Extreme wind warning

An extreme wind warning (SAME code EWW) is an alert issued by the National Weather Service for areas that will experience sustained surface winds 100 knots (115 mph, 185 km/h, 51 m/s) or greater within one hour, due to a landfalling hurricane.[1] The winds may also be associated with non-convective, downslope, or derecho winds (not otherwise caused by a tornado).[2]

Category 3 Hurricane Matthew's close passage of Brevard County, Florida on the morning of October 7, 2016 prompted the issuance of the first Extreme Wind Warning.

Extreme wind warnings are intended to provide guidance to the general public at a county or sub-county level when such winds pose a significant threat of casualties. Their issuance is intended to cover as precise of an area as possible and can be issued no earlier than two hours before the onset of extreme winds.[1]

The motivation to create a short-fused warning for extreme winds began after Hurricane Charley and Hurricane Jeanne struck Florida in 2004. During the passage of Charley across the state, strong winds prompted the National Weather Service weather forecast office in Melbourne, Florida to issue a special bulletin advising immediate action due to the onset of life-threatening winds by embedding the bulletin within a tornado warning, thus giving the bulletin higher visibility and urgency. The forecast office also issued similar "tornado" warnings as the strong winds of Jeanne moved ashore from the east later that year.[3] The nonconventional usage of tornado warnings for extreme hurricane winds was praised by emergency management, citing it as an ingenious method of protecting lives.[4] In December 2004, the Melbourne forecast office briefed attendees at an annual NOAA Hurricane Conference on their use of the special tornado warning, advocating and eventually reaching consensus for a specialized official National Weather Service product for extreme winds.[3]

The new warning was standardized in its experimental stages in 2005, so weather forecast offices continued to use special tornado warnings to broadcast the threat of severe wind during the landfalls of Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. The wind and temporal thresholds that eventually became a part of extreme wind warnings were also used as thresholds for these special tornado warnings in 2005.[1] The warnings, termed Extreme Tropical Cyclone Destructive Wind Warnings, advised residents to take sturdy shelter in the interior portions of well-built structures. During Katrina, the weather services serving the Jackson and New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana issued 19 warnings. Public response to these warnings was mixed, praising their specificity but finding their placement within tornado warnings confusing, particularly when they were issued near traditional tornado warnings. The advice of taking interior low-level shelter given in the wind warnings also contradicted the advice given in Hurricane Local Statements of taking interior shelter in elevated floors for storm surge-prone areas. NOAA/NWS recommendations called for the development of an extreme wind warning independent from tornado warnings and increased outreach for the warning.[4]

The following year, extreme wind warnings continued to be packaged within special tornado warnings for public evaluation,[5] and the warning became its own official independent product by the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season,[6] though no hurricane would trigger an extreme wind warning for nearly another decade. Despite the newly independent warning system, until the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season, the Emergency Alert System continued to broadcast EWWs as tornado warnings (using the TOR event code).[4] On the morning of October 7, 2016, the nearby passage of Category 3 Hurricane Matthew just off of Cape Canaveral prompted the first issuance of an extreme wind warning.[7]

Issuances
Extreme wind warnings issued by the National Weather Service
Date Event State / Territory Location Weather Forecast Office
October 7, 2016 Hurricane Matthew Florida Brevard MLB (Melbourne, FL)[8]
August 25, 2017 Hurricane Harvey Texas Aransas, Calhoun, Nueces, San Patricio, Refugio CRP (Corpus Christi, TX)[9]
September 6, 2017 Hurricane Irma U.S. Virgin Islands Saint John, Saint Thomas SJU (San Juan, PR)[10]
September 10, 2017 Florida Monroe (two separate warnings) KEY (Key West, FL)[11]
Collier (two separate warnings) MFL (Miami, FL)[12]
Lee TBW (Tampa Bay Area-Ruskin, FL)[13]
September 20, 2017 Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico Aguas Buenas, Bayamón, Canóvanas, Carolina, Cidra, Guaynabo, Río Grande, San Juan, Trujillo Alto SJU (San Juan, PR)[14]
October 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael Florida Bay, Franklin, Gulf TLH (Tallahassee, FL)[15]
August 26, 2020 Hurricane Laura Louisiana, Texas Louisiana: Cameron, Jefferson Davis, Beauregard, Acadia, Calcasieu, Vermilion, Allen
Texas: Jefferson, Newton, Hardin, Orange, Jasper		 LCH (Lake Charles, LA)
Issued by BRO (Brownsville, TX)†[16][17][18]
August 27, 2020 Louisiana: Cameron, Jefferson Davis, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Allen
Texas: Newton, Orange
Louisiana: Cameron, Jefferson Davis, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Vernon, Allen
Texas: Newton, Orange, Jasper
† – Issued by an alternative WFO under continuance of operations; for example, a WFO under shelter or closed due to impending hurricane impacts.

See also

References
  1. "Extreme Wind Warning (EWW)" (PDF). National Weather Service. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  2. Weather Forecast Office Baltimore/Washington. "Watch/Warning/Advisory Definitions". Sterling, Virginia: National Weather Service. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  3. Spratt, Scott M.; Hagemeyer, Bartlett C.; Jacobs, David L. (2006). Providing Short-Fused Warnings for the Onset of Extreme Hurricane Winds—A Final Opportunity to Minimize Casualties (PDF). NWS Forecast Office Melbourne, Florida (Report). Melbourne, Florida: National Weather Service. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  4. Schott, Timothy. "Request for a new Event Code for the Extreme Wind Warning in Part 11 rules, Subpart B, Section 11.31(e)" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  5. Pierce, Therese Z. (May 10, 2006). "Soliciting Comments by November 15, 2006 for Tropical Cyclone Extreme Wind Warning Product" (TXT). Washington, DC: National Weather Service. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  6. Hagemeyer, Bartlett C. (January 14, 2009). The extreme wind warning and its role in improving public preparation and response to extreme landfalling hurricane winds in the urban environment. Symposium on Urban High Impact Weather. Phoenix, Arionza: The Conference Exchange.
  7. Dildine, Dave (October 6, 2016). "Hurricane Matthew could prompt new weather warning for first time". Washington, D.C.: WTOP. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  8. "Extreme Wind Warning". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service office in Melbourne, Florida. 7 October 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  9. "Extreme Wind Warning". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service office in Corpus Christi, Texas. 25 August 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  10. "Extreme Wind Warning". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service office in Corpus Christi, Texas. 25 August 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  11. "Extreme Wind Warning". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service office in Key West, Florida. 10 September 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  12. "Extreme Wind Warning". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service office in Miami, Florida. 10 September 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  13. "Extreme Wind Warning". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service office in Tampa Bay Area-Ruskin, Florida. 10 September 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  14. "Extreme Wind Warning". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service office in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 10 September 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  15. "Extreme Wind Warning". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service office in Tallahassee, Florida. 10 October 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  16. "Extreme Wind Warning". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service office in Brownsville, Texas. 26 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  17. "Extreme Wind Warning". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service office in Brownsville, Texas. 27 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  18. "Extreme Wind Warning". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service office in Brownsville, Texas. 27 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.

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