UF engineering researchers chase Tropical Storm Fay

August 19, 2008

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — When Tropical Storm Fay came ashore in southwest Florida early Tuesday, University of Florida hurricane wind researchers were ready.

A team of UF civil engineering faculty members traveled to Marco Island — just north of Cape Romano, where Fay made landfall — and deployed four mobile wind-monitoring towers late Monday night. They gathered data from the towers — and tested a new precipitation probe designed to gather information about hurricane rains — from midnight Monday through 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Forrest Masters, a UF assistant professor of civil engineering, said the team had not yet analyzed the data, but that it appeared the precipitation probe testing worked well. He said the probe measures the size, speed and direction of raindrops, among other data. The results will help the engineers learn more about how wind-driven rain enters homes that otherwise sustain little or no visible damage.

“We’re trying to compare the intensity of the rain with the intensity of the wind,” Masters said.

The effort was part of the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program, which has gathered data since 1998 on hurricanes that make landfall in Florida and other states. The team of two faculty members and at least eight graduate and undergraduate students was expected to be back in Gainesville by early afternoon.