Recent Rebounding of the Post-Landfall Hurricane Wind Decay Period Over the Continental United States
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL092072
Abstract
The hurricane post-landfall wind speed decay is closely linked to the inland damage potential. We introduce the wind decay period as a new metric for assessing the time required for a landfalling hurricane to dissipate to the intensity below tropical storm strength. In the continental United States, the wind decay period was generally decreasing during 1900–1979 but significantly increased during 1980–2019. The 120-year trend pattern of the wind decay period has been found to be correlated with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. Meanwhile, we show that the storm's distance of movement is not changing simultaneously with the decay period due to the variance of storm translation speed. The spatial variation of the wind decay is also confirmed. While the majority of the historical Gulf landfall hurricanes decayed below tropical storm strength, landfalling hurricanes over Florida in particular, tend to cross the peninsula retaining wind speeds greater than 34-kt.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Geophysical Research Letters, v. 48, issue 6, art. e2020GL092072
Scholar Commons Citation
Zhu, Yi-Jie and Collins, Jennifer, "Recent Rebounding of the Post-Landfall Hurricane Wind Decay Period Over the Continental United States" (2021). School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications. 2346.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub/2346
