Reanalysis of the 1954-1963 Atlantic Hurricane Seasons [thesis]

Sandy Delgado
I dedicate this thesis to my family. Their love, understanding and support have been pivotal to the fruition of this research. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The completion of these nine years of reanalysis was not a sole effort. I was fortunate to have the support, encouragement and help from several people. I was very lucky to have started working on the reanalysis about four years ago before I had finished my bachelors' degree. I will always be grateful to Dr. Hugh Willoughby, professor and advisor at
more » ... , for noticing my love and enthusiasm for hurricanes and understanding that working on past hurricanes would be a perfect place for me. Almost four years ago, Dr. Chris Landsea, advisor and mentor, provided the setting for me to use my love and understanding of hurricanes to travel back in time and improve on the work done by great scientists in the 1950s and 1960s with the advancements in the understanding of hurricanes and technology we have today. Dr. Landsea and I worked countless hours to make sure that my assessments on the tracks and intensities of all the tropical cyclones analyzed and added were as accurate as possible. I also had an instrumental person in this effort, Astryd Rodriguez spent countless of hours helping me with the plotting of many of the storms that were reanalyzed. Without her help, this reanalysis would have taken many more months. We also had a great partnership and it was a pleasure working together. I would also like to thank the NHC for allowing me to use the library where I spent most of my time working on the reanalysis. I would also like to thank all the hurricane specialists at the NHC for their encouragement and help, it has been a real pleasure all these years to be able to talk to everyone and gain some of their knowledge and experience. Special thanks to Dr. Lixion Avila for allowing me to borrow the United States Weather Bureau tropical cyclone advisories from 1954-1963. Thanks to Gloria Aversano, Librarian at the vi NHC, for allowing me to use her library and always being helpful. Likewise, I would like to thank all the employers of the NHC for the support, many I consider my friends. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Jack Beven, Hurricane Specialist at the NHC, David Roth, Meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center, and Ryan Truchelut, graduate student in meteorology at FSU, for their research on missing tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and composing lists of potential suspects. Their work was influential in our effort to improve the completeness of HURDAT. Thanks to Bob Stearns for coming down to the NHC and providing an insight into the workings of the hurricane hunters in the early 1960s. Also very rewarding was the cooperation by Ramón Pérez and Maritza Ballester of the Cuban Meteorological Institute. Thanks to Andrew Hagen for his support, training on the reanalysis process and eagerness to always lend a helping hand. Thanks to Karina Castillo for her work on the NHC Storm Wallets and friendship. I would also like to acknowledge Joan David for creating all the maps for the reanalysis between 1954 and 1959. Thanks Joni for your time, dedication and positive influence.
doi:10.25148/etd.fi14071185 fatcat:bptrrjhhxrgc3aurvcxe3tfpzq