OU SMART Doppler Radar Deployed To Assist Tracking Hurricane Delta

A University of Oklahoma meteorology crew has put their research on hold to help the National Weather Service as Hurricane Delta makes landfall.  

OU’s Shared Mobile Atmospheric and Teaching Radar (SMART) has been deployed in Louisiana after the Lake Charles radar was destroyed by Hurricane Laura. 

Used mostly for research, this team is providing critical radar pictures for the National Weather Service. 

“They know what they are in for, they know it is going to be a rough ride,” said Michael Biggerstaff, a Meteorology Professor at the University of Oklahoma. “They’ve been through hits before.” 

OU’s SMART radar has been used during hurricane landfalls since Hurricane Gabrielle made  in Florida back in 2001. This will make the 15th hurricane deployment.  

This trip consists of a PhD student and research scientist.  

This OU team, among other radars nearby, will help make up for coverage if any other sites go down. 

“It is fairly small space for two adults to sit in for 36 hours while they are collecting the radar data but that is really what we’ve had to do,” said Biggerstaff. “We do have the scout vehicle there, so we do have our supplies.” 

The team is strategically placed a few miles southeast of Iowa, Louisiana, scanning the low levels. With an update every two minutes, they can quickly spot potential spin-ups.  

“Having that radar there in place was just more to be in place for that critical communications infrastructure,” said Cindy Elsenheimer, Meteorologist at the National Weather Service Southern Region Headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. “For sure that information is always helpful to forecasters that are making those life-saving forecasting warning decisions.” 

Delta will pack a punch with category two winds at 105 mph to an already battered area.  

With tools for the job, OU researchers hope this is the beginning. 

“I think that that really could open the door for this kind of stuff in the future where we actually go out and we are doing our research, but at the same time the operational community would have real-time access to that data,” said Biggerstaff.  

Hurricane Delta made landfall at 6 p.m. Friday.  

The team will likely head back to Norman on Sunday.