Example: Hindcast Hurricane Betsy
Hurricane Betsy struck the Louisiana coast in September 1965, making landfall near New Orleans. A large amount of data was collected during the storm, making this case very useful for testing the accuracy of the model. The movie below shows Betsy as she approaches and passes New Orleans.
The arrows indicate wind vectors, the colors indicate water levels with shades of blue showing a lowering of water surface elevation, and shades of red showing a rise.
Additional information is shown below. Click on the images for larger views.
Figure 1. Computational domain with bathymetry (m). |
Figure 2. Unstructured grid of the entire domain. |
Figure 3. Detail of bathymetry and topography across Southern Louisiana (m). |
Figure 4. Detail of the unstructured grid in Southern Louisiana. |
Figure 5. Detail of bathymetry and topography across eastern Southern Louisiana (m). |
Figure 6. Detail of the unstructured grid in eastern Southern Louisiana. |
a. At 0000UTC. |
b. At 0200UTC. |
c. At 0400UTC (at landfall). |
d. At 0600UTC. |
e. At 0800UTC. |
f. At 1000UTC. |
| Figure 7. Water surface elevation with respect to the geoid (m) with marine wind velocity vectors (m/s) during Hurricane Betsy on September 10, 1965. |
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Figure 8. Peak storm surge elevation with respect to the geoid during the Hurricane Betsy event (m). |
Figure 9. Hydrographs comparing recorded and modeled storm surge with respect to the geoid for Hurricane Betsy at locations along the Mississippi river (m). |
