An analysis of Hurricane Harvey (2017) was presented at the 1st Workshop on Waves, Storm Surges and Coastal Hazards held in Liverpool, UK. Harvey made landfall near San Jose Island on the Texas coast as a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale with one-minute winds of 115-120 knots. The storm devastated the coastal towns of Rockport and Fulton TX and dumped over 50 inches of rain in the Houston area. In order to critically assess wind, wave and surge damage both offshore and on the coast, a detailed analysis of the wind and pressure fields in Harvey were required for application in ocean response models.

Hurricane Harvey track (left) and example fitting of pressure profile using Oceanweather's Tropical Analyst Workstation (TAWS) software (right).

The analysis approach includes application of the Tropical Analyst WorkStation (TAWS) which applied the double-exponential pressure profile fit available in the Oceanweather tropical model. The approach is analyst-interactive both in the application of TAWS and in later incorporation of the model results within the basin-scale winds/pressures using the Interactive Objective Analysis (IOKA) system.

A copy of the full presentation is available in our Recent Publications section. Results of the study are licensable as wind/pressure inputs for response modeling or as a comprehensive metocean archive within the GOMOS hindcast.

More information on the Workshop can be found on www.waveworkshop.org website which provides papers and presentations from the series of meetings from 1986 to present. Oceanweather has been an active part of the workshop since its inception and is pleased to host the archive for the metocean community.