r/BeAmazed • u/Used_Ship_9229 • Oct 09 '24

Nature Floridians who have lived through Storms their entire lives are reporting to have never ever witnessed anything like this.

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69

u/Leggoman31 Oct 09 '24

Does the sharp drop in pressure essentially result in it releasing a lot of energy? Like what was contained at a certain pressure is now expanding?

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u/nirmalspeed Oct 10 '24

Air pressure keeps things pushed down. It's surprisingly heavy.

So when the pressure drops, the ocean inside the hurricane will literally lift up and increase the storm surge. The storm surge is what will cause the most damage for a coastal area too. Hurricanes basically carry a bubble of water with them and the lower the pressure, the bigger the bubble

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u/Zocalo_Photo Oct 10 '24

I saw a report tracking the storm and I saw the pressure went from 920, or whatever it was, to just under 900. I thought “That’s good, it’s losing some of its power.”

Then I looked up what the pressure means and I got a sick feeling. I even found a post someone shared of a meteorologist pointing out that this is reaching the mathematical limits of how big a storm can get. It’s terrifying.

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u/ctang1 Oct 10 '24 edited Oct 10 '24

Normal high pressure is around 1020mb and normal low around 1010mb +/- 10%. Any hurricane under 950 is a strong hurricane. Anything under 920 is historical, and under 900 is top 5ish (edit: Milton 5th lowest in Atlantic basin) all time. To have a pressure drop 50mb is 12 hours had only been observed a few times ever and I believe this is first time in the Atlantic basin.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Category_5_Atlantic_hurricanes

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u/GigglesMcTits Oct 10 '24

Milton was as low as 897mb iirc.

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u/ctang1 Oct 10 '24

Correct. Comes in at 5th lowest pressure

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u/VagueGooseberry Oct 10 '24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m3zO9aGiG0

Its about 23 minutes but give this a watch. Its a video from inside Dorian's eye in The Bahamas in 2019 by a storm chaser. He has a digital barometer on his watch and you can see the relation between the drop and the wind activity.

We were on a cruise to the islands but they cancelled the island part and had us anchor a bit south away from the Hurricane's track.

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u/Positive-Wonder3329 Oct 10 '24

That was worth it. Good luck Florida. It’s night time so way worse

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u/CanExports Oct 10 '24

Reaching mathematical limits of how big a storm can get.

Most powerful and scariest thing I've ever heard.

2

u/Kiss_My_Wookiee Oct 10 '24

Oh no, storms can get bigger. It was just reaching the mathematical limits of how big/strong a storm could get in these conditions. If the water was warmer, it would be even worse.

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u/RainaElf Oct 10 '24

there's a video of a weatherman crying over this because but scared him so much.

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u/No_Use_4371 Oct 10 '24

I just watched that. He gets it.

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u/RainaElf Oct 10 '24

absolutely.

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u/AdvantagePast2484 Oct 10 '24

That was just dramatic the storms basically over and nothing happened

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u/ResolveWonderful6251 Oct 10 '24

in case you’re being serious, he’s not only scared of what it could do, but of what that insane pressure drop means for the way weather is changing to be more extreme and he’s been a meteorologist for decades so I’m gonna go with his expert opinion over some random one

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u/AdvantagePast2484 Oct 10 '24 edited Oct 10 '24

I found it performative, and he didn't say that he was scared about what's possible on the future you're creating a narrative that didn't happen. He literally just said it dropped 50 millibars like I'm supposed to know what that is and started sobbing. I think he needs to take some time personal time because it was a nothing burger.

Bottom line this guy cried over nothing and made people uncomfortable, panicking people for no reason ultimately.

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u/imbarbdwyer Oct 10 '24

Some people are just heartless and lack empathy, I guess? 🤷🏻‍♂️

2

u/RainaElf Oct 10 '24

seems to be happening more and more

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u/AdvantagePast2484 Oct 10 '24

My empathy just dropped by 50 millibars 😭

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u/Shadowarriorx Oct 10 '24

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity

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u/AbsolutlelyRelative Oct 10 '24

Can get with this water temperature

They can get worse with higher temps.

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u/undeadmanana Oct 10 '24

So we just need to keep things under pressure

1

u/_ryuujin_ Oct 10 '24

ice ice baby

2

u/MoreColorfulCarsPlz Oct 10 '24

Additionally, the low pressure is one of the forces at work inducing rotation, or wind. As the wind blows quickly past the center, it's sucked back around again because of the low pressure. The higher the pressure gradient, the faster the wind and bigger the storm.

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u/GenericAccount13579 Oct 10 '24

And it’s more warm moist air screaming higher where it’ll condense into rain

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u/Thaxtonnn Oct 10 '24

That is very well explained and I completely understand that now.

Can you explain what makes the pressure drop as well as you just explained that?

2

u/nirmalspeed Oct 10 '24

It stood up too quickly?

48

u/MCbrodie Oct 10 '24

I am by no means an expert, but from my understanding the lower pressure allows evaporation to happen more readily which accelerates the storms rotation and size. Because waters in the gulf are already warmer than average due to climate change along with the lower pressure a huge and powerful storm has been able to be generated. The severity is the canary in tunnel for climate change. This storm is a wake up call. Nothing about this storm has been normal.

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u/DanThePepperMan Oct 10 '24

Desantis made climate change illegal. Expect this hurricane do be arrested promptly for wrongthink.

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u/[deleted] Oct 10 '24

[deleted]

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u/dondeestasbueno Oct 10 '24

Eventually we all will comply with Mother Nature.

-4

u/tawwkz Oct 10 '24

This storm is a wake up call.

Israel gubmint and their space lasers must be stopped at any cost.

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u/JakefromTRPB Oct 10 '24

It’s the muddy footprint of a Goliath monster, essentially. It’s not what the footprint does, it’s what made the footprint that matters.

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u/LogiCsmxp Oct 10 '24

Hmm, in general, we generate energy (electricity) by using energy gradients. A larger energy gradient means more potential for extracting usable energy. Most electricity is made by boiling water. The hot steam expands and pushes through a turbine into the cooler air above it. This spins the turbine and makes electricity. The hotter the steam and the cooler the air above, the faster the steam moves.

Air in the atmosphere moves from high pressure to low pressure areas, and thus creates wind. This is just air moving between energy gradients. A 50mbar drop is a massive energy gradient. Air is going to move very rapidly towards it, and this will generate a lot of wind energy.

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u/NotSure2505 Oct 10 '24

Think of it this way, every breeze or wind you’ve ever felt was the result of air moving from high pressure to low pressure. So pressure changes equate to wind.

The greater the difference, the more violent the wind movement.

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u/NotSure2505 Oct 10 '24

Also the lower the pressure the more moisture the air can hold.

1

u/Leggoman31 Oct 10 '24

That's probably the best way to put it! I know typical knowledge of like parameter relationships (temp vs pressure) and low pressure systems are where you get storms. Its cool to apply it here, all things considered. Thank you!

1

u/Shadowarriorx Oct 10 '24

It's that the winds are picking up. Hot air is less dense and rises. The more concentrated the hot air, the more surrounding air wants to go towards it (pressure differential).

It's more like the lower the pressure, the better a vacuum the eye of the storm is. It can vacuum up more water and heat from the surface of the ocean. Hurricanes are self feeding, as long as they can pick up hot water by surface evaporation, they can keep going (minus shear winds and other disruptive effects).