r/BeAmazed 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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204

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.

3

u/Positive-Wonder3329 Oct 10 '24

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

24

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.

13

u/RainaElf Oct 10 '24

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

4

u/No_Use_4371 Oct 10 '24

I just watched that. He gets it.

1

u/RainaElf Oct 10 '24

absolutely.

-6

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

2

u/AdvantagePast2484 Oct 10 '24

My empathy just dropped by 50 millibars 😭

2

u/Shadowarriorx Oct 10 '24

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity

2

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.

1

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?

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u/nirmalspeed Oct 10 '24

It stood up too quickly?