Date: September 17-19, 2003

Photo Title: Hurricane Isabel rainfall totals

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Description: Isabel, which was once a powerful Categeroy 5 hurricane in the central Atlantic with winds estimated at 160 mph, finally came ashore on September 18, 2003 as a much weaker Category 2 storm with winds of near 100 mph just south of Cape Hatteras along the outter banks of North Carolina. Isabel quickly tracked off to the northwest leaving heavy rains, downed trees and widespread power outages thoughout the midAtlantic region.

The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center shows rainfall totals along the path of Isabel for the period 17-19 September 2003. The heaviest amounts (darker reds), on the order of 6 inches, appear offshore. Inland the highest totals occur over central and southeast Virginia with widespread areas receiving 4 to 5 inches of rain (red areas). Most of central and eastern North Carolina had between 1.5 and 3 inches (green areas) with locally heavier amounts in areas of the outter banks (red areas). Rainfall totals in western North Carolina, the Delmarva peninsula and eastern Maryland were relatively light (blue areas). In the general the MPA estimates agree well with radar observations with the exception of far northern North Carolina near the border with Virginia where radar estimates tend to be somewhat higher.

Overall the rainfall totals from Isabel were relatively low due to the rapid forward motion of the storm. Isabel moved quickly to the northwest after coming ashore at between 18 and 24 mph around the backside of a high pressure system to the east and ahead of an approaching trough from the west. The hurricane and tropical storm symbols mark the positions of Isabel every 6 hours beginning at 5 am EDT on September 18 as reported by the National Hurricane Center.

The Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) satellite is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency, NASDA.

Credit: Image courtesy Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC).

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