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September 4, 2008

Pressure Drop, Ooooh Pressure

I said, pressure drop
Oh pressure, oh yeah
Pressures gonna drop on you

        -- "Pressure Drop", Toots & the Maytals (1969)

Not to get all weather-y again, but I was fairly gobsmacked by some data out of Hurricane Ike this morning. Overnight the minimum central pressure dropped precipitously, touching 938 mb, down from 984 MB a scant 12 hours earlier. That caused a crazy intensification of the storm, with winds spiking up to a sustained 145 mi/h, up from 80 mi/h.

That is, in a word, nuts. Central pressure dropping 4.1 mb/hr during the period is faster than pressure tumbled during Hurricane Wilma, back in 2005, which eventually fell to 882 mb and peak winds of 175 mi/h. I'm not suggesting Ike is likely to do the same -- there are oodles of variables in play -- but it does show how unusual such precipitous pressure drops are in Atlantic hurricanes.

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