IvyMike: SLOSH model of Hurricane Betsy (1965)

Sunday, August 28, 2005

SLOSH model of Hurricane Betsy (1965)

As I'm writing this, Hurricane Katrina is bearing down on New Orleans and will hit by dawn. The National Hurricane Center has a computerized model of storm surge heights called SLOSH, "Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes". I was mesmerized by the animated SLOSH output for Hurricane Betsy, which hit New Orleans in 1965. Betsy was was not nearly as strong as Katrina. This looks bad.

Tags: hurricane, katrina, betsy, nhc, simulation

1 Comments:

At 8:27 AM, May 03, 2006, Anonymous said...: I would take some exception to the statement that Hurricane Betsy was not as strong as Hurricane Karrina; but then again I wasn't in N.O. when "Katrina" hit, but I was there for "Betsy."

The "SS" hurricane scale was not yet developed when "Betsy" hit, and despite some reports that "Betsy" was only 105-MPH, it was 160-MPH where I was.