Month: June 2021

Posted on

CERA Storm Report for Tropical Storm CLAUDETTE

Tropical Storm Claudette (17 June –  21 June , 2021) was already the third named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season but the first tropical system that targeted both the Gulf and the Atlantic coasts.

The CERA Group at the LSU Center for Computation and Technology successfully performed storm surge and flood guidance to end users in Louisiana and North Carolina. Several model results were available on the CERA website at https://cera.coastalrisk.live.

Summary:

  1.  We used high resolution storm surge model meshes for the States of Louisiana and North Carolina and a vortex wind model to represent the NHC consensus track wind fields and the associated predicted storm surge  through the ADCIRC Surge Guidance System.
  2. The Compound Flood Inundation Guidance System delivered flood guidance showing compound threat predictions from surge and rainfall for watersheds in Louisiana once daily from June 16 through June 19 and an after-storm guidance on June 21.
  3. Customized gage stations were provided to the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) for their use to monitor water levels at critical locations.
TS Claudette approaching Louisiana, NHC advisory 5


TS Claudette impacting North Carolina, NHC advisory 15

Compound storm surge and rainfall impacts, NHC advisory 4

Gage stations for the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA)

Posted on

Potential Tropical Cyclone THREE is rainfall threat

Potential Tropical Cyclone Three has formed in the Northern Gulf and might strengthen into a tropical system before making landfall along the southern Louisiana coastline. After two short-lived tropical systems in the Atlantic, this would already be the third named storm of the season 2021 – Claudette.

In partnership with Seahorse Coastal Consulting, the CERA Group at LSU provides storm surge and flood guidance for the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana (CPRA) and our partners in Louisiana.

Please visit our website at https://cera.coastalrisk.live for real-time guidance.

Posted on

CERA Featured in LSU News

The LSU Office of Research and Development (ORED) recently published an online article about the partnership between LSU and CERA, which can be found here:

Read the article

The article details CERA’s functionality through the historic and record-breaking 2020 Hurricane Season, as well as some new capabilities in 2021.

This publication will also be promoted through LSU’s Working for Louisiana newsletter this July.

Posted on

CERA named Frequently used Site by CPRA ahead of 2021 Hurricane Season

The LSU Coastal Emergency Risks Assessment (CERA) visualization tool was recently listed by The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority as one of their frequently used sites in a CPRA Board Meeting presentation.

CPRA LA uses CERA as an emergency assessment tool to view the impacts of modeled storm surge for hurricanes and tropical events delivered by the ADCIRC Surge Guidance System (ASGS). The ASGS was developed by Seahorse Coastal Consulting, a long-term partner of CERA.

Additionally, compound flooding guidance will become operational to CPRA for the upcoming 2021 hurricane season through the Compound Flood Inundation Guidance System (CFIGS) developed by CE Hydro. The CFIGS model will capture combined influences of storm surge and precipitation for watersheds in Louisiana that are of particular interest to CPRA for emergency response tasks. The CFIGS model results will be presented on the CERA interface through inundation animations (depth of water above ground) and hydrographs for water level comparison to model prediction (50 stations from USGS, USACE, and NWS).

One lesson learned from the 2020 hurricane season was that it is difficult to identify the areas of highest risk based solely on inundation mapping. CFIGS will therefore also introduce a new flood hazard layer to quickly identify areas during an event with a high risk of structural flooding.

Thanks to LSU CCT, LA Sea Grant, Seahorse Coastal Consulting, CE Hydro, and CPRA for this joint effort to serve the State of Louisiana!