issues of science and politics. Because of their significant and visceral impacts, discussion of extreme events is a frequent locus of such conflation. Linda Mearns, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), aptly characterizes this context: “There’s a push on climatologists to say something about extremes, because they are so important. But that can be very dangerous if we really...

347 MARCH 2008 AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY | T ropical cyclones account for the majority of natural catastrophic losses in the developed world and, next to floods, are the leading cause of death and injury among natural disasters affecting developing countries (UNDP/BCPR 2004). It is thus of some interest to understand how their behavior is affected by climate change, whether natural or ant...

Frequent hurricane landfalls along the northern Gulf of Mexico, in addition to causing immediate damage to vegetation, also have long term effects on coastal ecosystem structure and function. This study investigated the utility of using time series enhanced vegetation index (EVI) imagery composited in MODIS product MOD13Q1 for assessing hurricane damage to vegetation and its recovery. Vegetatio...

This study presents a novel approach to estimating the intensity of hurricanes using temperature profiles from Global Positioning System radio occultation (GPSRO) measurements. Previous research has shown that the temperature difference between the ocean surface and the eyewall outflow region defines hurricanes’ thermodynamic efficiency, which is directly proportional to the storm’s intensity. ...

Tropical cyclone intensity change remains a forecasting challenge with important implications for such vulnerable areas as the U.S. coast along the Gulf of Mexico. Analysis of 1979–2008 Gulf tropical cyclones during their final two days before U.S. landfall identifies patterns of behavior that are of interest to operational forecasters and researchers. Tropical storms and depressions strengthen...

In this study, we demonstrate how perturbations to the Florida Current caused by hurricanes are relevant to the spread of invasive lionfish from Florida to the Bahamas. Without such perturbations, this current represents a potential barrier to the transport of planktonic lionfish eggs and larvae across the Straits of Florida. We further show that once lionfish became established in the Bahamas,...