / 0000 18.8 75.1 999 40
Storm
Tropical
28 / 0600 18.1 75.4 995 45
Storm
Tropical
28 / 1200 17.9 75.7 984 60
Storm
Tropical
28 / 1800 18.0 76.2 984 60
Storm
Tropical
29 / 0000 17.8 77.0 987 60
Storm
Tropical
29 / 0600 18.0 77.7 990 55
Storm
Tropical
29 / 1200 18.3 78.4 989 50
Storm
Hurricane
29 / 1800 18.8 79.2 984 65
category 1
Hurricane
30 / 0000 19.2 80.0 975 75
category 1
Hurricane
30 / 0600 19.7 80.8 968 85
category 2

5
Date/Time Latitude Longitude Pressure Wind speed Category:
(North) (west) (mbar) (knots)
Hurricane
30 / 1200 20.7 81.6 955 110
category 3
Hurricane
30 / 1800 21.6 82.6 943 125
category 4
Hurricane
31 / 0000 22.7 83.4 950 125
category 4
Hurricane
31 / 0600 23.6 84.4 960 105
category 3
Hurricane
31 / 1200 24.8 85.5 961 100
category 3
Hurricane
31 / 1800 25.9 86.7 960 95
category 2
Hurricane
01 / 0000 26.9 87.7 953 95
category 2
Hurricane
01 / 0600 27.9 89.0 954 95
category 2
Hurricane
01 / 1200 28.8 90.3 955 95
category 2
Hurricane
01 / 1800 29.8 91.4 961 85
category 2
Tropical
02 / 0000 30.7 92.3 971 60
Storm
Tropical
02 / 0600 31.4 93.1 981 40
Storm
Tropical
02 / 1200 32.1 93.5 989 30
Depression
Tropical
02 / 1800 32.7 93.9 993 20
Depression
Tropical
03 / 0000 33.2 93.9 995 20
Depression
Tropical
03 / 0600 33.7 94.3 997 20
Depression
Tropical
03 / 1200 33.8 94.4 997 20
Depression
Tropical
03 / 1800 34.0 94.4 998 20
Depression

6
Date/Time Latitude Longitude Pressure Wind speed Category:
(North) (west) (mbar) (knots)
Tropical
04 / 0000 34.3 94.1 998 15
Depression
Tropical
04 / 0600 34.8 93.4 999 15
Depression
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.

7
On this page are shown
the wind directions and
the developing of
Gustav’s wind force.
This is done with
Quikskat, a program
that 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 can
see, the storm isn’t
large, and the wind is
not as developed as it
was later. There isn’t 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 on
Jamaica, but
you can see in
these pictures
and the last
picture a short
of genesis of the
rise and
development of
a hurricane.

8
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 on
Cuba (that is showing on
this picture) you can see,
that the whole storm had a
major development. After it
went over Cuba its
development didn’t 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.

9
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 didn’t use it in my summary about Gustav.

Ships:
Date/Time Ship Latitude Longitude Wind Pressure
(UTC) (°N) (°W) speed (kt) (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 Buoy Latitude Longitude Wind Pressure
(UTC) (°N) (°W) speed (kt) (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 highest
wind 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 don’t 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.

10
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, its
ingredients to live further disappear. There is no more warm seawater, therefore no
condensation of seawater and because of this the hurricane can’t make any clouds. Also the
possibility to grow isn’t 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 isn’t time to develop again.

11
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 the
south 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 the
highest 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 didn’t 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.

12
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.

Country Total rainfall in Inches


Province
Place of measuring
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 Río:
La Palma 3.98
La Habana:
Batabanó 5.43
Matanzas:
Central René Fraga 11.70
Sancti Spíritus:
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!

13
On this page we are going to look at the rainfall data of the United States during Gustav’s
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 Gustav’s landfall in the United States. I only
used the highest measuring of ever state in the United States which was involved with
hurricane Gustav.

State: Rainfall in inches:


Place:
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 Gustav’s landfall in the United States.
How darker the colour in the picture, how higher the amount of rainfall in that area. This is an
‘IR 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.

14
15
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 Longitude Pressure Wind speed Category:


(North) (west) (mbar) (knots)
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 Longitude Pressure Wind speed Category:


(North) (west) (mbar) (knots)
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 Longitude Pressure Wind speed Category:


(North) (west) (mbar) (knots)
30/1800 21.3 82.6 943 125 Hurricane
category 4
30/2200 22.4 83.1 941 130 Hurricane
category 4

16
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 tornado’s reported during Gustav’s landfall, which caused a lot of
problems in the affected areas.

Date/Time Latitude Longitude Pressure Wind speed Category:


(North) (west) (mbar) (knots)
01/1500 29.2 90.7 954 90 Hurricane
Category 2

Gustav making landfall to the United States

17
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 Gustav’s 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.

18
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 Gustav’s 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 2
persons. 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 Gustav’s 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 a
amount 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.

19
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 wasn’t the strongest storm of this season but was in second place as costliest storms in
the Atlantic Ocean of the season 2008.

20
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.jpg
http://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.jpg
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/03/xin_5420905031328859871326.jpg
http://images.publicradio.org/content/2008/08/29/20080829_gustav4_33.jpg

21

You might also like