Hurricane Willa, Sinola Mexico
Hurricane Willa, Sinola Mexico
Hurricane Willa, Sinola Mexico
Actively watching recovery
EF4, winds 170mph, 23 fatalities, 03/03/2019
The destructive impacts of Category 4 Hurricane Michael on the forests of northwest Florida were captured by ForWarn II's routinely produced Early Detect product one week after the event. The stark pattern of greatest damage in red and orange consists of a 50 km-wide swath that stretches from near the track of the hurricane's eye to the Apalachicola River which likely had reduced greenness from both wind damage and flooding.
ForWarn's all-lands approach to monitoring provides valuable insights into crop damage caused by summer storms. In July and August of 2018, hail storms struck eastern Nebraska causing severe damage to corn and soy.
Hurricane impacts to forests can vary greatly depending on the qualities of the storm. Hurricane Florence stood out for its slow speed and heavy rainfall to the Carolinas, while Hurricane Michael, that crossed Florida's panhandle just a few weeks later in 2018, was a powerful wind-event that passed relatively quickly. ForWarn II's near-real-time capabilities reveal the initial storm effects, then in concert with higher resolution imagery and ancillary data assessments can discriminate among water and wind impacts more precisely.
"The disturbance in this area has been reported at hail damage".
ForWarn indicated that the Chippewa National Forest and surrounding areas had a decline in vegetation greenness due to a storm event on July 22.
ForWarn has detected potential widespread storm damage for the Superior and Chippewa region of Minnesota and surrounding areas from July, 2016. High winds led to downed trees that appeared in the data showing landscape change.