Using GIS Tools to Compare Hurricane Matthew and Irma Impacts to Florida Matt Adams and Dr. Chris Herbster Meteorology, Applied Aviation Sciences Hurricane Matthew Hurricane Irma Florida is prone to experiencing the impacts of hurricanes that have formed in the Atlantic Basin. This project provides a detailed analysis of the impacts of To the right, the progression of To the left, the progression of hurricanes Irma and Matthew with heavy reliance on Geographic Information the forecasted storm surge the forecasted storm surge Systems (GIS) software such as QGIS and the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV). inundation can be seen, with inundation can be seen, with Through data archives from the National Hurricane Center (NHC), and National white being 5 feet or more and white being 5 feet or more and Data Buoy Center (NDBC), and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the dark gray being 1 foot. dark gray being 1 foot. sea surface temperature (SST), storm surge, and buoy data were analyzed.

In 2016, Hurricane Matthew formed on Flooding due to storm surge in the th USGS gage height for locations in St. Augustine historical district on September 28 in map below. Oval indicates original October 7, 2016 pictured to the the Caribbean and storm surge, additional rise is due to right. rapidly intensified to inland precipitation. category 5 strength. The storm narrowly missed the east coast of the Florida Peninsula as a category 4 hurricane on October 7th. Prior to Irma’s arrival in the Tampa Bay area, northerly winds pushed water out of the northern During the 2017 season, Irma part of the bay. This phenomena was also experienced in parts of the Bahamas as the storm formed on August 30th in the mid- approached the Florida Keys Atlantic. As the storm approached Storm surge seen in USGS gages near the East the Eastern Caribbean, it achieved th Coast while a suppressed high tide was category 5 strength by September 5 experienced in the North Tampa Bay area due to and became the second longest strong northerly flow. storm to retain winds above 156 mph. On the morning of September 10th, Irma made landfall at Cudjoe Key, FL and continued along a northward track through the state. USGS gage in north Tampa Bay The image on the left was captured shown above. Notice the 6 foot drop at about 8 AM on September 8, in water level prior to storm surge. 2017. Northerly flow (right) depicted at the same time as the picture above. Resources: Buoy in the Caribbean Sea that the storm passed nearly directly over National Hurricane Center, 2018: NHC Data in GIS Formats. https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gis/ USGS, 2018: USGS Surface-Water Historical Instantaneous Data for the Nation. A similar effect was showing a near textbook relationship between central pressure, wind https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv/?referred_module=sw seen at Long Island, speed and near calm eye conditions. National Centers for Environmental Protection, 2018: NOAA Operational Model Archive and Distribution Bahamas (left). Center. http://nomads.ncep.noaa.gov National Data Buoy Center, 2018. http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov • a-b: Cold water wake References: • a-b: SST cooling in circled between Cuba and Unidata, (2018): Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) version 5.4 [software]. Boulder, CO: UCAR/Unidata. area (orange) as storm the Bahamas (https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/) passes (orange) as the NASA, 2017. Geocolor Image of Hurricane Irma. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/ • c-d: significant cooling, storm passes geocolor-image-of-hurricane-irma likely upwelling, on the • c-d: SST cooling on NASA, 2016. Hurricane Matthew. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/ south shore of Cuba (red) matthew-atlantic-ocean the south shore of @deejayeasya, 2017. http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/ due to strong offshore Cuba (red) article172426122.html flow • c-d: further surface NBC Miami, 2016: Hurricane Matthew Floods Homeless Housing in Historic St. Augustine. • c-d: cooling between cooling in the https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Hurricane-Matthew-Floods-Homeless-Housing-in-Historic-St- Cuba and the Bahamas Bahamas (magenta) Augustine-398739921.html (magenta) QGIS Development Team (2018). QGIS Geographic Information System. Open Source Geospatial Foundation Project. http://qgis.osgeo.org