- Some Insight After Katrina

Prof. Da-Lin Zhang Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science University of Maryland

Abstract

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and cost about $50 billions in property damage and thousands casualties. It could be labeled the most expensive natural disaster in the history of the United States. In this seminar, I will first provide general background on the favorable conditions for the genesis of hurricanes, historical tracks, environmental impact and the current forecast capability. The large-scale flow conditions, track, storm structures in radar and satellite imagery as well as the forecast of Hurricane Katrina will be shown. Katrina and the frequency of tropical storms in this hurricane season will also be presented in the context of today's climate setting. Finally, the implication to the future coastal development from the climate change viewpoint will be discussed.

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Prof. Zhang received his undergraduate education in University of Science & Technology of China. He came to the U.S. in 1980, and received an M.S. in 1981 and Ph.D. in 1985 from the Penn State University. After 3-years postdoc. work at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Toronto, he took a faculty position at McGill University . He joined the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science of the University of Maryland& in September 1996.

Prof. Zhang works on the modeling and understanding of fundamental processes taking place in various types of severe storms. His current research focuses more on hurricanes, especially their genesis, internal flow structures as well as the intensity of devastating winds and rainfall.

Prof. Zhang is the past president of ACAPS.

For more information, please refer to his personal website.