NASA On Air: NASA Compares Katrina And Sandy Wind Fields (8/24/2015)

  • Released Monday, August 24, 2015
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LEAD: On this 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, it is interesting to compare the size of Katrina to the size of Sandy of three years ago.

1. Katrina is shown on the left, and Sandy on the right. Katrina was a textbook hurricane. Sandy started as a hurricane, but turned into an extra-tropical storm.

2. Tropical storm winds of 40 mph are shown in yellow, hurricane winds in red.

3. Katrina's winds greater than 40 mph stretched 300 miles across.

4. Sandy's winds over 40 mph stretched three times as wide, or 900 miles.

TAG: The size of the wind field is just one of the critical components that forecasters use to predict the storm surges during landfall.

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Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Text info courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory/Adam Voiland, with information from Jenni Evans, Bryan Stiles, Brian McNoldy, and Alexander Fore.

This page was originally published on Monday, August 24, 2015.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:49 PM EDT.