NOAA’s latest geostationary satellites, called the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) -R Series, consists of three geostationary satellites currently in orbit-GOES- 16, -17, and -18-keeping a constant eye over the Western Hemisphere. Rather than identifying the New Jersey landfall location within 30 miles five-days before landfall, the models would have shown Sandy remaining at sea. Data from polar-orbiting satellites consist of accurate, high-resolution atmospheric temperature and water vapor information, which are critical inputs to forecast models that help predict the intensity and location of severe weather, including tropical systems, several days in advance.Īccording to one scientific study, the NOAA forecasts of Hurricane Sandy’s track could have been hundreds of miles off without information from polar-orbiting satellites. More than 90% of the data flowing into weather prediction models comes from polar-orbiting satellites.
Sandy hurricane track series#
NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite Series (JPSS) satellites are the backbone of weather forecasting. “Decades after Hurricane Andrew, the latest generation of weather satellites has helped improve our predictions of tropical systems and boosted our confidence in storm track forecasts.” “Weather satellites are a vital tool for monitoring hurricanes at all stages of development and intensity–from identifying storms and monitoring their structure to making forecasts and alerting the public,” said Jordan Gerth, Ph.D., weather observations scientist with the National Weather Service. Thirty years later, NOAA’s latest generation of geostationary satellites has revolutionized the way scientists and forecasters monitor and track tropical systems. By the time it finally dissipated, Andrew was responsible for 23 direct deaths in the United States.īelow is some imagery from Hurricane Andrew as seen from NOAA satellites in 1992: The damage to Louisiana was estimated at around $1 billion. In Homestead, Florida-the hardest hit community-more than 99% of the mobile homes were completely destroyed.Īfter leaving Florida, Andrew moved into the Gulf of Mexico and made a second landfall near Point Chevreuil, Louisiana, on August 26, 1992, as a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 115 mph and a central pressure of 956 millibars. It caused an estimated $26 billion in damage in the United States making it at the time the most expensive natural disaster in United States history, not to be surpassed until Hurricane Katrina 13 years later.
It struck South Miami-Dade County (then known as Dade County) during the pre-dawn hours on Monday, August 24, 1992. It’s one of only four hurricanes to make landfall in the United States as a Category 5 since 1900 (the others being the 1935 Florida Keys Labor Day storm, Hurricane Camille in 1969, and Hurricane Michael in 2018). When it made landfall, Andrew was a Category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph and a minimum central pressure of 922 millibars. Hurricane Andrew was the strongest and most devastating hurricane on record to hit southern Florida.
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