Undergraduate Research, SOARS, NCAR, 2018
The atmospheric processes involved in a tropical cyclone are affected by topographical factors during and after landfall. Interactions with land can change the tropical cyclone’s structure and behavior and, ultimately, its impact on the landmass. However, one of today’s forecasting challenges is that numerical weather prediction models cannot resolve many factors that influence surface weather, resulting in a forecast that predicts the expected behavior of a tropical cyclone moving over a smooth landmass. Therefore, these models do not accurately represent the impact at landfall of these systems in regions characterized by complex terrain and multiple mountain ranges. This research project investigated how terrain resolution affects the landfall and behavior of tropical cyclones focusing on the landfall of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017.