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Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Public Hurricane Model Final report to: Florida International University and the Florida Department of Financial Services • May, 2005

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model _

State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model: Atmospheric Science Component

Final Report to the Florida International University and the Florida Department of Financial Services

Mark Powella, George Soukupa, Steve Cockeb, Nirva Morisseau-Leroyd, Neal Dorsta, and Lizabeth Axeb aNOAA Hurricane Research Division, Miami, FL bFlorida State University, Tallahassee, FL cFlorida International University, Miami, FL dCooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, University of Miami, Miami, FL

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model

Executive Summary

The State of Florida has developed an open, public model for the purpose of probabilistic as- sessment of risk to insured residential property associated with wind damage from hurricanes. The model comprises atmospheric science, engineering, and financial/actuarial components and is planned for submission to the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodol- ogy. The atmospheric component includes modeling the track and intensity life cycle of each simulated hurricane within the Florida threat area. When a model approaches within a damage threshold distance of a Florida zip code location, the wind field is computed by a slab model of the hurricane boundary layer coupled with a surface layer model based on the results of recent GPS sonde research. A time series of open terrain surface winds is then computed for each zip code in the threatened area. Depending on wind direction, an effective roughness length is assigned to each zip code based on the upstream fetch roughness as determined from remotely sensed land cover/ products. Based on historical hurricane , thousands of are simulated allowing determination of the wind risk for all residential zip code locations in Florida. The wind risk information is then provided to the engineering and loss models to as- sess damage and average annual loss, respectively.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  1 1. Introduction

The historical record for establishing the risk of hurricanes throughout the coastal United States is limited to a period of about 100 years, with relatively reliable and complete records [1]. Un- fortunately this period is not sufficient to establish risk without large errors so alternative meth- ods have been used since the 1970's (Ref [2, 3]). Hurricane risk models are currently used to conduct simulations of thousands of years of storms based on probability distributions of impor- tant historically observed parameters. This method is often referred to as the joint probability method since the probability of having an event is coupled with the probability that the event is of a given intensity. Commercial modeling interests have developed several versions of these which are used to advise the insurance industry for ratemaking. Unfortunately the models are proprietary so customers whose rates have increased on the basis of model calculations have no way of examining or questioning the results. The State of Florida is developing a public model to provide an understandable baseline for comparison to the commercial models. The model will be open and transparent, in which methods and results can be examined in great detail. The Hur- ricane Loss Projection Model consists (Fig. 1) of independent modules for atmospheric science, engineering, and actuarial components. Each component provides one way input to the next component in line until the end result (average annual loss per zip code) is achieved. A model flow chart (Fig. 2) describes the order of calculations for the atmospheric science component.

State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model

Atmospheric Science Component I Storm genesis Movement Intensity

Atmospheric Science Component II Wind Field Zip Code time series Terrain influences Probabilities of exceedence

Engineering Component Inventory of residential construction Damage when wind load exceeds resistance

Financial/Actuarial Component Compute insured losses Average annual loss by zip code

Figure 1. Flow chart depiction of independent modules of the State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  2 State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model Atmospheric Science Component

Select number of years for simulation

Select number of storms per year from PDF of annual hurricane occurrence rate

Select genesis time and location of each storm from temporal and geographical PDFs

Model storm track and intensity at 1h intervals using geographic motion and intensity change PDFs

Determine wind model parameters for all Florida hurricane landfalls: Delta P, Rmax, Storm speed, Pressure profile

Every 15 min, compute open terrain wind speed and direction at all zip codes within damage threshold distance of storm center

Correct winds to actual terrain based on upstream fetch and roughness

Determine wind speed exceedance probabilities at each zip code

Compute damages at each zip code: Engineering damage model

Compute average annual loss: Actuarial loss model

Figure 2. Flow chart depiction of independent modules of the State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  3 2. Threat area

To focus on storms capable of causing residential property damage in Florida, a threat area is defined to best capture the statistical characteristics of historical tropical that have af- fected the state. The area within 1000 km of a location (26.0 N, 82.0W) off the southwest coast of Florida (Fig. 3) was chosen since this captures storms that can affect the panhandle, west, and northeast coasts of Florida, as well as storms that approach South Florida from the vicinity of Cuba and the Bahamas.

FLORIDA 1000 km HURRICANE THREAT AREA

Figure 3. Threat area map. All storms entering or developing within the threat area are considered for characteris- tics relating to formation, movement, and intensity.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  4 3. Annual occurrence

The model has the capability of simulating cycles and tropical activity accord- ing to different periods of the historical record (Ref [4]). The historical record for the Atlantic basin (known as “HURDAT”) is a six hourly record of tropical storm and hurri- cane positions and intensities [5], which are expressed as estimated maximum 1 min surface (10 m) winds and, when available, central pressure. The period 1851-2004 is the largest available but the period 1900-2004 is most often used due to uncertainties about 19th century storms, especially for Florida due to a lack of population centers and meteorological measure- ments of hurricanes before the start of the 20th century. There are also uncertainties about the first half of the 20th century since aircraft reconnaissance only began in the 1940's so another choice in the period of record are the years 1944-2004. Four additional choices are available which simulate the warm (El Nino, fewer hurricanes) and neutral or cold (La Nina, more hurri- canes) inter annual climate cycles in tropical cyclone activity, as well as the cold or warm phases of the Multi-decadal climate cycles. These choices are primarily for research purposes and con- strain the historical record to use only years with the specified climate cycle to fit annual tropical cyclone occurrence. For insurance applications the 1900-prior year period will be of most inter- est (e.g. for the 2005 , the period 1900-2004 would be of interest if the 2004 season offi- cial hurricane tracks are available). Two fits are tested to the annual hurricane occurrence fre- quency distribution: the negative binomial and the Poisson model. Chi-Square goodness of fit tests determine which fit is used for the subsequent simulations. The chosen fit is then randomly sampled to determine how many storms occur for each year of the simulation. Once the number of tropical cyclones within the threat area for a given year is determined, the date and time of genesis is computed from an empirical distribution based on historical storm tracks. Further de- tails on the annual hurricane occurrence are contained in the use case appendix.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  5 4. Storm genesis, movement, and intensity

The threat area is divided into regions which contain the historical and seasonal characteristics of storm motion and intensity change. Initial location, intensity, and motion for each storm are based on the geographic probability distributions of each quantity for a given time within the season. Intensity is initially modeled as the gradient of pressure Δp, the difference between the central minimum sea level pressure and an outer peripheral pressure (assumed to be 1013 hPa). Ultimately (after the wind model is run) the intensity is defined according to the maximum sur- face wind speed in the storm. Hurricane tracks are modeled as a Markov process. We use a sto- chastic approach to model the storm genesis location and track and central pressure evolution. A probability distribution function (PDF) for the initial storm position is derived from the historical "genesis'' data. Here we define genesis as the time when a hurricane forms in or first appears in the threat area. The PDF is derived for 0.5 degree latitude/longitude box regions, as well as time of season (month). A (uniform) random error term is added so that the storm may form anywhere within the 0.5 degree box. Figure 4 shows a plot of the spatial PDF for storm genesis locations in the threat area for the month of August.

4. Geographic distribution of probability of a storm entering or developing within the threat area during the month of August based on the historical period 1900-2000.

We derive discrete PDFs based on historical data to provide the initial and subsequent motion and intensity of the storm. A storm is simulated by repeatedly sampling from these PDFs via a Monte Carlo approach. These PDFs are derived for variable-sized regions centered at every 0.5 degree latitude and longitude in the hurricane basin. The size of these regions is determined to be that which gives a robust probability density function (PDF) for the quantities of interest (speed,

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  6 direction, and central pressure), up to some maximum size. Once the storm has been given an initial condition, its subsequent evolution is governed by sampling the PDFs for changes in in- tensity, translation speed, and heading angle in 1 hour increments.

Intensity change is modeled by using the observed geographic probability distribution of six- hour changes of central pressure as related to the relative intensity, a measure of how close the storm comes to meeting its maximum possible intensity (potential intensity) (Ref [6]). Potential intensity takes into account the concept of the hurricane as a heat engine constrained by the input (sea surface) and outflow (upper troposphere) temperatures. Intensity change is limited so as to not exceed the maximum observed change for a particular geographic region. When a storm center crosses the coastline (landfall) the intensity change follows a pressure decay model (dis- cussed below). If the storm moves back over the sea, the former intensity change model is rein- stated. A storm need not make landfall to be considered however; bypassing hurricanes are con- sidered that never make landfall, or make landfall well before or well after producing damaging winds at a particular zip code.

The PDFs for change in storm translation speed and direction depend on the current speed and direction (binned in discrete intervals), as well as geographic location (0.5 degree lat-lon loca- tion) and time of season (month). Figure 5 shows a PDF for change in direction for 8 possible direction intervals (45 degree intervals). The PDF indicates that the storm has a high probability for maintaining current direction, except for westward traveling storms which tend to turn right (northward) somewhat.

Probability of Change in Direction for 8 current direction intervals 0.8

0-45 45-90 90-135 135-180 0.6 180-225 225-270 270-315 315-360

0.4 Probability

0.2

0 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 Change in Direction

5. Probability of a change in direction of storm motion (over a 6 h time period) to the left or right of the current mo- tion as a function of the current storm heading (in degrees from north), based on historical information from 1900- 2003.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  7 Our approach has a great advantage over early models [2, 3] that considered a circular approach region surrounding coastal cities. Storms that parallel the coast or make several landfalls can be properly simulated with our method.

5. Storm decay

The tropical is typically warmer than the air above it, enabling a transfer of heat and moisture to the air. Inflow towards the center of the tropical cyclone transports this energy to- ward the eyewall, where it can help sustain , leading to a positive feedback of warm- ing in the eye, lower minimum central pressure, stronger inflow, and more energy transport (Ref [7], [8]). Over the ocean this positive feedback loop may be slowed or reversed by ocean cool- ing, advection of relatively cold dry air with a history of travel over land, or strong wind shear that prevents the storm center from focusing heating in the eye (Refs. [9], [10]). As a hurricane makes landfall, the circulation traverses land, and the storm loses its source of energy (Ref. [11]). More and more dry and relatively cool air flows towards the center, causing the air to cool as it expands adiabatically while approaching lower pressures (Ref. [12]). The result is that the eye heating gradually decreases and the central pressure begins to increase or “fill”.

Since the wind model depends on the specification of the , a method was needed to estimate the central pressure over land. As a starting point for a simple decay model we will use the exponential decay as a function of time after landfall developed by Vickery and Twisdale [13]. The HURDAT database and Ho et al. [14] contains documentation of storm decay and pressure filling for many hurricane landfall cases in the historical record. Vickery and Twisdale [13] developed and tested a model for the Florida peninsula based on nine landfalling hurricanes and found the model to be slightly conservative (larger values) within 3 h of landfall and slightly non-conservative (smaller values) beyond 3 h after landfall. The form of the model is: ! ! ! ! ! Δp(t) = Δp0 exp(−at)! ! ! (1) where Δp(t) is the time dependent central pressure deficit and t represents the time after landfall. The filling rate constant is given as: € a = ao + a1Δpo + ε (2) where ε is a random error term with a normal distribution. The dependence of the filling rate constant on Δpo allows stronger storms to decay faster than weak storms; a characteristic ob- served in hurricane landfalls€ (Ref. [15]). The random error term allows for the possibility that some storms will decay slower or faster than average. For the Florida peninsula Vickery and Twisdale [13] use ao=0.006, a1= 0.00046, and the standard deviation of = 0.0025. The Kaplan and DeMaria [16] model is also pertinent but it deals with wind decay rather than pressure decay and there is no well-established method to convert inland-decayed peak winds to central pressure. The advantage of the filling model is that it provides a starting point to invoke an intensity redevelopment for storms that exit the coastline and re-intensify over water. When a storm reemerges over water, the intensity is modeled along the track the same way it was before landfall using the decayed pressure as an initial value.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  8 6. Damage distance threshold

To save computing resources, the wind field is not evaluated unless a hurricane passes within a distance from the storm at which damage might be possible, the damage distance threshold. Hurricanes come in a variety of sizes and shapes, so a fixed distance criterion may not be practi- cal, since it may be unnecessarily large for small storms. As an alternative, we describe the damage distance threshold (D) as a function of the radius of maximum wind speed (Rmax). For small storms with small Rmax we will go outward from the storm center ~ 10 Rmax and for large storms we will go out a as far as 4 Rmax.

Twelve hurricanes comprising a variety of storm structures and shapes were evaluated by com- paring HRD Hurricane Wind Analysis System (H*Wind) analyses of the outermost radius of marine exposure 25 m/s sustained winds. For hurricanes with Rmax > 50 km, D is held constant at 4 Rmax. For Rmax < 48 km,

D = 12.323 - 0.162 Rmax (3)

The 25 m/s sustained marine wind speed contour represents a 1 h mean marine wind of 21 m/s. This wind speed is assumed to represent the mean marine exposure wind speed at which light damage begins. The equivalent 1 h mean wind for roughness representative of Florida zip codes is ~ 14.5 m/s. Further details on the damage distance threshold are contained in the use case appendix.

7. Wind field model

The model is based on the slab boundary layer concept originally conceived by Ooyama [17] and implemented by Shapiro [18]. Similar models based on this concept have been developed by Thompson and Cardone [19] and Vickery et al. [20, 21]. As in Ref. [18] the model is initial- ized by a boundary layer vortex in gradient balance. Gradient balance represents a circular flow caused by the balance of whereby the inward directed pressure gradient is balanced by outward Coriolis and centripetal accelerations. The coordinate system translates with the hur- ricane vortex moving at velocity c. The vortex translation is assumed to equal the geostrophic flow associated with the large scale pressure gradient. As a possible future enhancement the large scale flow in which the vortex is embedded may be treated independently of the vortex motion as in Ref. [19]. In cylindrical coordinates that translate with the moving vortex, equations for a slab hurricane boundary layer under a prescribed pressure gradient (Ref. [18]} are:

2   u∂u v v ∂u ∂p 2 u 2 ∂u r ∂u − − fv + + − K ∇ u − 2 − 2  + F(c ,u) = 0 = ∂r r r ∂φ ∂r  r r ∂φ ∂t ! ! (4)

   ∂v v  v ∂v 2 v 2 ∂u r ∂v u +  + fu + − K ∇ v − 2 + 2  + F(c ,v) = 0 = €  ∂r r  r ∂φ  r r ∂φ  ∂t ! ! ! (5)

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  € 9 where u and v are the respective radial and tangential wind components relative to the moving storm, p is the sea-level pressure which varies with radius (r), f is the Coriolis parameter which varies with latitude, is the azimuthal coordinate, K is the eddy diffusion coefficient, and F(c,u), F(c,v) are frictional drag terms (discussed below). All terms are assumed to be representative of means through the boundary layer. The motion of the vortex is determined by the modeled storm track.

Note that equations (4) and (5) represent a steady state solution. In order to solve the equations they must be integrated until the steady state assumption is satisfied either through time integra- tion (e.g. Ref. [18, 19]) or numerical method (see appendix). More sophisticated multiple level models (e. g. Kurihara et al., [22]) include equations describing the thermodynamic processes including convection, and microphysics, evaporation of sea spray, exchange of heat and moisture with the sea, etc. These processes interact to change the pressure and wind fields over time, but the computational requirements of such models make them poorly suited for risk assessment. An advantage of our approach is that the solution to (4) and (5) is straightfor- ward and we do not have the computationally costly requirement to run the model to “steady state” each time we desire a solution. A limitation of our model (and all other Hurricane risk models) is the lack of physical representation of additional processes that may influence the wind field of a tropical cyclone. Further details on the wind field model are contained in the model equations appendix.

7.1 Surface pressure field

The symmetric pressure field p(r) is specified as:

B  max   R     r  ! ! ! ! ! p(r) = po + Δpe ! ! ! ! (6) where po is the central minimum sea level pressure, B is the Holland [23] pressure profile shape parameter, R is the radius of€ maximum wind speed (in nautical miles), and Δp is the pressure deficit defined earlier. The central pressure is modeled according to the intensity modeling in concert with the storm track.

The mean tangential gradient wind is determined primarily by (6). A recent publication by Wil- loughby and Rahn [25] of the NOAA-HRD database of research and reconnaissance aircraft measurements was supplemented with central pressure measurements and Rmax values adjusted for tilt between the surface and the 3 km level. These data were then cut to be more relevant to our model. We retained 201 profiles with maximum winds > 33 m/s, with flight levels below the 700 hPa pressure surface, and with Atlantic basin latitudes 15-35 N and longitudes west of 60 degrees West. The resulting expression for B explains 20% of the variance:

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  10 ! B = 1.881093 -0.010917 Lat -0.005567 Rmax + ε! ! (7)! !

where Lat is the latitude and ε is a random term from a zero mean normal distribution with a standard deviation of 0.286. B is censored to remain above 0.8 and below 2.2. Further details on the Holland B model are contained in the use case appendix.

7.2 Radius of maximum wind

The radius of maximum wind is determined from a distribution of landfall values as a function of po and latitude. As in Ref. [21], a log normal distribution is assumed for Rmax with a mean value determined as a function of p and latitude. In developing the models for Rmax, we used the data from Ref. [14] for storms from 1900-1983; NOAA-HRD archives of realtime sur- face wind analyses from 1995-2002; an “extended best track” archive of the National Hurricane Center that was maintained by Dr. Mark DeMaria (now with NOAA’s NESDIS at Colorado State University) for the years 1988-1999; and an HRD archive of aircraft observations for the years 1984-1987. To create a model to describe Rmax we considered Gulf of Mexico and U. S. At- lantic coast hurricane landfalls with latitudes as high as 34 degrees north in order to help fill a dearth of information on storms affecting the Northeast Florida coastline. The relationship be- tween Rmax and p and latitude shows much scatter but a generalized linear model for the natural log of R (r2 = 0.212) provides a useful estimation:

2 2 lnR max = 2.0633+ 0.0182Δp − 0.00019008Δp + 0.0007336Lat + ε (8)

where ε is a normal random variable with a mean of zero and a standard deviation of 0.3. € Equation (7) describes the mean of the log normal distribution of R in nautical miles. When a simulated storm is close enough to land to become a threat, an R value is randomly chosen given the p and latitude. R is computed at each time step but the random error term is computed only once for each landfall. Rmax is censored to remain below 102 km and above 7.4 km.

7.3 Friction terms

The frictional drag is in the direction opposite the total wind relative to the at the surface and represents the mean momentum flux from the to the surface. The frictional terms in (3) and (4) may be specified in terms of the vertical gradient of stress:

∂τ F(cr ,u) = ! ! ! ! ∂z ! ! ! ! ! (9)

The variation of with height over the depth of the slab boundary layer may be described by a function with properties€ supported by observations in the surface layer of tropical cyclones. The lower 250 m of the boundary layer is occupied by a surface layer in which stress is approxi-

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  11 mately constant. In reality the stress is greatest close to the surface, and is zero at the top of the boundary layer. By assuming stress as near constant over the surface layer we satisfy conditions for applying the logarithmic wind profile to describe the vertical variation of the mean wind speed with height. The fact that a mean logarithmic wind profile has been observed in tropical cyclone eyewalls (Ref. [26]) provides justification for the surface layer concept. The evaluation of (9) is approximated as 0.25 (τsfc / h), where τsfc is the surface stress and h represents the top of the boundary layer. Based on the mean height of the wind maximum in the hurricane eyewall in [26], an h value of 500 m is justified. The factor 0.25 is based on judgment and takes into account the fact that the average stress in the slab boundary layer is less than the mean stress of the surface layer. This factor is consistent with preliminary calculations of the stress profile in the boundary layer derived from GPS sonde observations described in [26]. Other modelers us- ing the slab boundary layer approach have used 0.3 [13] and 1.0 [18]. At the surface, the stress may be expressed in terms of the earth-relative surface wind velocity U10 at a height of 10 m above the surface, and the neutral stability surface drag coefficient, Cd :

r r r r τsfc = ρCdU 10 + c U 10 + c ! ! ! ! ! ( )! ! ! (10)

∂τ τ F(cr ,u) = = .25 where! ! ! ! € ! ∂z h ! ! ! ! (11)

Cd is specified by Large and Pond [27] and U10 is the neutral stability surface (10 m, 32 ft) wind speed relative to the moving€ storm.

7.4 Eddy Diffusion

The wind model describes the effects of horizontal turbulence following Shapiro [18]. In the- ory the role of eddy diffusion is to represent horizontal turbulent mixing in the radial and tan- gential directions. Vertical turbulent mixing (contained in the friction terms discussed earlier) is typically much larger in magnitude and is associated with a large body of research based on nu- merous field investigations. Horizontal mixing is most prominent in regions with strong hori- zontal gradients. Hence the greatest impact of eddy mixing will be in the eyewall where radial gradients are strong. In practice, this term primarily serves as a way to smooth out computa- tional noise in the model results but future enhancements might include a dependence on hori- zontal shear or grid spacing.

7.5 Model implementation

The hurricane wind field model is based on a fully two dimensional, time-independent, scaled version of the tangential and radial momentum equations (4 and 5) for the mean boundary layer wind components (see the appendix for a complete description). The model makes use of a polar coordinate representation grid centered on the moving cyclone. The nested circles are separated

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  12 from their inscribed and circumscribed neighbors by a radial separation of 0.1 R/Rmax; the azi- muthal interval of the radial spokes is 10 degrees.

Implementation proceeds according to the following steps: First, based on the input parameters, Rmax, po, and B, radial profiles of the radial and tangential winds are calculated based on a sta- tionary cyclone over open water to provide an “envelope” with which to set the size of the cy- clone vortex. The wind field produced by these profiles is radially symmetric.

Azimuthal variation is introduced through the use of two form factors. The form factors multi- ply the radial and tangential profiles described above and provide a “factorized” ansatz for both the radial and tangential storm–relative wind components. Each form factor contains three con- stant coefficients which are variationally determined in such a way that the ansatz constructed satisfies (as far as its numerical degrees of freedom permit) the scaled momentum equations for the storm-relative polar wind components. The azimuthal variable (ϕ) has its usual mathematical meaning such that increases from left to right with the rectangular X axis aligned ( =180, 0) and the Y axis aligned ( =270, 90) with Y increasing in the direction of storm translation.

The storm translation vector is added to the storm-relative wind components in order to obtain the earth-relative wind field. The translational motion of the storm is incorporated in the surface friction terms in the momentum equations which depend on the and are specific for the direction of storm translation which is aligned with the Y axis. The wind field grid is then rotated so that the computational y axis coincides with the actual direction of motion of the cyclone center. The wind field thus far constructed (Fig. 6) usually shows the location of peak winds to be to the right or forward edge of the right-rear quadrant of the cyclone.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  13 6. Horizontal distribution of mean surface wind speed (m s-1) relative to the earth for a Hurricane moving northward (top of page) at 5 m s-1. Horizontal coordinates are scaled by the radius of maximum wind.

7.6 Asymmetries in the wind field

The solution of (4) and (5) exhibits a shift of the radius of maximum winds toward the center when compared with the gradient wind profile. The tangential winds are also super gradient due to the advection inward of angular momentum induced by the frictional convergence. Besides vortex translation, radial advection of tangential momentum, and differential friction, other fac- tors affecting the asymmetric distribution of winds in a tropical cyclone include synoptic scale vertical shear of the horizontal wind, synoptic scale features (e.g. a strong high pressure ridge to one side of the hurricane), band convection, concentric eyewall cycles, mesoscale variations in air-sea temperature difference, and tertiary circulations associated organized linear flow features and turbulent eddies. In the simple model described here, only the motion and differential friction influences are taken into account. The remaining features are difficult to pa- rameterize and may be computationally prohibitive to include in the model but play an important role in determining the azimuthal location of the peak wind. Future versions of the model will attempt to include enhancements that take into account asymmetric wind field mechanisms.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  14 7.7 Marine surface layer

Once the mean PBL motion field is determined, the surface wind is estimated through surface layer modeling. Monin-Obukov heights provide an estimate of the importance of shear- or mechanically-produced turbulence to buoyancy-produced turbulence. The large values of Monin-Obukov heights computed in tropical cyclones by Moss and Rosenthal [28] and Powell [29] are consistent with shear-induced turbulence associated with neutral, well-mixed surface layers. Hence, a neutral stability surface layer is assumed to exist. In these conditions we can specify the surface stress and friction velocity in terms of a drag coefficient, and use the well- known log profile to describe the variation of wind speed with height. The mean boundary layer (MBL) depth is assumed to be 500 m, and the MBL wind speed is assumed to apply to the mid- point of this layer or 250m. The MBL height assumption is consistent with mean GPS sonde wind speed profiles [26] which depict the maximum winds at 500 m. A log profile for neutral stability is assumed to apply from the surface (10 m) to 250 m. Recent research on marine boundary layer wind profiles in tropical cyclones (Ref. [26]) support this assumption to at least 150 m. The mean surface wind for marine exposure is assumed to be 80% of the slab boundary layer wind, in accordance with recent results from boundary layer wind profiles measured in tropical cyclones (Ref. [26]):

r U10 ≈ 0.8V ! ! (12)! ! !

There is considerable variability in the factor used to estimate the mean surface wind speed. The € standard deviation of the reduction factor in (12) is about 10% but this is further complicated by profile failures in extreme conditions and the fact that the profiles are representative of open ocean conditions, rather than coastal onshore flow. When sufficient eyewall wind profiles be- come available near the coast, it is conceivable that a more sophisticated approach would involve sampling from a statistical distribution of coastal marine boundary layer reduction factors. The height of the model surface wind is 10 m in accordance with the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard practice for characterizing surface wind [30] and is assumed to represent a mean over a 1 h time period (Ref. [13]). We should note that the appropriate time period to assign the model wind speed is not well known and could be adjusted based on how well the model compares to observations. Other hurricane risk models assign wind speed aver- aging time periods of 20 to 60 min (see Refs [13, 19]), while real-time hurricane wind analyses using surface winds estimated with model-adjusted flight-level or GPS sonde MBL measure- ments typically assume 5-10 min averaging periods.

Marine roughness is modeled using the Large and Pond [27] drag coefficient (10) to compute friction velocity given the mean surface wind speed, and then solving the neutral stability log law for Zo. The Large and Pond [27] expression for drag coefficient was found to compare well with open-ocean measurements in hurricanes for wind speeds up to hurricane force. For higher

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  15 wind speeds, recent hurricane measurements [Ref. 26] suggest that the drag coefficient and roughness decrease with wind speed over the open ocean. However, sea state conditions during the landfall of a hurricane are very different than those over the open ocean. Anctil and Donelan [31] suggest that shoaling conditions in the shallow water adjacent to the coastline cause in- creased roughness and drag coefficient. An extrapolation of the Large and Pond [27] expression to hurricane wind speeds yields CD values larger than those observed over the open ocean. This behavior is consistent with additional surface layer turbulence associated with coastal wave breaking and shoaling conditions. Further justification for our approach comes from preliminary results of coastal roughness measurements within 200 m of the recently obtained during the landfall of Hurricane Isabel at Cape Hatteras by the State of Florida Coastal Monitoring Pro- gram (Reinhold and Gurley) [32]. These unique measurements (Fig. 7) in onshore flow docu- ment roughness values measured by the turbulent intensity method at 5 m and 10 m heights, in addition to the profile method. Although there is considerable scatter among the different meth- ods, the results are consistent with the Large and Pond [27] estimates and more than an order of magnitude larger than open-ocean roughness [26] in similar wind speeds. Further measurements are needed to see if this behavior persists for winds greater than a Saffir-Simpson category one hurricane, and for onshore flow without possible effects of intervening dunes.

Figure 7. Dependence of coastal roughness on maximum 1 min sustained wind speed for onshore flow. Measure- ments from Cape Hatteras in the eyewall of Hurricane Isabel, courtesy of the State of Florida Coastal Monitoring Program. Isabel measurements [29], from 5 m (squares), 10 m (x), profile method (triangles), Large and Pond’s [24] drag coefficient relationship (diamonds), and open ocean measurements (Y) from other hurricanes [23].

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  16 8. Land friction influences

To standardize observations for a common terrain (Ref. [33]), the mean surface wind for marine conditions is converted to “open terrain” conditions over land using the expression given in Simiu and Scanlan [34]. Improved techniques for converting between large and small roughness regimes are the subject of a future model enhancement. For each 10 min segment of storm mo- tion, the open terrain exposure surface wind speed and direction is determined for all population- weighted zip code centroid locations within the damage threshold distance from the storm center. The open terrain wind at each zip code centroid is corrected to the observed terrain using a fetch-dependent effective roughness for that particular direction and zip code. The effective roughness takes into account the flow over upstream flow obstacles and assumes that internal boundary layer development prevents the flow from reaching complete equilibrium with its sur- roundings (Refs. [33, 35]). The flow is most influenced by the roughness of the terrain 3 km upstream of the zip code centroid, but the flow is still influenced by terrain further upstream. The approach we use is based on the Source Area Model (SAM) described in Schmidt and Oke [36] and implemented by Axe [37]. SAM takes into account turbulence created by patchy terrain and determines the relative importance of the turbulence source area on a downstream wind sen- sor located at the zip code centroid. This approach is an improvement over current models that consider zip code roughness constant for all wind directions. Our method is especially advanta- geous for coastal zip code locations since flow with an upstream fetch over the sea can be sig- nificantly stronger than flow over a constant land roughness. The geographic distribution of roughness (Fig. 8) is associated with a classification of the land use / land cover (LU/LC) in a particular region according to high resolution (50 m) LANDSAT imagery used to develop the National Multi-Resolution Land Cover database (Ref. [38]).

20

Figure 6: HAZUS Roughness Lengths for the State of Florida in meters. Figure 8. Distribution of aerodynamic roughness (m) for the State of Florida determined from multi- resolution land-use land-cover classifications.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  17 Determination of the roughness for each LU/LC classification was developed by the National Institute for Building Sciences for FEMA’s multi hazard damage mitigation model (HAZUS). A limitation of the LU/LC method is that only 21 classifications are available with only two corre- sponding to developed residential areas. Florida Water Management District LU/LC databases include additional classifications but only three residential classifications. Detailed analysis of airborne lidar data is expected to provide more accurate distributions of surface roughness in the future.

A gust factor (Refs. [33, 39]) is used to convert the mean surface wind for the appropriate fetch- dependent roughness to a maximum sustained one min wind as required by the State of Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection, and to a peak 3s gust as required for the engineering component damage calculations. The same effective roughness is used for the mean wind and gusts. We should caution that the equilibrium fetch lengths for gusts and mean winds are not the same and a more sophisticated fetch modeling approach may be needed to address this in the fu- ture. An example of the model wind field for three 2004 hurricanes affecting Florida Hurricane are shown in Fig. 9. At the end of a simulation, time series of wind speed and direction exist for all zip codes in Florida for which hurricanes (or hurricanes that have decayed to a weaker status) have passed within the damage threshold distance. An advantage of our approach over other models is that the complete time series of the wind may be retained at high resolution. Retaining this information makes possible the determination of additional damage-relevant parameters such as duration of winds exceeding hurricane force and wind steadiness. Powell et al., [40] showed that the highest damage observed in Hurricane Andrew was associated with large values of dura- tion and small values of wind direction steadiness. These parameters capture the physical torques of thousands of gust-lull cycles acting on a structure. In addition, given the susceptibil- ity of residential buildings to damage at roof corners and gables, the more the wind direction changes during a strong wind event, the greater the chance that a given wind direction will occur for which a structure is susceptible. Currently the time series capability is available only for sce- nario simulations. A future enhancement of the model will relate the duration and wind direc- tion unsteadiness to the vulnerability functions contained in the engineering damage component of the model.

9. Validation

The track and intensity model will be validated by comparison to historical distributions of land- falls by intensity, translation speed, and Saffir-Simpson category along the Florida coastline. The wind model accuracy is validated by comparisons of model fields to observation-based wind field analyses created by the Hurricane Research Division’s Hurricane Wind Analysis System (H*Wind, Fig. 9, [9, 42] ) as well as to maximum wind speeds from hurricanes that have affected Florida (based on the National Hurricane Center’s “Best Track”, and the HURDAT database.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  18 Figure 9 Comparisons of model surface wind field to observation based H*Wind analyses of 2004 Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Ivan. Wind fields represent maximum sustained (1 min ) surface wind speeds (m/s) for ma- rine exposure. Scaled horizontal coordinate is R / Rmax, North is at top.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  19 In the model validation that follows, we have chosen 14 cases of recent hurricane landfalls in which H*Wind analyses were constructed based on all available observations. Comparisons of H*Wind maximum sustained wind speeds for marine exposure are compared to the wind field model (Fig. 10).

ObservedValidation5_3_2005.jmp: (H*Wind) vsFit YModel by X max sustained surface wind speedsPage 1 of 2 Bivariate Fit of H*wind Marine wind (mph) By Model Marine wind 1 minute 180 170 1. Andrew 160 2. Charley 150 3. Georges (Keys) 2 1 4. Frances 140 5. Jeanne 130 6. Ivan 120 7. Opal 6, 7 8. Erin (NW FL) 110 4, 5 9. Georges (MS) 100 3 10. Danny (LA/MS) 8 11. Earl 90 9 10 12. Danny (AL) H*wind Marine wind (mph) 80 12 13. Earl 14. Erin (Central FL) 70 11 13 14 60 50 50 60 70 80 90 110 130 150 170 Model Marine wind 1 minute (mph)

Linear Fit 99 % confidence interval Linear Fit H*wind Marine wind (mph) = 29.380802 + 0.7014754 Model Marine wind 1 minute (mph) Summary of Fit RSquare 0.83167 RSquare Adj 0.817643 Root Mean Square Error 10.61793 Mean of Response 95.90766 Observations (or Sum Wgts) 14

Fig. 10 Comparison of model peak sustained surface wind speeds to H*Wind objectively analyzed peak winds. The blue line is the line of perfect fit and the red dashed lines are the 99 % confidence limits on the fit. Arrows indicate typical uncertainty of the model and observed peak winds.

A fit to the data show that the model explains over 80% of the variance in the observed maxi- mum winds. These comparisons show a tendency to predict higher winds than observed for intense storms and lower than predicted for the weaker storms. It should be kept in mind that with the exception of ARA’s model these types of plots are not generally available for the pro- prietary models so we do not have a benchmark for how well this type of model should be repro- ducing the peak winds for the 14 cases. We should also point out that we have not adjusted the input files to attempt to “tune” the fit. The input data for Rmax, storm motion, minimum central pressure and storm position are as observed. In most cases, the Holland B parameter was esti-

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  20 mated based on observations from NOAA and Air Force reconnaissance aircraft. In addition, although the H*Wind analyses are considered objective and state of the art, alternative peak wind speed estimates are available for the same hurricane landfalls from the National Hurricane Cen- ter’s “Best Track” (BT) and the Official Hurricane Base Set published in the 2004 Commission Report of Activities. Comparisons of these data with H*Wind show that the BT contains a high bias for storms with peak winds over 110 mph while all but one base set value exceed H*Wind. Throughout the range of wind speeds each alternative estimate contains a high bias when com- pared to the peak observed winds in the storm from the H*Wind analysis.

BaseSet_Neal_5_3_2005.jmp: Fit Y by X Page 1 of 2 Bivariate Fit of H*wind Marine wind (mph) By Base Set wind at landfall 180 160 140 120 100 80 H*wind Marine wind (mph) 60 60 80 100 120 140 160180 Base Set wind at landfall (mph)

Linear Fit Linear Fit H*wind Marine wind (mph) = 4.5536448 + 0.8678124 Base Set wind at landfall (mph) Summary of Fit RSquare 0.899883 RSquare Adj 0.87986 Root Mean Square Error 9.539725 Mean of Response 92.94654 Observations (or Sum Wgts) 7

Fig. 11 H*Wind objective analyses vs. NHC Best track (left) and Official Hurricane Base Set estimates (Right). The base set does not include 2004 Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne which are included in the H*Wind cases.

A comparison of the model to BT (Fig. 12, left) shows less tendency for the model to over- predict wind speeds for winds over 110 mph but tendency towards under-prediction for weak storms, and a preponderance for most of the points to fall above the blue line of perfect fit. Points plotted above the blue line represent model winds that are less than BT. For the Official Hurricane Base Set, many more points cluster on either side of the line of perfect fit throughout the wind speed range but there is considerable scatter as shown by a smaller amount of variance explained by the fit (65%). An important aspect of the public model is to disclose the shortcom- ings as well as the highlights. Based on the Official Hurricane Set it might look like the model is performing reasonably well but based on the H*Wind analyses we are overestimating winds in the strong hurricanes and underestimating in the weaker hurricanes.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  21 BaseSet_Neal_5_3_2005.jmp: Fit Y by X Page 1 of 2 Bivariate Fit of Base Set wind at landfall (mph) By Model Marine wind 1 200 190 180 170 (mph) 160 150 landfall 140 at 130

wind 120

Set 110 100 Base 90 80 50 70 90 110130150170190 Model Marine wind 1 minute (mph)

Linear Fit Linear Fit Base Set wind at landfall (mph) = 32.30042 + 0.6839083 Model Marine wind 1 minute (mph) Summary of Fit RSquare 0.657274 RSquare Adj 0.651919 Root Mean Square Error 12.68088 Mean of Response 99.45455 Observations (or Sum Wgts) 66

Fig. 12 As in Fig. 10 but for the BT values (left) and Official Hurricane Base Set values (right).

9.1 Uncertainty

It is instructive to evaluate the model according to NIST guidelines for evaluating and expressing uncertainty [44]. The most basic measure is Type A standard uncertainty, which is the standard deviation of the mean errors from a series of independent model simulations. Here we evaluate the Type A standard uncertainty by evaluating the comparisons of the model to the H*Wind and Official Hurricane base set.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  22 Fig. 13 Distribution of differences between model and H*Wind peak sustained wind speeds.

Fig. 14 Distribution of differences between model and Official Hurricane Base Set peak sustained wind speeds.

Looking at the histogram of differences between the model and H*Wind in Fig. 13, a small negative bias is shown (due to a larger number of relatively weak storms) and the standard de- viation (Type A Uncertainty) is 14 mph. The differences between the model and the Official Hurricane Base Set (Fig. 15) shows a larger negative bias of almost 2 mph and a similar standard deviation (Type A Uncertainty) near 14 mph. Expressed as a percentage of the mean from the Official Hurricane Base set, the uncertainty is 14%. This uncertainty is similar to that expressed in Vickery and Twisdale (1995) [13] for “fastest mile” winds over 90 mph. However, our model uncertainty is larger than that expressed by Vickery et al., 2000, [20] which suggested values of 9%. One should keep in mind that there is also uncertainty in the observations used as the “truth”. For H*Wind analyses, the uncertainty is 7-12 % depending on what observing platforms are used. Uncertainty increases to > 20% if the maximum wind is estimated by a reduction fac- tor as was done for Hurricane Andrew. If individual wind speed records are used (as in Vickery’s investigations), the uncertainties are similar to H*Wind since both methods use similar stan- dardization processes.

Some of the outliers in both histograms may be reduced by a detailed evaluation of the available storm track, Rmax, minimum central pressure and Holland B information that are required to run the model. Most of this information comes from the HURDAT database which (especially for early 20th century storms) has many missing as well as questionable data. We have already spent considerable time preparing 1 hour resolution input files for each hurricane in the official base set as well as the 2004 season. In preparing these files we have had to deal with missing HURDAT central pressure values, or HURDAT containing unrealistic changes in wind relative to pressure. If Rmax and Holland B data were not available we used the same Rmax and B mod- els that are used for the stochastic version of the hurricane track and intensity model.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  23 The way the wind model is currently configured, it is difficult to determine the cause of the model behavior. Over-prediction of strong storms could be related to difficulties in specifying the pressure profile parameter from fits of the hurricane reconnaissance observations. Under- prediction of weaker hurricanes could be caused by an incorrect specification of boundary layer depth. The current configuration of the model combines the boundary layer depth and frictional stress terms into a term that is constrained to preserve the input Rmax. In order to investigate model behavior at the low and high ends, the frictional terms will need to be unbundled which in turn will allow the radius of maximum surface wind to migrate inward from the Rmax specified in the model input file. That work is expected to be completed during the of 2005.

At this point the model appears to reproduce reasonably well the peak sustained winds speeds of the Official Hurricane Set.

10. Conclusions

A Monte Carlo simulation model has been constructed to estimate average annual loss from hur- ricane wind damage to residential properties. The model is open in the sense that all results will be accessible to the public and the methodology will be completely documented and available for examination. The model incorporates results of many recent research advances while keeping basic enough to run in a reasonable amount of time. In order to reduce sampling error, a very large simulation (~55,000 years of activity) is prescribed. It is expected that the model would be run once per year to take advantage of the latest historical data to assess annual wind exceedance probabilities at each zip code in Florida. Such information can then be provided to the engi- neering and actuarial components of the model to assess average annual loss for any given resi- dential property exposure portfolio. At present the wind model calculation requires minutes of computation time per storm, requiring the simulations to be distributed among a number of pow- erful workstations. The primary user will be the Florida Department of Financial Services, in- surance companies, and homeowners in the state of Florida. There are also many research uses for the model and it is expected that annual enhancements will be required to keep up with the state of the art. The model will reside at Florida International University’s International Hurri- cane Research Center in Miami. Complete documentation of the model algorithms and code will be available for public examination. Given that there may be one Florida hurricane landfall per simulation year, a large number of storms will be contained in our database. Each storm may effect as many as 50 zip codes so it is expected that the database could contain several million records for track, intensity, and landfall wind field information on each storm. The database could then be queried for details on simulated storms and wind exceedance probability distribu- tions relevant to a given zip code or county in Florida.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  24 Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the State of Florida through a Department of Financial Services grant to the Florida International University International Hurricane Research Center. We thank the Department of Homeland Security (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the Na- tional Institute for Building Sciences for their assistance with the roughness classifications. Dr. Chris Landsea of NOAA-AOML provided the climate cycle information used for the annual hur- ricane occurrence portion of the model. Drs. Hugh Willoughby and Frank Marks, former and current directors of the Hurricane Research Division, respectively, provided valuable guidance and support. We appreciate helpful comments by Drs. Robert Rogers, Matthew Eastin, Chris Landsea, and the anonymous reviewers of our manuscript submitted to the Journal of Wind En- gineering and Industrial Aerodynamics. We also appreciate the assistance of Professor Gary Barnes, University of Hawaii, who conducted two site visits to examine and review the atmos- pheric science component of the model. This work benefited from an outstanding collaboration of university and federal government scientists under the guidance of Professor Shahid Hamid, the principal investigator. We greatly appreciate the assistance of Professors Jean Paul Pinelli (FIT), Kurtis Gurley (UF), Sneh Gulati (FIU), and Shu-Ching Chen (FIU), together with Dr. Emil Simiu of NIST. The outstanding assistance of FIU Computer science students Min Chen, Na Zhao, Xiaosi Zho, and Kasun Wickramaratna is gratefully acknowledged.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  25 Appendix A: Hurricane Model Equations and Integration

1. Definitions

rmax = Radius of maximum surface wind speed, specified

ct = storm translation speed, specified from storm track

cdir = storm translation direction compass heading , specified from storm track

Δp = Central pressure deficit, specified

 r max  B   − r  p(r) = po + Δpe = sea level pressure

B = Holland profile parameter € Φ = Azimuthal coordinate, measured counterclockwise from east

s = r/rmax normalized radial coordinate

2 vg 1 ∂p + r max fvg = vg(s) = Gradient wind: s ρ ∂s

f =2 Ω sinΘ Coriolis parameter € Θ latitude of storm center

Ω earth angular acceleration

vo(s) = normalized gradient wind (symmetric) = vg(s) /vgmax where vgmax is the maximum gradient wind in the radial profile

r max f f = vg max normalized Coriolis parameter

v v(s,φ) = € vg max normalized storm-relative tangential wind component

€ Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  26 u u(s,φ) = vg max normalized storm-relative radial wind component

r max Cd € α= friction coefficient, h

h= mean boundary layer height € Cd = Drag Coefficient

ct c = vg max normalized translation speed

−1 € g(s) = 2vo(s)s + f (A1)

−1 d(s) = v˙ o + vos + f (A2) € where a “dot” represents a derivative with respect to s, g(s) and d(s) depend only on v0 and f

€ σ(s,φ) = v(s,φ) − vo(s) normalized departure from gradient balance € 2. Scaling of the governing equations prior to implementation. € Substituting the terms from the above definitions and changing the radial coordinate from r to s, the steady-state form of the governing equations (4) and (5) become:

u u s−1(v ) u ( g s−1 ) (u csin )(w c) 0 ∂ s + o +σ ∂φ −σ + σ +α + φ − = (A3) u s−1(v ) u(d s−1 ) (v ccos )(w c) 0 ∂ sσ + o +σ ∂φσ + + σ +α o +σ + φ − = (A4) w = (u +csinφ)2 +(v +σ + ccosφ)2 € o (A5)

€ where w is the total normalized earth-relative wind. € In the event that c vanishes, so that the cyclone is stationary, these equations reduce to the ordinary differential equations:

−1 u u˙ −σ (g + s σ ) +αuw = 0 (A6) −1 u (σ˙ + s σ + d) +α(vo +σ )w = 0 (A7) w = u 2 +(v +σ )2 € o (A8) € Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  27 € for the radial profiles u(s) and σ(s). Here, “.” indicates differentiation with respect to s.

3. Wind model implementation

Equations A3 and A4 supplemented by A5, constitute two, coupled, time independent partial differential equations for the storm relative radial velocity u and the storm relative departure from gradient balance s. The storm relative tangential wind is then given by v=vg+s Unfortunately, the direct numerical solution of A3 and A4 is time consuming even though the equations are time-independent because the non-linear coupling of the terms necessitates an it- erative numerical approach.

However, equations A6 and A7, can readily be numerically integrated to furnish a completely

symmetric wind field fully described by the radial profiles u(s) and v(s)=vg(s)+ σ(s).

The functions u(s) and s(s) so obtained can serve as radial profiles for the construction of basis functions for a more realistic attack on A3 and A4. Namely, we put forth the ansatz:

u (s,φ) = ffu(φ)u(s) (A9) σ (s,φ) = ffσ (φ)σ (s) (A10)

€ where the azimuthal dependence is introduced through the form factors: € ffu(φ) = a0 + a1 cosφ + a2 sinφ (A11)

ffσ(φ) = b0 + b1 cosφ + b2 sinφ (A12)

€ Now the six coefficients a0, a1, a2 and b0, b1, b2 can be variationally determined by substituting € A9 and A10 into the left hand sides of A3 and A4, supplemented by A5 to form the "residuals" RA3 and RA4. We then form the functional:

∑ RA3 + RA4 J(a, b) = NGRID (A13)

where the sum is taken over every spatial point for which the profiles and trigonometric func- € tions are known (polar grid) and NGRID is the total number of such grid points.

J then depends solely on the unknown coefficients a0,a1,a2 and b0,b1,b2. These coefficients are chosen to minimize J and so furnish us with an approximate solution for u,(s,ϕ)) and σ(s,ϕ), from which we form the storm relative radial and tangential wind components ur and vt, namely:

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  28 ur(s,ϕ)= u(s,ϕ) and vt(s,ϕ)=vg(s,ϕ)+ σ(s,ϕ) (A14)

By adding the translational velocity c (in polar coordinates) to ur and vt we obtain the earth- relative components of the windfield uer and ver :

uer(s,ϕ)=ur(s,ϕ)+c sin ϕ (A15) ver(s,ϕ)=vt(s,ϕ)+c cos ϕ (A16) where c is the normalized translation speed c = ct/ vgmax.

Finally, since A3, A4 and A5 refer to a cyclone moving along the y axis, the entire generated wind field grid must be rotated so that the y axis of the calculation coincides with the actual compass direction of motion of the translating cyclone.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  29 Appendix C: Use Cases for the Hurricane Model

C1. Annual Hurricane Occurrence (AHO) was developed in collaboration with the statisti- cal expert (Professor Gulati) and is described in the statistical and computer science mate- rials.

C2. Hurricane Genesis was developed in collaboration with Dr. Cocke and the statistical expert (Professor Gulati) and is described in the statistical and computer science materials.

Note: The wind speed probability use case was developed in collaboration with Drs. Gulati, Simiu, and Pinelli and is described in the statistical and computer science materials.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  30 C3. Use Case for Zip Code Distance Criterion Mark Powell, HRD 3-24-2004

1. Summary:

The wind field model captures the peak wind speed and associated direction for all zip codes within a criterion-specified distance from the storm circulation center . The distance is specified in a scaled R/Rmax radial coordinate. For example a criterion of R/Rmax of 10.0 is ten times the value of Rmax. If Rmax is 25 miles, then all zip codes within 250 miles radially outward from the storm center would be considered for damage calculations.

2. References:

The HRD H*Wind Surface Wind Analysis database: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/data_sub/wind2002.html

Powell, M. D. et al.,

3. Data:

A sample of 12 Hurricanes analyzed by the HRD Real Time Hurricane Wind Analysis System were used to describe the normalized distance from the radius of maximum wind to the location of the outermost extent of marine exposure 50 kt (57.5 mph) winds . This analysis included Florida Hurricanes Andrew (1992) and 2004 Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne.

4. Documentation:

A. Minimum wind speeds for modeled damage

Since damage is modeled probabilistically, damage can be produced at wind speeds below hur- ricane force, although with a very small chance of occurrence. For example, a peak wind gust of 55 mph corresponds to a 0.6% probability of < 2.0% damage to a wood frame residen- tial structure in Florida. For a 3 sec gust of 50 mph there is a 0.6 % probability of <1.0% damage and a peak gust of 60 mph has a 2% chance of < 1 % damage. For purposes of computational efficiency, it is practical to restrict wind and damage calculations to zip codes that have a rea- sonable chance of receiving damaging winds from a particular hurricane.

B. Zip code distance Criterion

Since hurricanes come in a variety of sizes and shapes, a fixed distance criterion is not practical, since it may be unnecessarily large for small storms and consume valuable computer resources.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  31 As an alternative to a fixed distance criterion, we have chosen to describe the distance criterion as a function of the radius of maximum wind speed (Rmax). For small storms with small Rmax we will go outward from the storm center ~ 10 Rmax and for large storms we will go out a as far as 4 Rmax.

Sensitivity testing with zip code distance criterion with values of 3 R/RMAX and 5 R/Rmax re- sulted in underestimates of the extent of damaging winds. This was noticed during evaluations of the model against observed wind fields in Hurricane Charley of 2004. Twelve hurricanes comprising a variety of storm structures and shapes were evaluated by comparing the outermost radius of marine exposure 50 kt (57.5 mph) sustained winds in terms of the normalized radial coordinate, R/Rmax. The 57.5 mph sustained marine wind speed contour represents a 10 min mean marine wind of 50.35 mph.

Converting the 50 mph, 10 min mean marine wind speed to open terrain results in a 40.6 mph 10 min wind speed and a sustained wind speed of 46.35 mph (using a gust factor of 1.142 for the peak 1 min wind over 10 min in open terrain), and a peak 3s gust of 57.2 mph. This gust wind speed is close to the speed at which damage begins (2% probability of 1 % damage to a wood residential structure in Florida). Since most of the residential structures in Florida com- prise rougher terrain (e.g. ~99% of the zip code roughness values exceed open terrain), our R/ Rmax criterion is conservative.

A residential exposure corresponding to the 10% quantile for Florida zip codes (Fig. 1) is a roughness of 0.15 m. Converting the marine 10 min mean wind speed of 50 mph to this expo- sure results in a residential 10 min wind speed of 32 mph and a peak 3 sec gust of 42 mph. This peak gust corresponds to a <1% probability of <1 % damage to a wood residential structure for more than 90% of the zip codes in Florida.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  32 Fig. 1 Distribution of Florida zip code roughness lengths looking upwind over a 45 deg segment NE from the zip code centroid out to a distance of 20 km and weighting the values with a Gaus- sian filter with a 3 km half power point.

For Rmax > or equal to 30 sm: A plot of R50/Rmax vs Rmax (sm) shows that a value of 4 R/ Rmax is adequate.

For Rmax < 30 sm the Criterion distance (Z) in sm is described by the linear relationship:

Z (R/Rmax) = 12.3246 - 0.26 Rmax (sm)

5. Implementation: The above relationship will be coded into the wind model.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  33 C4. Rmax Use Case 2-8-2005

Mark Powell HRD Sneh Gulati FIU

1. Summary: The Rmax value is computed from information contained in the track for each storm of the simulation. Rmax is the radius of maximum surface winds and is a parameter re- quired for input to the wind field model. Based on generalized linear model fit by S. Gulati 7-29 03.

2. References:

Demaria, M., J. Pennington, and K. Williams, 2002: Description of the Extended Best track file (EBTRK1.4) version 1.4. Available from NESDIS/CIRA/Regional and Mesoscale Team, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.

Ho, F. P., J. C. Su, K. L. Hanevich, R. J. Smith, and F. P. Richards, 1987: Hurricane for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. NOAA Tech Memo NWS 38, NWS Silver , MD.

Powell, M., G. Soukup, S. Cocke, S Gulati , N. Morisseau-Leroy, Shahid Hamid, N. Dorst and L. Axe, 2005: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model: Atmospheric Science Compo- nent, Submitted to Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics.

3. Documentation from JWEIA paper:

Radius of maximum wind Rmax:

! The radius of maximum wind is determined from a distribution of values as a function of po and latitude. As in Ref. [21], a log normal distribution is assumed for Rmax with a mean value determined as a function of Delta p (in mb) and Latitude (in decimal degrees). In devel- oping the models for Rmax, we used the data from Ho et al., 1987 for storms from 1900-1983; NOAA-HRD archives of realtime surface wind analyses from 1995-2002; an archive of the Na- tional Hurricane Center that was maintained by Dr. Mark DeMaria (now with NOAA’s NESDIS at Colorado State University) for the years 1988-1999; and an HRD archive of aircraft observa- tions for the years 1984-1987. To create a model to describe Rmax we considered U. S. Atlan- tic and Gulf of Mexico basin hurricane landfalls with latitudes as high as 34 degrees north in order to help fill a dearth of information on storms affecting the Northeast Florida coastline. The relationship between Rmax and Delta p and latitude is shows much scatter but a generalized linear model for the natural log of Rmax (r2 = 0.212) provides a useful estimation:

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  34 Ln Rmax = 2.0633 + 0.0182 Delta p - 0.00019008 Delta p^2 + 0.0007336 Lat^2 +epsilon (1) where epsilon is a normal random variable with a mean of zero and a variance of 0.096. This equation is for the natural log of Rmax in Nautical miles, it must be converted to statute miles for any output shown to the commission or Pro team.

The max and min values of Rmax are censored:

If Rmax > 55 nm (63.5 sm) set Rmax = 55 nm (63.5 sm)

If Rmax < 4 nm (4.6 sm) set Rmax = 4 nm (4.6 sm)

4. Use Case Steps:

A. Using landfall storm center latitude and Po from the track and intensity information in the database.

B. Compute Delta P = 1013 - Po

C. User generates a random variable (epsilon) with a mean of zero and a variance of 0.0961

D. User evaluates equation (1)

E. New Rmax in nautical miles is calculated as follows:

Rmax = e ^(Ln Rmax)

F. To simplify the model, this value of Rmax is assigned to all time entries of the track/intensity database, even though the storm may go to sea again and make a second landfall.

G. For output display purposes, Rmax may be converted from kilometers to statute miles by multiplying by 0.621

Note: The Best set track files contain Rmax values at landfall for Hurricanes that have made landfall in Florida. These data are to be used for Scenario runs of the model.

5. Sample Calculation:

Input: Latitude= 25.5 degrees, Po = 963 mb Delta P = 50 mb

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  35 Random selection of epsilon = 0.411 Ln Rmax = 2.0633 + 0.91 - 0.4752 + 0.477 +0.411 Ln Rmax = 3.3861 Rmax = 29.55 nm

6. Potential enhancement areas:

1. Rmax accommodates seafall and subsequent landfalls such that a new value of Rmax would be computed after seafall and apply through the next landfall (until a subsequent seafall).

Publication with of all Rmax values. Continue to update landfall database with landfall Lat and Lon, Rmax, Po information using H*Wind analyses.

Revision History:

5-17-2004 MP I noticed in an email dated 12-5-2004 that the random term seemed to be too large. Sneh said she would check. I mentioned that trial and error suggested a value of epsilon as from a population with a variance of 0.0961 instead of 0.169. The use case is revised to re- flect a variance of 0.0961 in the random term.

9-28-2004 MP Rmax is also censored to limit the maximum value of Ln (Rmax) to be less than or equal to ~2.2 standard deviations above the mean observed value in the Rmax database ( 55 nm or 63 sm). The largest value in the Rmax dataset for Florida and vicinity is 45 nm (52 sm). For the lower end limit of Rmax, we use ~3.5 standard deviations below the mean (4 nm or 4.6 sm). The lower limit is consistent with data from 2004 Hurricane Charley. The use case is re- vised accordingly.

12-15-2004 Above paragraph edited by MP.

12-28-2004 MP Fixed error in text noticed by Dr. Gulati to “we considered U. S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico basin hurricane landfalls with latitudes as high as 34 degrees north in order to help fill a dearth of information on storms affecting the Northeast Florida coastline.”

1-3-2005 MP added units for input parameters, corrected error in peripheral pressure using in equation 4b. Changed Po in sample calculation from 960 to 963 mb. Added Rmax conversion from kilometers to statute miles. Moved notes to revision history section.

2-8-2005

Corrected mistake in upper censor value (55 nm or 63.5 sm).

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  36 Mean Rmax is 22.2 nm, sigma is 8.89 nm. An upper censor value of 55 nm is (55-22.2) = 32.8 / 8.89 = 3.68 sigma above the mean, so upper censor (55 nm) is a rare event. However, if you go by Ln Rmax, the standard deviation (from the output of the Ln (Rmax) model fit) is 0.443 and the value of 55 nm is 2.25 standard deviations above the mean Ln Rmax of 3.011 (e^3.011 = 20.3 nm). As a compromise, we reduce the value of the Ln Rmax standard deviation of the ran- dom error term to 0.31. LN(55) = 4.007, which is 3 sigma above the mean of 3.01 if we use the smaller value of 0.3 for sigma.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  37 C5. Use case for Holland Beta term in pressure profile equation 2-8-2005 Mark Powell HRD

1. Summary: The Holland B parameter is an exponent value that specifies the shape of the ra- dial pressure gradient and is an important input parameter for the wind field model.

2. References:

Vickery, P. J., P. F. Skerjl, , and L. A. Twisdale, 2000b: Simulation of hurricane risk in the United States using an empirical storm track modeling technique, Journal of Structural Engineer- ing., 126, 1222-1237.

Powell, M., G. Soukup, S. Cocke, S Gulati , N. Morisseau-Leroy, Shahid Hamid, N. Dorst and L. Axe, 2005: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model: Atmospheric Science Compo- nent, Submitted to Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics.

Willoughby, H. E. and M. E. Rahn, 2004: Parametric representation of the primary hurricane vor- tex. Part I: Observations and evaluation of the Holland (1980) model. Mon. Wea. Rev., 132, 3033-3048.

3. Documentation:

Willoughby and Rahn (2004) used HRD Hurricane Field Program flight level measurements and Aif Force Reconnaissance data to assemble a database of 606 mean flight-level profiles, one pro- file per flight-level of a particular flight. From 1977-2000 606 aircraft sorties were included (most in the 1990’s) with 113 failing detailed QC.

Locations of Mean flight level profiles from Willoughby and Rahn (2004) The QC was associated with:

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  38 1. Rmax > half of radial extent of profile 2. Min wind at center not sampled well (> 1/2 Vmax) 3. A/c didnt pass within 1/2 Rmax of the wind center

Most failed QC due to 1, therefore the sample does not reflect well storms with large Rmax rela- tive to the size of the leg

Limitations of Willoughby and Rahn (2004) data set relevant to Cat Modeling:

1) FL Rmax is biased outward from sfc Rmax (use SFMR to correct)\ 2) Ht gradient should be weaker at 700 mb than at 500 m level. Exceptions are Andrew, Gilbert, Inez 3) The fits do not accommodate storms with outer wind maxima

By correcting the FL Rmax to Sfc , and using the Sfc Delp from Hurdat, we can better estimate B(FL) from sfc quantities

Willoughby and Rahn (2004) state that due to the tendency for Holland to show a broader wind max in the eyewall, in extreme storms it will have winds> 50 m/s about 50% more often than really occurs. However, this is B at Flt level, which should be less than what it should be at the surface since the Rmax is closer to the center at the surface...except Vmax sfc is also smaller so not sure how this would play out.

Key question is how much B would vary with height if a given storm were sampled at several levels. Sonde data from CBLAST could help with this.

B model based on Willoughby and Rahn (2004):

Based on 45 radial profiles of SFMR measured surface winds from altitudes between 2-4 km, the Rmax is at 0.815 RmaxFL on the left side and 0.868 RmaxFL on the right side of the storm. The mean Rmax surface adjustment is:

Rmax = 0.8415 RmaxFL (1)

Vickery and Twisdale 2000 only gets 2-7% explained variance with their old fit

B = 1.38 + (0.00184 * DelP - 0.00309 * Rmax) (2)

For DelP > 25 and FL <= 850 rsq = 0.026** We used this one previously

Their R square went up if they used higher level data:

B = 1.34 + (0.00328 * DelP - 0.00522 * Rmax) (3)

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  39 For DelP > 25 and FL <= 700 rsq = 0.076

We filtered the Willoughby and Rahn (2004) data set as follows: 1) by Height of flight-level pressure surface <= 700, 2) Longitude >60 < 98 degrees west, 3) Storm relative flight level Vmax > 30 m/s, 4) Latitude > 15 < 35

We also added surface Pmin values according to HURDAT for each mean flight level profile in the database.

Note: about 200/493 (41%) mean profiles had outer maxima present but these do not affect the fit which is constrained to pass through the center and the Vmax. For our filtered data set, sec- ondary outer maxima were indicated in 47/231 profiles (~ 20%).

Distribution of B values according to the above filtering for 1977-2000 flight level data from Willoughby and Rahn (2004).

B model:

B = 1.74425 -0.007915 Lat + 0.0000084 DelP^2 -0.005024 Rmax + Epsilon (4)

Censor values: Upper: 2.2 Lower: 0.5

This fit describes ~ 15% of the variance in B.

Here Rmax represents the open ocean surface Rmax in km and Epsilon is the random error term chosen from a normal distribution with a mean of zero and a standard deviation of 0.286

Note that the samples used for Rmax above differs from those used to model our Rmax use case. The former is an open ocean flight-level measurement corrected to a surface value while the lat-

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  40 ter is modeled from a database of coastal landfall measurements. We assume that both samples of Rmax come from the same population.

4. Use Case Steps: Note: The code for this calculation is a part of the track and intensity model as coded by Dr. Steve Cocke of FSU.

A. Input from track information output within the track and intensity model: Landfall Rmax (km), Pmin (mb), latitude (decimal degrees north)

B. Compute Delta P = 1013 - Po

C. Generate a random variable (epsilon) with a mean of zero and a variance of 0.082 (Standard deviation of 0.286). The random term is computed only once per simulated storm track.

D. Evaluate equation (4)

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  41 5. Sample Calculation:

Input: Rmax = 25 km, Po = 960 mb, Latitude = 26 degrees north Random selection of epsilon = 0.2

DelP = 53 mb

B = 1.74425 -0.007915 Lat + 0.0000084 DelP^2 -0.005024 Rmax + Epsilon B = 1.74425 -0.007915 (26) + 0.0000084 (53)^2 -0.005024 (25) + 0.2 B = 1.74425 – 0.2058 + 0.0236 - 0.1256 + 0.2 B = 1.636

6. Potential enhancement areas:

1. Possibly replace Holland B parameter with new fitting methods being developed by Wil- loughby if some method to correct B for variation with height can be developed (perhaps based on GPS sonde data).

7. Problems with low B values 2-9-2005

On 2-9-2005 we notices that some tracks of relatively weak storms (990-1000 mb Pmin) caused the wind model to stall if B values were < 0.8. The lower bound censor value for the above model is 0.5. We are investigating this. A further filtering of the Willoughby and Rahn data set suggests that if we constrain ourselves to mean flight level winds of at least hurricane force (33 m/s), then the smallest B is 0.8. We may decide to fix our lower censor at 0.8 accordingly. We may also revise the model accordingly, reaching a new R squared of 20% with a new equation as follows:

B = 1.881093 -0.010917 Lat -0.005567 Rmax + Epsilon

Where epsilon is a random error term from a zero mean normal distribution with a standard de- viation of 0.286

Upper censor = 2.2 Lower censor = 0.8

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  42 Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  43 C6. Use Case for Wind Speed Correction (WSC) from Open to Actual (LULC-based) Terrain

3-28-2005

Mark Powell, HRD Liza Axe, Steve Cocke FSU

1. Summary: This method describes how information in a roughness catalog may be used to convert open terrain winds produced by the hurricane wind model to winds more representative of the actual terrain (based on land use- land cover).

2. References: 1. HAZUS Technical Manual

2. M.S. Thesis, L. Axe, Florida State University, 2004

3. Powell, M. D., S. H. Houston, and T. A. Reinhold, 1996: Hurricane Andrew's Landfall in South Florida. Part I: Standardizing measurements for documentation of surface wind fields. Weather Forecast., 11, 304-328.

The gust factor use case is called to compute the sustained (peak 60 sec) and peak 3 s gust for the actual terrain (see gust factor use case).

3. Input from wind model (for each zip code centroid): Zip = Zip code ZipOTWS = Surface Wind Speed for open terrain produced by the wind model (m/s) which rep- resents the 10 min mean wind OTWD = surface wind direction (Deg from North) Zoo = Roughness length (m) for open terrain = 0.03 m

4. Input from roughness table (for a given wind direction):

Zoa = Actual roughness length based on FEMA HAZUS conversion table relating land use- land cover (LULC) to aerodynamic roughness (m). Roughness represents a weighted average of all roughness pixels within a 45 degree sector with origin at the population-weighted centroid of the zip code and extending outward to 20 km from the centroid. The roughness values are weighted according to the Source Area Model (Axe, 2004).

5. Format of lookup table:

Zip Lon Lat Zo1 Zo2 Zo3 Zo4 Zo5 Zo6 Zo7 Zo8 Zo1 = Actual Roughness for wind directions inclusive of 46-90

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  44 Zo2 = Actual Roughness for wind directions inclusive of 1-45 Zo3 = Actual Roughness for wind directions inclusive of 316-0, 360 Z04 = Actual Roughness for wind directions inclusive of 271-315 Z05 = Actual Roughness for wind directions inclusive of 226-270 Zo6 = Actual Roughness for wind directions inclusive of 181-225 Zo7 = Actual Roughness for wind directions inclusive of 136-180 Zo8 = Actual Roughness for wind directions inclusive of 91-135

LOOKUP TABLE line for zip 33133:

33133 80.24401855 25.73268509 0.2399817854 0.3124250770 0.3429141343 0.3098731637 0.3196663558 0.2674820721 0.5406716093E-01 0.7273393869E-01

6. Input from Gust factor use case (depends on roughness for the model wind direction)

G3,h = Gust factor for peak 3 sec gust over 10 min G60,h = Gust factor for peak 1 min wind over 10 min

7. Output: ZipOTWS1 = Max 1 min sustained wind speed (m/s) for open terrain ZipATWS = 10 min mean surface wind speed for actual terrain (m/s) ZipATWS1 = Max 1 min sustained wind speed (m/s) for actual terrain (m/s) ZipATWS1mph = above with english units of statute miles per hour (mph) ZipATWS3 = Max 3s gust (mph)

7. Use Case Steps:

Given the wind direction for each zip code centroid from from the wind model, the appropriate value for actual terrain roughness is extracted from the table.

1. Compute open terrain friction velocity:

U*o = Vo * 0.4 / [ Ln (10.0 / 0.03 ) ]

U*o = Open terrain friction velocity (m/s)

3. Compute actual terrain friction velocity (using eqn. 3 of Powell et al., 1996)

U*a = U*o / ( [Zoo / Zoa] ^ 0.0706 )

U*a = Actual terrain friction velocity (m/s)

4. Compute actual terrain wind 10 min mean wind speed at 10 m:

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  45 ZipATWS = ( U*a / 0.4 ) ( Ln (10 / Zoa ) )

5. Compute gust factors for peak 1 min wind over 10 min G10min,60 and peak 3s wind over 10 min G1h,3 based on the actual roughness. [See gust factor use case]

6. Compute max 1 min wind (m/s) occurring within 10 min period

ZipATWS1= ZipATWS * G10min,60 ZipOTWS1 = ZipOTWS * 1.142

7. Compute max 1 min sustained wind speed in mph

ZipATWS1mph = ZipATWS1 * 2.24

8. Compute peak 3s gust in mph

ZipATWS3=V3 = ZipATWS * G10min,3 * 2.24

Sample Calculation:

Input from model: Zip = 33133 Vo = 50 m/s WD =320 deg Zoo = 0.03

Input from lookup table: Zoa = 0.239 m

1. U*o = 3.44 m/s 2. U*a = 3.98 m/s 3. ZipATWS = 37.18 m/s 4. G10min,60 (Zo=.239) = 1.20 5. ZipATWS1 = 44.616 m/s 6. ZipATWS1mph = 99.93 mph 7. G10min,3 (Zo = .239) = 1.598 8. ZipATWS3 = 133.08 mph

Revision History:

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  46 1_21_2005 revised wind speed output parameters to be consistent with M1 use case. IDL output used as input to this use case are OTWS and OTWD.

3-24-2005 Revised so that model mean wind is 10 min mean, used terminology consistent with model output

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  47 C7. Gust Factor Use Case 3-24-2005 Mark Powell, NOAA-HRD

1. Summary: The gust factor is computed based on work submitted to the Journal of Structural Engineer- ing by P. Vickery and P. Skerlj. Their study used methods developed by the Engineering Sci- ences Development Unit (ESDU) of the United Kingdom, which in turn is based on several papers on the turbulent statistics of strong winds. Their study compared the ESDU methods to a large base set of tropical cyclone wind speed records and found excellent comparisons between the theoretical and observed gust factors.

2. References:

Vickery, P. J. and P. F. Skerlj, 2005: Hurricane gust factors revisited. In press, Journal of Struc- tural Engineering.

Powell, M. D., S. H. Houston, and T. Reinhold, 1996: Hurricane Andrew's landfall in south Florida. Part I: Standardizing measurements for documentation of surface wind fields. Wea. Forecasting., 11, 304-328.

3. Documentation

The 10 min mean wind at a particular zip code is corrected for the upstream fetch by the rough- ness use case. A peak one minute wind and peak three second gust must then be estimated from this mean wind by applying gust factors. The mean wind is multiplied by the gust factor to esti- mate the peak 3 second gust and the maximum sustained 1 min wind as follows:

Input: ZipATWS= Model 10 min mean wind speed WD Model wind direction Zo Roughness length based on upstream terrain Latitude

Output: G3, h 3 second Gust factor

G60, h 60 second Gust factor

€ 4. Use case Steps: €

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  48 .4ZipATWS A. Compute friction velocity u* =  10  Ln     Zo  B. Compute Height scaling parameter based on a height of 10 m

 10 η =1− 6 f   €  u * 

C. Compute the standard deviation of the wind speed €

  η16     10   7.5ηu *  0.09Ln + 0.538         Zo  σu(z) =   u *  1 + 0.156Ln    fZo where f = 2(7.292*10−5 sin(Lat)) is the Coriolis parameter and € the integral scale time parameter is

0.2 € It = 3.13Z It = 4.96 In which Z= 10 m is used

D. Compute the standard deviation of the low-pass filtered wind speed considering a € filter with a cut-off frequency of 1 cycle per 3 seconds (for the peak 3s gust) and 1 cycle per 60 seconds (for the maximum 1 min sustained wind speed calculation:

−0.68   It   σu(z,60) = σu(z)1 − 0.193 + 0.1    60   σu(z,60) = 0.386762σu(z)

€ −0.68   It   σu(z,3) = σu(z)1 − 0.193 + 0.1    3   σu(z,3) = 0.868256σu(z)

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  49 € E. Compute the wind fluctuation cycling rates:

0.654   It    0.007 + 0.213     60  Cr(60) = It

Cr(60) = 0.00982 €

0.654   It    0.007 + 0.213     3  Cr(3) = It

Cr(3) = 0.061 € F. Compute the Peak factors for the max 1 min (60 sec) and max 3 second winds €

  0.557 σu(z,3) Pf (3) =  2Ln 600Cr +   ( )   2Ln(600Cr)  σu(z) σu(z,3) Pf (3) = 2.67 + 0.2086 σu(z)   0.557 σu(z,60) Pf (60) =  2Ln 600Cr +   ( )   2Ln(600Cr)  σu(z) σu(z,60) Pf (60) = 2.67 + 0.2086 σu(z)

G. Compute the gust factors: € G60, h =1+ Pf (60)

G3, h =1+ Pf (3) € Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  € 50 5. Sample calculation:

Input: Zip code 33133 Latitude= 25.5 degrees ZipATWS = 37.18 m/s WD=320 degrees Zo(WD) = 0.239 m

Output:

u* = 3.98 η = 0.99927 f = 0.00006163  €   σu(z) = 8.86 m/s

€ σu(z,60) = 3.42 m/s

σu(z,3) = 7.69 m/s €    Pf (60) = 0.843 €  Pf (3) = 2.51 € G3, h = 1.59

€ G60, h = 1.20 € € €

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  51 C8. Use Case for Form M1 3-24-2005 Mark Powell HRD

Input: 1. “Short–form” output file for each simulated hurricane. 2. Number of years in the simulation

For all hurricanes in the wind field model output:

A. Landfalling Hurricanes:

Catalog all simulation output files that indicate a landfall position (line 2)

1. For each landfall, the wind model output (at top of file lines 4,5) lists the peak open terrain and marine exposures in the storm, as well as the landfall position (lat, lon). Note: A given storm may make more than one landfall, or may not make landfall at all.

2. Save storm name, landfall date, landfall time, landfall Lat, Landfall Lon, Max OT wind speed, wind direction, Max MA wind speed, wind direction

3. Search the WSC output file to find the Zip code containing max sustained wind speed, save the max zip code wind speed for that particular hurricane

4. Assign each storm to a region (A-E) in the Florida map in Fig. 3 of the Standards, based on the landfall lat and lon

5. Use peak mean marine exposure (MA) wind speed and multiply by 1.12 to correct the max 10 min mean MA wind speed to a maximum sustained 1 min wind speed.

6. Use peak Open Terrain exposure (OT) wind speed and multiply by 1.142 to correct the max 10 min wind speed to a maximum sustained 1 min wind speed.

7. For each simulated hurricane, assign a Saffir-Simpson (SS) category to each MA and OT wind speed from (3) and (4) above.

8. Count all hurricanes in each SS category for the entire state and each region, and di- vide by the number of years in the simulation to compute the annual occurrence rates as re- quested in Form M1 (A). Round the occurrence rate to two decimal places.

a. Fill in Form M1 (We Now Call "M1MA") using SS Categories based on MA sustained wind speeds.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  52 b. Fill in another Form M1 ("M1OT") using SS Categories based on OT-based sustained wind speeds.

9. For each version of Form M1, provide histograms of historical and simulated hurri- canes for each SS Category for the entire state and each of regions A, B, C, D, E, and F

10. As required by Standard M-4 Audits 1-2, conduct Chi-Square and/or Kolmogorov- Smirnov statistical goodness of fit tests for each version of Form M1.

11. Form M1 landfall supporting data: Hurricane name, year, mon, day, hhmm, LF Lat, LF Lon, MAWS, MAWD, MAWS1, OTWS, OTWD, OTWS1, SS, Region, Zip, ZipWS1 001,100001,08,19,0315,121,54,144,109,43,119,3,C,33149,115

Hurricane name= Name of the hurricane year,= 6 digit year mon= 2 digit day= 2 digit hhmm= 4 digit UTC hours minutes LF Lat= Landfall latitude LF Lon= Landfall longitude MAWS, MAWD= max 10 min marine exposure wind speed (mph) and direction (deg) MAWS1= max 1 min sustained wind speed (mph) (Step 5 above) OTWS, OTWD= max 10 min Open terrain wind speed and direction OTWS1= max 1 min sustained wind speed for open terrain (mph) (Step 6 above) SS= Saffir-Simpson Category based on wind speed Region= as defined in Fig. 3 (E-F) Zip= Zip Code containing the peak wind speed of all lzip codes affected by the hurricane ZipWS1= max 1 min sustained wind speed at the zip code (mph) from WSC

B. By-Passing Hurricanes:

The output files also designate hurricanes that do not landfall but pass close enough to land to cause damage at a zip code. We designate these as "By-passing hurricanes". Catalog all simula- tion output files that indicate a By-pass position (line 2).

! 1. The wind model output (at top of file lines 4,5) lists the peak open terrain and marine exposures in the storm, as well as the Bypass storm position (lat, lon) at the time it’s pressure was the lowest when it is affecting the zip codes.

2. Use Steps 5,6 above to convert the 10 min MA and OT wind speeds to a max 1 min sustained MA and OT wind speeds, MAWS1, OTWS1.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  53 3. Assign a Saffir-Simpson (SS) category to the MAWS1, OTWS1 wind speeds for each by-passing hurricane.

4. Count all hurricanes in each SS category for the entire state only (Regions A-F are not required), and divide by the number of years in the simulation to compute the annual occurrence rates of "By-passing" hurricanes as requested in Form M1. Here we are defining a By-passing hurricane as one that passes close enough to Florida to have satisfied our wind speed threshold, but does not make landfall.

! ! a. Fill in Form M1 versions (Called "M1BypOT" and “M1BypMA” ) using SS Categories based on sustained wind speeds in (3) above.

5. For each version of Form M1, provide histograms of historical and simulated hurri- canes for each SS Category for the entire state and each of regions A, B, C, D, E, and F

6. As required by Standard M-4 Audits 1-2, conduct Chi-Square and/or Kolmogorov- Smirnov statistical goodness of fit tests for each version of Form M1.

7. Form M1 By-passing hurricane output file format:

Hurricane name, year, mon, day, hhmm, BPLat, BPLon, MAWS, MAWD, MAWS1, OTWS, OTWD, OTWS1, SS, Region, Zip, ZipWS1 001,100001,08,19,0315,121,54,144,109,43,119,3,C,33149,115

Hurricane name= Name of the bypassing hurricane year,= 6 digit year mon= 2 digit day= 2 digit hhmm= 4 digit UTC hours minutes BPLat= Bypass latitude BPLon = Bypass longitude MAWS, MAWD= max 1 h marine exposure wind speed (mph) and direction (deg) MAWS1= max 1 min sustained wind speed (mph) (Step 5 above) OTWS, OTWD= Open terrain wind speed and direction OTWS1= max 1 min sustained wind speed for open terrain (mph) (Step 6 above) SS= Saffir-Simpson Category based on wind speed Region= as defined in Fig. 3 (E-F). Not used for bypass storms but still of interest for diagnos- tics Zip= Zip Code containing the peak wind speed of all zip codes affected by the hurricane ZipWS1= max 1 min sustained wind speed at the zip code (mph) from WSC

Notes:

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  54 1. A landfalling or Bypassing storm must be a hurricane (MAWS1 wind speed of Cat1 or higher) in order to perform the WSC calculation for the zip codes.

2. For a by-passing hurricane, at time of the zip code receiving it’s peak wind, we are calculating the max wind in the hurricane for MA and OT exposures by using the position in the track file containing the lowest pressure near the time the storm bypassed.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  55 C9. Form M2 Use Case 7 April, 2005

Mark Powell, HRD Sneh Gulati, FIU Emil Simiu, NIST Steve Cocke, FSU

Input: -Tracks of all storms in the Official Hurricane Set -Results of scenario simulation of all storms in the Official Hurricane Set as described in Form M1 Use case: For each zip code, OTWS1 (step 6) -Results of stochastic simulation for each zip code

Note: Here we are interested in a map that will provide a color overview of the peak winds ex- perienced throughout the state, based on modeling the official base set. As such we will make the assumption that the peak sustained wind speed for open terrain is desired. This value is not corrected for terrain but is the closest to the concept of a maximum sustained wind speed for un- obstructed flow that is consistent with the definitions of sustained wind speed and storm intensity used by the Tropical Prediction Center.

M2A. A color contour map is required based on the scenario simulation of the Official Hurri- cane Set OTWS1 values.

1. Plot the highest value of OTWS1 for each zip code, provide a map with seven color contour values as described on p. 80

M2B. A color contour map is required based on the 100 year return period ZipOTWS1 values from the stochastic simulation.

1. For each zip code and each year of the simulation compute the maximum ZipOTWS1 wind experienced. So in N simulation years, there are N wind speed values although many are probably zero or small when no storms occur in a given year.

2. Let N be the number of simulation years. Order the wind speeds events in the N years from highest to lowest X1 ≥ X2 . . . ≥Xn. The exceedance probability of the wind speed Xk is k/N. Find the maximum value of k, k*, such that k*/N ≤ 0.01. Then , Xk*is the ZipOTWS1 wind speed with an annual probability of exceedance of 0.01. e.g. In a 10,000 year simulation in zip code 33133, the wind speed 150 mph has rank 10 and wind speed 85 mph has rank 100. OTWS1 of 150 mph has an annual probability of exceedance of 0.001 (10/10,000) for a return period of 1000 years. OTWS1 of 85 mph has an annual probability of exceedance of 0.01 (100/10,000) for a return period of 100 years. In this case the value 85 mph would be plotted for the zip code.

3. Repeat (2) for all remaining zip codes and color contour as in M2A (1) above.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  56 C10. Form M3 Use Case

3 Jan. 2005 Mark Powell HRD Sneh Gulati FIU

Summary: The landfall Rmax value is computed from Po information contained in Form M3. Landfall Rmax depends on Delta P (positive term), Delta P squared (negative term), the latitude of the storm (positive term), and a random term for the natural log of Rmax, which we have es- timated by sampling from a normal distribution with a mean of zero and a standard deviation of 0.31. The random value was determined through trial and error in fitting the observed values of landfall Rmax at landfall for historical hurricanes affecting Florida and adjacent states 1900- 2003 using data from Ho et al., and analysis of later storm information by NOAA-HRD and Mark DeMaria. For more information see Powell and Gulati (2004).

Form M3: Form M3 was prepared by computing the Rmax in statute miles (sm) and setting the upper and lower values for the random term to be +/- 3 standard deviations above and below the zero mean population with standard deviation of 0.31. If the computed values were beyond the specified upper or lower censors, the table was filled in with the censored values. Latitude was assumed to be 25 degrees north.

Interpretation: Since the largest value in the landfall Rmax dataset for Florida and vicinity is ~ 50 sm (Hurri- canes in 1903, 1906) and the lower end limit of landfall Rmax is 4.6 sm (Charley 2004), we want to make sure we do not go far from what is physically realistic. Therefore we censor the upper and lower limits of the landfall Rmax calculation to be consistent with the historical record: the censored bounds of the calculation are set at 4.6 sm and 63 sm. The upper bound is about 3.6 standard deviation above the mean Rmax (based on Rmax in nm) and 2.2 standard deviations above the mean of the landfall Rmax data (based on Ln Rmax) for the threat area while the lower bound is about 3.5 standard deviations below the mean (for Ln Rmax).

For a given latitude, as Delta P increases in association with landfall Po decreases from 990 mb to 960 mb, there is a tendency for Rmax values to increase (from a mean of 17 sm to 19 sm at 25 degrees N latitude). This is because for weak Delta P, the positive delta P term is greater than the negative Delta P squared term. For landfall pressures decreasing below 960, the delta P squared term is large enough to dominate and the mean Rmax value decreases to 9.9 sm at a Po value of 900 mb.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  57 Please keep in mind that we are modeling landfall Rmax for hurricanes at or very near landfall in order to compute the wind field affecting zip codes. Hence this relationship is not intended to model any physical interactions that have been observed in hurricanes such as eyewall replace- ment cycles that show a relationship of decreasing Rmax as Po decreases, followed by a secon- dary outer Rmax that eventually take over as the new Rmax at a much larger distance from the center, concomitant with an increase in Po (Willoughby et al., 1982).

Reference: Rmax use case by Powell and Gulati (9-29-2005, revised through 2-8-2005) M3a. Fill out table with the range associated with each Central Pressure (Pmin)

Form M3 Pmin Range Min Max (mb) (sm) (sm) (sm) 900 41.97 4.6 46.6 910 53.63 4.9 58.5 920 57.07 5.9 63.0 930 56.09 6.9 63.0 940 55.25 7.7 63.0 950 54.64 8.4 63.0 955 54.43 8.6 63.0 960 54.31 8.7 63.0 965 54.27 8.7 63.0 970 54.31 8.7 63.0 975 54.43 8.6 63.0 980 54.63 8.4 63.0 985 54.90 8.1 63.0 990 55.24 7.8 63.0 900 52.21 4.8 57.0 910 57.00 6.0 63.0 920 55.74 7.3 63.0 930 54.55 8.5 63.0 940 53.52 9.5 63.0 950 52.77 10.2 63.0 955 52.52 10.5 63.0 960 52.37 10.6 63.0 965 52.31 10.7 63.0 970 52.36 10.6 63.0 975 52.51 10.5 63.0 980 52.75 10.2 63.0 985 53.09 9.9 63.0 990 53.50 9.5 63.0

M3b. Other variables that influence Rmax.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  58 In addition to central sea level pressure difference and it’s square, Rmax is influenced by latitude with a tendency towards larger values of Rmax at higher latitudes.

M3c. Scatter plot of Rmax vs. Pmin Input: Storm tracks from the simulation (input file for the wind field model)

Implementation:

From the input storm tracks, identify all positions identified with landfall codes. Select the Pmin and Rmax values associated with the landfall (code = 1) position in each storm.

Multiply the Rmax by 0.621 to convert from km to sm.

Construct a scatter plot of Rmax (y axis) vs. Central pressure (x axis). The x axis range should be 870 to 1020 mb. The Y axis range should be 0 to 75 statute miles. A representative scatter plot should be possible by using a sample of all landfalls from 5000 years of the simulation.

Revision: 1-3-2005 Revised based on using 1013 mb as the peripheral pressure for computing Delta P. This is consistent with the wind field model and decay model.

1-3-2005 The conversion of Rmax from km to sm is now included in M3c.

1-4-2005 Revised interpretation discussion to include non linear affect of DeltaP squared term.

References:

Demaria, M., J. Pennington, and K. Williams, 2002: Description of the Extended Best track file (EBTRK1.4) version 1.4. Available from NESDIS/CIRA/Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Team, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. Ho, F. P., J. C. Su, K. L. Hanevich, R. J. Smith, and F. P. Richards, 1987: Hurricane climatology for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. NOAA Tech Memo NWS 38, NWS Silver Spring, MD. Powell, M. D., and Gulati, S., 2004: Rmax Use Case. Florida Hurricane Loss Model Documen- tation, 15, December 2004. Powell, M., G. Soukup, S. Cocke, S Gulati , N. Morisseau-Leroy, Shahid Hamid, N. Dorst and L. Axe, 2005: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model: Atmospheric Science Compo- nent, Submitted to Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  59 Willoughby, H. E., and M. D. Shoreibah, 1982: Concentric eyewalls, secondary wind maxima, and the evolution of the hurricane vortex. J. Atmos. Sci., 39, 395-411.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  60 C11. Form V1 Wind Speed Correction Use Case 3-24 2005 Mark Powell, NOAA-HRD

1. Summary: In form V1 we are provided with the maximum 1 min sustained wind speed at each zip code. No terrain is specified so we assume that the winds are open terrain. We need to convert the winds back to long period average wind speeds appropriate for the gust factor computation needed to estimate the maximum sustained surface wind speed for actual terrain at the zip code (ZipATWS1) and the corresponding maximum 3 sec gust wind speed at the zip code (ZipATWS3).

2. References:

Vickery, P. J. and P. F. Skerlj, 2005: Hurricane gust factors revisited. In press, Journal of Struc- tural Engineering.

Powell, M. D., 3-24., 2005: JMP file Vickery_ESDU_10min_60sec.jmp

Powell, M. D., 15 Feb., 2005: Form V2 Wind Speed Correction Use Case

3. Documentation

A mean open terrain gust factor for the max 1 min wind over a 10 min time period G10min,1min for the the range of expected hurricane wind speeds is estimated as 1.142 based on calcula- tions of the gust factor for open terrain as a function of wind speed. The wind is corrected to a 10 min average (ZipOTWS) and then submitted to the WSC module to compute the Zi- pATWS1 and ZipATWS3.

Input: Zip Code ZipOTWS1 = Form V1 input sustained wind speed (mph) for each Zip Code G1h,1min = 1.142

Method:

1. Compute 10 min mean wind for open terrain: ZipOTWS = 10 min mean wind speed at the zip code = ZipOTWS1 / 1.142

2. Compute mean roughness at the zip code

3. Use ZipOTWS and mean roughness in the WSC module to compute ZipATWS1 and Zi- pATWS3

4. Use ZipATWS3 as input to the damage module

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  61 4. Sample calculation:

Input: Zip code 33133 ZipOTWS1 = 74 mph

Output: ZipOTWS = 64.79 mph

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  62 C12. FORM V2 Wind speed correction use case

24 March, 2005 Mark Powell, NOAA-HRD

1. Summary:

The engineering model assumes that the input wind speed is a 3s gust for the actual terrain at the zip code. We need to use the actual terrain at the zip code to go back to an open terrain 1 h mean wind speed and then compute the max 1 min sustained wind speed for open terrain.

2. References:

Powell, M. D., : G1h_1min_open_use_case, 28 Oct. 2004 Powell, M. D., and L. M Axe: Use Case for Wind Speed Correction (WSC) from Open to Actual (LULC-based) Terrain, 21 January, 2005 Vickery, P. J. and P. F. Skerlj, 2005: Hurricane gust factors revisited. In press, Journal of Struc- tural Engineering.

3. Input:

ZipATWS3 = Max 3s gust wind speed at the zip code (mph) Zoa = Mean roughness for the zip code (m) (The mean roughness for the zip code is computed from the eight octant values contained for that zip code in the zip code roughness table)

4. Method:

1. For the given ATWS3 wind speed, the actual terrain mean gust factor relative to the 10 min mean wind for the actual terrain is:

G10min,3 = 1.4726254 – 0.000221 ZipATWS3 + 0.5805463 Zoa

This gust factor model was developed for a range of roughness values from open to 0.5 m, and a range of 10 min mean wind speeds from 56 to 122 mph (actual terrain), using the methods de- scribed in the Gust Factor Use Case. This corresponds to a wide range of possible gust speeds from 85-over 220 mph but will also produce reasonable results for lower wind speed values.

2. Compute the friction velocity (m/s) for the actual terrain wind speed

U*a = 0.4 * ( ZipATWS3 / 2.24 * G10min,3 ) / Ln (10 / Zoa)

3. Compute friction velocity (m/s) for open terrain

U*o = U*a ( 0.03 / Zoa )0.0706

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  63 4. Compute ZipOTWS1 (mph) assuming a gust factor for the ration of the open terrain 1 min sustained wind to the open terrain 10 min mean wind of 1.142

ZipOTWS1 = ( U*o / 0.4 ) Ln (10 / 0.03) * 1.142 *2.24

5. Test Calculation

Input: ZipATWS3 = 127.8 mph Zoa = 0.3 m

1. G1h,3 = 1.618

2. U*a = 4.021 m/s

3. U*o = 3.417 m/s

4. ZipOTWS1 = 126.97 mph

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  64 C13. Form A1 Use Case Mark Powell, HRD

7 January 2005

Summary: Form A1 requires computation of losses for thirty hypothetical events. The events consist of one storm for each of five Saffir –Simpson Categories hitting six different landfall lo- cations. Tracks of all storms are specified according to information in the input file FormA1Input04.xls.

Input: FormA1Input04.xls Thirty input track files

Run: Run the wind field model for each of the 30 hypothetical hurricane storm tracks.

Output:

The maximum wind speed anywhere in the storm for open terrain exposure (OTWS1) is the re- quired output for field 10. This should be entered for each of the 30 storms.

For each storm the wind field model output file contains the mean OT wind Speed and direction. These data are then sent to the wind speed correction (WSC) algorithm and the wind speeds are corrected to the maximum 1 min wind speed for the actual terrain (V1mph) and the peak 3 s gust (V3) for the actual terrain. These zip code wind speeds are then used in scenario mode to com- pute the losses for each storm as requested in fields 11-15 in Form A1.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  65 C14. Form A4 Use Case

Mark Powell, HRD

7 January 2005

Summary: Form A4 requires computation of the contribution to average annual zero deductible loss cost of each hurricane in the official base set of hurricanes that have affected Florida be- tween 1900 and 2003.

Input:

Input track files for each storm in the official base set.

Run: Run the wind field model for each of the base set hurricane storm tracks.

Output:

For each storm the wind field model output file contains the mean OT wind Speed and direction. These data are then sent to the wind speed correction (WSC) algorithm and the wind speeds are corrected to the maximum 1 min wind speed for the actual terrain (ZipATWS1) and the peak 3 s gust (ZipATWS3) for the actual terrain. These zip code wind speeds are then used in scenario mode to compute the zero deductible loss cost for each storm as defined by Dr. Hamid.

The contribution of each storm to the zero deductible statewide loss cost is then computed as de- scribed by Dr. Hamid.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  66 C15. Technical Description of the Storm Track Model

Steve Cocke, Florida State University

8-May-2005

The storm track model consists of two main components: the empirical probability distribution generator (GENPDF), and the storm track generator (STORMGEN). A description of these com- ponents are given below.

A. GENPDF

1. Description

This component derives the probability distribution functions (PDFs) from the historical record (HURDAT) that are subsequently used by the STORMGEN track generator. The PDFs are condi- tional probabilities, as they depend on location, time of season and other parameters. The PDFs are empirical in that they are obtained by discrete binning. The following PDFs are derived:

Initial storm speed

Initial storm direction

Initial storm intensity (pressure)

Change in storm speed

Change in storm angle

Change in storm intensity (pressure and relative intensity)

The bin size and location of these PDFs are defined in a header file“genpdf.h” which is used by both GENPDF and STORMGEN. The bins may be linearly on nonlinearly spaced. A mapping function is available which allows nonlinear mapping so that higher resolution (of a particular parameter) may be obtained.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  67 Storm genesis is defined to occur when a storm first enters or appears within the threat area and has a minimum wind speed of 64 kt. The threat area is described in Section 2.

The HURDAT database contains a variety of storm report types:

“E” - extratropical

“L” - low

“D” - depression

“S” - subtropical

“W” - wave tropical – pressure reports tropical – wind reports

All non-tropical storm reports (“E”,”L”,”D”,”W”,”S”) are excluded in the intensity PDFs. Pres- sure reports are used whenever available. If a pressure report is not available, then an attempt is made to interpolate from reports that are within a 24 hour period including the target report. Oth- erwise, pressure is obtained using an empirical wind-pressure relation (see below). Intensity changes are only computed for similar report types – observed pressure or wind-derived pres- sures. Mixing observed and wind-derived pressures was found to create spurious pressure changes. Pressures over land were excluded.

Due to sparsity of data in some regions or parameter , the PDFs may be coarsened (bins widened) so that a sufficient number of observations are available to create a robust PDF. This is done in the RESIZE function in GENPDF.

Pressure changes are converted to relative intensity changes. The relative intensity calculation is described in Appendix B. PDFs for pressure and relative intensity are created, though only one is used in STORMGEN. By default, the relative intensity PDF is used by STORMGEN.

2. Input Data

GENPDF requires the following input files:

The HURDAT database

A control file which contains the dates of the historical record to use

Land Mask file – the land mask is based on USGS land use data.

Outflow temperature for the relative intensity calculation (see Appendix B)

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  68 Sea surface temperatures for the relative intensity calculation (see Appendix B)

3. Output Data

Initial storm location, motion and and intensity of all selected storms

Initial storm location, motion and intensity PDFs

Storm motion and intensity change PDFs

Diagnostic output file

B. STORMGEN

1. Description

STORMGEN generates the stochastic tracks based on the PDFs derived by GENPDF. The initial conditions may either be sampled from the initial storm location, motion and intensity PDFs or taken from observed initial conditions. Both these input data are created by GENPDF.

The model uses a 1 hour time step, which requires interpolation of the 6 hour report changes used in the storm motion change and intensity PDFs. Currently, storm motion is persisted during 6 hour intervals, and the pressure is linearly interpolated.

The basic flow of the model is as follows:

If using specified initial conditions, read in initial storm location, date, motion and intensity. If using random initial conditions, read in storm genesis time (see Use Case for Hurricane Genesis, Appendix C2) and sample initial storm location, motion and intensity PDFs. Add a uniform ran- dom term equal to the width of the location PDF bin size, so that the storm may form anywhere within the bin.

Sample storm parameters Rmax and Beta (see Rmax Use Case and Use Case for Holland Beta Term, Appendices C4 and C5)

Update storm position using current motion

If at 6 hour interval, sample new motion and intensity change. Pressure tendency is interpolated to one hour tendency.

Determine if landfall or currently over land. If yes, decay the storm using the decay model de- scribed Section 5. Otherwise, update pressure.

Check if maximum relative intensity is exceeded, cap if necessary. If pressure is greater than 1011 mb, dissipate storm.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  69 Calculate new Rmax, Beta.

If storm outside threat area, terminate. Otherwise goto step 3.

After storm track is generated, it is trimmed based on the distance criteria described in the Use Case for Zip Code Criterion (Appendix C3).

2. Input Data

Initial storm location, motion and intensity (if using specified initial conditions)

Initial storm location, motion and intensity PDFs from GENPDF

Storm motion and intensity change PDFs from GENPDF

Hurricane genesis time (output from Use Case for Hurricane Genesis, Appendix C2)

Zip code locations (used for distance criteria described in Use Case for Zip Code Criterion, Ap- pendix C3)

Land Mask file

Outflow temperature file (see Appendix B)

Sea surface temperature file (see Appendix B)

3. Output Data

Track positions of stochastic storms in original HURDAT format (Note: small changes are needed as the original format is not capable of handling large number of storms)

Track positions in special format for use in wind model.

Landfall data for diagnostic purposes

Diagnostic output file

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  70 C16. Wind-Pressure Relation

Mark Powell, HRD and Steve Cocke, FSU

Reference

Landsea, C. W., C. Anderson, N. Charles, G. Clark, J. Dunion, J. Fernandez-Partagas, P. Hunger- ford, C. Neumann, and M. Zimmer, 2004: The database re-analysis project: Documentation for the 1851-1910 alterations and additions to the HURDAT database. _Hurri- canes and : Past, Present and Future_, R. J. Murname and K.-B. Liu, Eds., Columbia University Press, 177-221.

Many of the six hour resolution HURDAT database entries contain missing sea level central sur- face pressures, but estimates of maximum wind speed are available. An empirical wind-pressure relation is used to convert HURDAT wind reports to pressure. The relation is dependent on re- gion. The relation is:

If longitude is > 81.5W and latitude > 20N,

Else if latitude < 25 N,

Else if latitude < 35N,

Else,

where P is central pressure in mb and W is wind speed in kt.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  71 C17. Relative Intensity Calculation

Mark Powell (HRD) and Steve Cocke (FSU)

References

Darling, R. W. R. 1991: Estmating probabilities of hurricane wind speeds using a large-scale em- pirical model. Journal of Climate, 4, 1035-1046.

DeMaria M., and J. Kaplan, 1994: Sea surface temperature and the maximum intensity of Atlan- tic tropical cyclones. Journal of Climate, 9, 1324-1334.

Emanuel, K. A. 1988: The maximum intensity of hurricanes. Journal of the Atmospheric Sci- ences, 76, 370-379.

Reynolds, R.W., N.A. Rayner, T.M. Smith, D.C. Stokes, and W. Wang, 2002: An Improved and SST Analysis for Climate. J. Climate, 15, 1609-1625.

1. Input Data

This calculation requires as input the mean sea level pressure (Pmsl), which in our case is the storm central pressure, the outflow (to) and sea surface temperatures (ts). The outflow tempera- ture is taken to be the monthly mean 100 millibar temperature derived by the Climate Diagnos- tics Center (CDC) using National Center for Environmental Prediction Center (NCEP) Reanaly- sis II data. This data is available online at http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/ncep_reanalysis. The sea sur- face temperature data is monthly mean Reynolds Optimal Interpolation Version 2 (OIv2) data (Reynolds et al., 2002).

The relative intensity calculation is based on Darling (1991). The calculation is as follows:

2. Definitions:

Ts= Sea Surface Temperature in degrees Kelvin (K) This will come from a file but initially set = (29.0 +273.16) in degrees K

To = Outflow temperature (K) This will be computed as f(Ts) but initially set to (273.16 - 60) in degrees K

RH = Relative humidity = .80 Pda = partial pressure of dry air in hectopascals Lv = of vaporization (Joules /kg) Rv = gas constant of water vapor = 461 (Joules / kg-K) ε = Cyclone heat engine efficiency

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  72 Pdc = Minimum potential dry air pressure in hectopascals P= Minimum sea level Pressure of tropical cyclone in hectopascals RI = Relative Intensity

3. Calculations

1. Read in Ts from file

2. Compute To given Ts

3. Efficiency

! ε = (Ts -To) / Ts

4. Saturation vapor pressure

!Ts ! 273" es # 6.112 exp 17.67 ! ! !Ts ! 29.5" "

5. Pda = 1013 - (RH * es)

6. Lv = 2.5 x 106 - 2320 (Ts -273)

!L e A # v s 7. ! ! !1 " !"Rv Ts Pda !

e ln(RH) B = RH 1 + s 8.   ( Pda A )

9. Then solve for x in

10. finally the relative intensity is given by

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  73 References

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2. Russell, L. R., 1971: Probability distributions for hurricane effects. Journal of Waterways, Harbors, and Coastal Engineering Division, ASCE, 97, 139-154.

3. Batts, M. E., M. R. Cordes, L. R. Russell, and E. Simiu, 1980: Hurricane wind speeds in the United States, National Bureau of Standards, Report No. BSS-124, U. S. Dept. of Commerce.

4. Landsea , C. W., R. A. Pielke, Jr, A. M. Mestas-Nunez, and J. A. Knaff, 1999: Atlantic basin hurricanes: Indices of climatic changes, Climatic Change, 42 , 89-129.

5. Jarvinen, B. R., C. J. Neumann, and M. A. S. Davis, 1984: A tropical cyclone data tape for the North Atlantic basin, 1886-1963: Contents, Limitations, and Uses. NOAA Tech. Memo NWS NHC 22, National Hurricane Center, 22 pp

6. Darling, R. W. R., 1991: Estimating probabilities of hurricane wind speeds using a large scale empirical model, Journal of Climate, 4, 1035-1046.

7. Rotunno, R. and K. A.. Emanuel, 1987: An air-sea interaction theory for tropical cyclones, Part II. Part I, J. Atmos. Sci., 42 , 1062-1071.

8. Willoughby, H. E., and M. D. Shoreibah, 1982: Concentric eyewalls, secondary wind maxima, and the evolution of the hurricane vortex. J. Atmos. Sci., 39, 395-411.

9. Powell, M. D., and S. H. Houston, 1996: Hurricane Andrew's Landfall in South Florida. Part II: Surface Wind Fields and Potential Real-time Applications. Weather. Forecast., 11, 329-349.

10. Shay, L. K., G. J. Goni, and P. G. Black, 2000: Effects of a warm oceanic feature on Hurri- cane Opal. Mon. Wea. Rev., 125(5) ,1366-1383.

11. Miller, B. I., 1964: A study on the filling of Hurricane Donna (1960) over land. Mon. Wea. Rev., 92, 389-406

12. Powell, M. D., 1982: The transition of the Hurricane Frederic boundary layer wind field from the open Gulf of Mexico to landfall. Mon. Wea. Rev., 110, 1912-1932.

13. Vickery, P. J., and L. A. Twisdale, 1995: Wind field and filling models for hurricane wind speed predictions, Journal of Structural Engineering, 121, 1700-1709.

Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  74 14. Ho, F. P., J. C. Su, K. L. Hanevich, R. J. Smith, and F. P. Richards, 1987: Hurricane clima- tology for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. NOAA Tech Memo NWS 38, NWS Silver Spring, MD.

15. Tuleya, R. E., M. A. Bender, and Y. Kurihara, 1984: A simulation study of the landfall of tropical cyclones using a movable nested-mesh model. Mon. Wea. Rev., 112 , 124-136.

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Atmospheric Science Component: State of Florida Hurricane Loss Projection Model  76 Landsat Thematic Mapper Data and Ancillary Data Sources, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 67:650-652.

39. Vickery, P. J. and P. F. Skerlj, 2004: Hurricane gust factors revisited. In review, Journal of Structural Engineering.

40. Powell, M. D., S. H. Houston, and Ares, I. 1995: Real-time Damage Assessment in Hurri- canes. 21st AMS Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, Miami, FL; April 24-28, 1995; Paper 12A.4 pp.500-502.

41. Commission 2004: Report of Activities as of November 1, 2004. Florida Commission on H u r r i c a n e L o s s P r o j e c t i o n M e t h o d o l o g y , A v a i l a b l e f r o m www.fsba.state.fl.us/methodology/meetings.asp

42. Powell, M. D., S. H. Houston, L. R. Amat, and N Morisseau-Leroy, 1998: The HRD real- time hurricane wind analysis system. J.Wind Engineer. and Indust. Aerodyn. 77&78, 53-64.

43 Powell, M. D., and S. H. Houston, 1998: Surface wind fields of 1995 Hurricanes Erin, Opal, Luis, Marilyn, and Roxanne at landfall. Mon Wea. Rev., 126, 1259-1273.

44 Taylor, B. N., and C. Kuyatt, 1994: Guidelines for evaluating and expressing the uncertainty of NIST measurement results. NIST Tech. Note 1297. Available online at: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Uncertainty/

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