HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — Living in Hampton Roads, you know there’s one thing that is always nearby — water.
When you think of it, it’s everywhere. And when hurricanes develop, it can cause problems for the region, such as major flooding.
Experts at the National Hurricane Center discussed the potential for flooding in Hampton Roads, as well as a way to present a precise forecast.
“You have a lot of water here,” said Cody Fritz, a storm specialist with the National Hurricane Center. “And there are many low-lying areas within the lower Chesapeake, even in the upper Chesapeake — a lot of areas that are extremely low-lying and extremely vulnerable to storm surge. So even just a little bit of wind can really impact and affect coastal communities living right along, those areas.”
What are the basics when it comes to hurricanes?
Storm surge is the excess water that gets pushed inland by a storm. For our area, it doesn’t take a lot of water to get flooding, and a stronger storm could be devastating.
“There are many factors associated with how high the water can get or how far water can extend inland. ” Fritz said.
When we want to look at the structure of a storm, we have the eye, the center of the hurricane, the eye wall, in which the wind speeds are the strongest, then the outer rain bands. All of this rotates around the center, creating a huge field of wind. That wind pushes the water, and that water is now the storm surge, which can bring us flooding during high tides.
Going back in time, Hurricane Isabel in 2003 brought us major tidal flooding to the area with its highest tide at almost eight feet.
Go back a few more years to 1999 with Hurricane Floyd. That storm stayed mostly east of the Hampton Roads cities, but major rain flooding occurred in Franklin with water as high as the street signs.
So, as we are looking ahead to this season, what changes to the forecast are coming?
“Brand new this year,” said Ken Graham, National Weather Service director. “Yeah, we have our cone. We’re actually going to display the cone when it reaches land as the actual watches and warnings. So that’s new for this year. So you’ll have the cone. But when you’re inland and when you approach the coast, you’re going to see the watches, the warnings.”
So you’re going to see the scope of the actual impacts when you reach land. That’s a better way to depict what’s going to happen from these systems.
Remember, being outside of the cone doesn’t mean you are in the clear.
The Super Doppler 10 team will show you those impacts this upcoming season if we have a storm that’s coming up our way.
