Development of a local wind field for Tropical Cyclone Debbie

Tropical Cyclone (TC) Debbie made landfall near Airlie Beach, Queensland on the 28th March 2017 as a category four system. After TC Debbie had dissipated, survey teams from James Cook University (JCU) and Geoscience Australia conducted post-disaster damage surveys to assess the extent of damage caused by the storm. Observations of wind speeds during TC Debbie were recorded at a number of Bureau of Meteorology automatic weather stations, as well as six mobile anemometers deployed by JCU prior to landfall. While these stations provide valuable measurements of wind speed at their locations, an estimate of the winds throughout the landscape is required to assign maximum wind speeds to the observed level of damage at each surveyed location. This relationship will be used to develop vulnerability curves for building stock in the affected region. These curves can assist emergency managers prepare for and respond to future severe wind events, through developing an understanding of the vulnerability of local building stock to severe wind events. We use the following workflow to develop a corrected, local wind field for TC Debbie: 1. Model the maximum wind gust over the lifetime of TC Debbie across the landfall region using the Tropical Cyclone Risk Model (TCRM); 2. Apply a correction for local wind factors, including topography, land cover, shielding and wind direction; 3. Validate the local wind field against observations; 4. Apply a correction based on the difference between the observed and modelled wind fields. The final wind field is a product of the modelled wind field, local and observational corrections to produce the best estimate of the spatial distribution of the maximum wind gust throughout the lifetime of TC Debbie. Poster presented at the 2018 Amos-ICSHMO Conference Sydney, NSW (https://www.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/ams/meetings-events/ams-meetings/amos-icshmo-2018/)