Tree Damage in Intense Landfalling Hurricanes of the Past

[Shell Mound]

 https://twitter.com/JeffLindner1/status/1303479753182191618



 https://twitter.com/JeffLindner1/status/1303801689628082180



 https://twitter.com/JeffLindner1/status/1303798171072688128



 https://twitter.com/JeffLindner1/status/1303439989926178816



 https://twitter.com/JeffLindner1/status/1303456728852434944

[Shell Mound]

 https://twitter.com/MycahABC13/status/1303836139967610881



 https://twitter.com/JRayLively/status/1303866405239037952



Note that trees are completely stripped of foliage, hence the wintery look, and roofing material is shredded (0:16–0:30 and 1:15–1:40).
 https://twitter.com/robperillo/status/1302664051303092224



 https://twitter.com/WBBJ7Ali/status/1305697969488961536



 https://twitter.com/CaufieldBA/status/1299093795405991937




As an aside, the peak surge of fifteen to twenty feet verified, based on observed values from the Mermentau River in Grand Chenier:
 https://twitter.com/SteveWAFB/status/1299447946925215744

[Ed_2001]

Time to add our newest intenese landfalling hurricane (typhoon): Aftermath of supertyphoon Goni in Gigmoto, Philippines. Being equivalent to the intenisty of Haiyan per JTWC, the damage here is very severe but not to the level of Haiyan yet, but damage surveys are still ongoing.
 https://twitter.com/onenewsph/status/1323062046968086528

[mrbagyo]

GONI in Catanduanes (mostly taken by Civil Defense of Bicol Region)

[Meteophile]

Gone forests, replaced by palm/coconut tree parts on the ground. Earlier images would have been useful for the comparison.

That said, I just found a good (sad) comparison of before/after cyclone Harold (not told about in this topic) in Melsisi - Pentecost island

[mrbagyo]

PAGASA RADAR

BEFORE GONI - February 2018 (I took all these pics from the radar building) - big chunk of Catanduanes looks like this











AFTER GONI




Aerial over the radar

[Ed_2001]

GONI in Catanduanes (mostly taken by Civil Defense of Bicol Region)
https://i.imgur.com/mewOHq6.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/O1K28eP.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Ukd7d2v.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/TuP8src.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/edSaMgC.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/NIrKsmk.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/EfalzQg.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/b3QjEkc.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VPPtqwU.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/N0mXJzV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/N0mXJzV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/bZf4e1b.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/9QjtDNI.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ZmhWUBG.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tVPJQXT.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/aMaHDnj.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/aMaHDnj.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/OCKBn29.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/OCKBn29.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/jQJQAJi.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/uVDp2B4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ToG96WP.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/0zsqrAQ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/u18eV3E.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hyBEOka.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qZunSzm.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/eI9Nm4g.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Hnrr4PO.jpg

IMO the tree damage from Goni are among some of the most intense I've ever seen right up there with Haiyan and Dorian. The whole place looks like it was hit by an thermonuclear bomb

[SconnieCane]

Preliminary images out of Providencia (Colombian island off the coast of Nicaragua) after Iota show widespread snapping/shredding/denuding of forest that appears consistent with a Category 5 impact. How strong exactly is for post-analysis to determine.

https://twitter.com/wxmann/status/1328846861742997504

[underthwx]

That is some excellent reading....yall are on a different level...I don't have tree damage photos...but I got a ton of photos I took of my experiences with Harvey, which I may share in another setting one day...

[ElectricStorm]

Preliminary images out of Providencia (Colombian island off the coast of Nicaragua) after Iota show widespread snapping/shredding/denuding of forest that appears consistent with a Category 5 impact. How strong exactly is for post-analysis to determine.

https://twitter.com/wxmann/status/1328846861742997504

That looks like Cat 5 damage to me. Could some of that have been from Eta? Or was Eta too far north?

[Ubuntwo]

Preliminary images out of Providencia (Colombian island off the coast of Nicaragua) after Iota show widespread snapping/shredding/denuding of forest that appears consistent with a Category 5 impact. How strong exactly is for post-analysis to determine.

https://twitter.com/wxmann/status/1328846861742997504

That looks like Cat 5 damage to me. Could some of that have been from Eta? Or was Eta too far north?

They had relatively minor impacts from Eta, whereas they got the south eyewall (or close to it) from Iota.

[ElectricStorm]

Preliminary images out of Providencia (Colombian island off the coast of Nicaragua) after Iota show widespread snapping/shredding/denuding of forest that appears consistent with a Category 5 impact. How strong exactly is for post-analysis to determine.

https://twitter.com/wxmann/status/1328846861742997504

That looks like Cat 5 damage to me. Could some of that have been from Eta? Or was Eta too far north?

They had relatively minor impacts from Eta, whereas they got the south eyewall (or close to it) from Iota.

Thanks. That is some of the more intense damage I've seen from a Cat 4. Especially from the Southern eyewall.

[SconnieCane]

Aerial footage out of Providencia showing widespread heavy structural damage and shredded/defoliated forest consistent with a 130kt+ thrashing.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/kh4nIdAjRtU[/youtube]

[1900hurricane]

Bumping this great thread up in the wake of Hurricane Melissa. We definitely got some pretty gnarly tree damage from that one.

[Ubuntwo]

Deserved the bump. Melissa may have produced the worst denuding and debarking we've seen in any Atlantic hurricane. Please forgive the blurriness of some of these screengrabs. Outside of Black River, footage is still highly limited.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvH5Pe28GjQ



Source: https://x.com/_helium/status/1983582531296297021



Source: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1371734951332957



Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQTXq_rOYaw




Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g31bipC77gg


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQS-l4sYz7k

[REDHurricane]

Deserved the bump. Melissa may have produced the worst denuding and debarking we've seen in any Atlantic hurricane. Please forgive the blurriness of some of these screengrabs. Outside of Black River, footage is still highly limited.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvH5Pe28GjQ
https://i.imgur.com/0QG9DeS.png
https://i.imgur.com/dtboW7M.png

Source: https://x.com/_helium/status/1983582531296297021
https://i.imgur.com/MArqBRa.png
https://i.imgur.com/7Y5WHLk.png

Source: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1371734951332957
https://i.imgur.com/PwWhPDD.png
https://i.imgur.com/3kkEC0d.png

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQTXq_rOYaw
https://i.imgur.com/ukKMY10.png
https://i.imgur.com/lxnrZNo.png
https://i.imgur.com/lESO5cl.png

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g31bipC77gg
https://i.imgur.com/Rj1M3si.png

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQS-l4sYz7k
https://i.imgur.com/Vp9fmbr.png
https://i.imgur.com/MIIsba5.png
https://i.imgur.com/q3gqGyp.png

Wild stuff, looks exactly like an EF-4 tornado ripped through there (which, in all fairness, is basically what happened)

[mrbagyo]

Just insane tree damage in St. Elizabeth

edit: Westmoreland. Thanks for the correction


 https://x.com/CRAIGGOFRASS/status/1986539045087027340

[Ubuntwo]

Just insane tree damage in St. Elizabeth
 https://x.com/CRAIGGOFRASS/status/1986539045087027340

This is in eastern Westmoreland on the A2 traveling just east of Belmont, not St. Elizabeth. It's roughly .5-1 km from the shore and varies between 5-30 meters ASL. So this area isn't significantly elevated, making this footage all the more alarming. In my post above there's a screenshot from another traveler along the same road.

For context, I found this 'before' footage from the exact same stretch. At the 4 minute mark they're where the above video ends, just traveling in the opposite direction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwJC3Lf0c38&t=251s

This was a partially forested road with, in spots, a closed canopy. The denuding is near-total for younger trees, reduced to sticks, with the older trees left gnarled. Many trees are fully debarked. Also notable is what *isn't* there: the majority of trees originally along this road are gone. These are tropical hardwoods - which, unlike pines, are quite hard to blow down or snap. Hurricane Andrew on Elliott Key and Irma in the Virgin Islands both produced extensive debarking and denuding (albeit not to this degree), but saw a far lower rate of blowdowns in their respective tropical hardwood forests.

Melissa produced the most intense tree damage on modern record within the Atlantic.

[al78]

Michael's destruction to forests reminds me of scenes from 2011 tornado outbreak

https://twitter.com/aaronjayjack/status/1050514866895814659

https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/1050571101909049344

Looks like a giant lawnmower has gone over the forest in that first tweet.

[FireRat]

Here's another one from Melissa 25 - which was posted on the other thread. It's a screengrab from a video on X