Tracking Florence

DAES Associate Professor Kristen Corbosiero points to satellite infrared image of Hurricane Florence. (Photo courtesy of Will Waldron/Times Union)

ALBANY, N.Y. (Sept. 18, 2018) – As Hurricane Florence inched its way toward the coasts of North and South Carolina, the expertise in UAlbany’s Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences (DAES) was on full display.

Faculty and students in the department joined together for a live stream map discussion last Wednesday afternoon to track the monster storm’s path, less than 24 hours before it made landfall. The discussion drew a standing room only crowd; another 185 people watched online.

Brian Nearing of the Albany Times Union was among those looking on.

“The map room in UAlbany's atmospheric sciences department was lit up Wednesday as if on the eve of a major battle, but in this case, the invading force was a massive hurricane heading for America's southeastern shore,” Nearing wrote, in a story published on the front cover of the next morning’s paper.

Hurricane Expertise

The discussion’s big draw was not a surprise – given that UAlbany is home to the largest concentration of atmospheric, climate and environmental scientists in New York State, and one of the largest in the nation, with close to 120 faculty, researchers and staff.

Nick Bassill of NYS Mesonet discusses Hurricane Florence with News10 ABC. (Photo by Mike Nolan)

Several of the department’s researchers are dedicated to better understanding hurricanes, including Kristen Corbosiero, an associate professor, and Brian Tang, an assistant professor, who were funded earlier this year by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate the effects of ventilation, a flux of cooler, drier air, into tropical cyclones.

Associate Professor Ryan Torn assisted the National Hurricane Center (NHC) with observations for both Hurricane Olivia, expected to hit Hawaii, and Florence.

Nick Bassill, a research associate with the New York State Mesonet, specializes in helping companies make strategic weather decisions. He is personally interested in hurricane formation.

The four experts were busy speaking with media outlets over the last several weeks:

• Hawaii Braces for a Rare Encounter With a Hurricane – The New York Times
• Fewer but fiercer hurricanes forecast for 2018 season – Albany Times Union
• Local weather experts track historical storm – News10 ABC
• How Hurricane Florence Became a Scary Super Storm – The Daily Beast
• Lane threatens Hawaii, but Atlantic hurricane season stays quiet. The two are related - The Philadelphia Inquirer
• Why Hurricane Florence is Rapidly Intensifying and What That Means – Gizmodo
• Has the era of Category 6 hurricanes arrived? – Mother Nature Network

Corbosiero, Torn and Bassill were also featured guests on the Jim Bohannon Show, a national syndicated radio talk show heard on over 300 stations across the country.

You can watch last Wednesday’s live stream map discussion via YouTube.

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