OU weather team begins work ahead of Hurricane Florence
As Hurricane Florence approached the coast of North Carolina, a team of meteorologists from the University of Oklahoma watched Thursday morning from an inland bridge as rain picked up and clouds circulated overhead.
Mike Biggerstaff and an OU research team were in a Ford International truck parked on the shoulder of a bridge over the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina.
“We’re up and running and collecting data,” he said during a phone interview Thursday morning.
The truck’s cargo, called SMART Radar, or Shared Mobile Atmospheric Research and Teaching Radar, was not only gathering data for research to be studied later, but was also providing current information to the National Weather Service and other federal agencies, Biggerstaff said.
About 10:30 a.m. Thursday, wind speeds in the eye of Florence were about 95 mph, but that was expected to increase when the storm moved ashore Friday, he said.
The spot where the OU research truck was parked on the bridge was about 100 feet above the water, high enough above the trees to help radar equipment, he said. But the team could always move if the storm got too bad.
“We will stay here a long as we feel safe,” he said.
Biggerstaff, an OU meteorology instructor, was in the truck Thursday with research scientist Gordon Carrie and OU student Addison Alford.
Two others with the team, out launching weather balloons along the coast about 12 miles from the truck, were student Noah Brauer and Sean Waugh, a scientist from the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman.
The risk of heavy rain and tornadoes is expected to increase before the hurricane moves out, Biggerstaff said.
He said his team had two purposes: to collect data and to provide immediate information as the storm develops.
“We will study this storm for years to come,” he said. “While we are doing that we can also put a lot of data out there.”
The OU team can be followed on Twitter @ ou.srs.
Several emergency workers have also gone to the East Coast from Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Task Force 1 Helicopter Search and Rescue Team arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee, and will respond to situations as needed.
Rescue swimmers from Oklahoma City and Norman fire departments are also in North Carolina along with crews from Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co.
Also, 21 volunteers and staff members from the American Red Cross of Oklahoma were deployed to the hurricane. Two Red Cross emergency response trucks were sent to provide relief as needed, said spokeswoman Brittney Rochell.