09-04 Hurricane Dorian

2019-09-04

Hurricane Dorian just rolled by Central Florida where I live. Everything has been fine here with only 60 mph winds reported at Kennedy Space Center. However, the Northern Bahamas have been devestated by the storm after experiencing two full days of category 5 winds (>155 mph) with its peak at 185 mph. Having experienced cat5 winds in the past, my heart goes out to all those who are now living with Dorian's aftermath.

Freeport's Grand Bahama International Airport (MYGF) has been completely destroyed after storm surge submerged the tarmac in at least 10 feet of sea water. This video shows the aftermath:

I'd been watching the reports coming out of MYGF leading up to the storm. The final METAR was uneventful showing VCSH and low ENE winds as the only indicators the storm was coming. While the airport is still sending TAFs, this is likely the last METAR we'll see from MYGF for some time:

{
    "meta": {
        "timestamp": "2019-09-05T00:26:41.452307Z",
        "cache-timestamp": "2019-09-01T02:05:35.740000Z",
        "warning": "Unable to fetch report. This cached data might be out of date. To return an error instead, set ?onfail=error"
    },
    "altimeter": {
        "repr": "2991",
        "value": 29.91,
        "spoken": "two nine point nine one"
    },
    "clouds": [
        {
            "repr": "FEW012CB",
            "type": "FEW",
            "altitude": 12,
            "modifier": "CB",
            "direction": null
        },
        {
            "repr": "BKN220",
            "type": "BKN",
            "altitude": 220,
            "modifier": null,
            "direction": null
        }
    ],
    "flight_rules": "VFR",
    "other": [
        "VCSH"
    ],
    "sanitized": "MYGF 010000Z 06008KT 9999 VCSH FEW012CB BKN220 28/24 A2991 ",
    "visibility": {
        "repr": "9999",
        "value": 9999,
        "spoken": "nine nine nine nine"
    },
    "wind_direction": {
        "repr": "060",
        "value": 60,
        "spoken": "zero six zero"
    },
    "wind_gust": null,
    "wind_speed": {
        "repr": "08",
        "value": 8,
        "spoken": "eight"
    },
    "raw": "MYGF 010000Z 06008KT 9999 VCSH FEW012CB BKN220 28/24 A2991",
    "station": "MYGF",
    "time": {
        "repr": "010000Z",
        "dt": "2019-09-01T00:00:00Z"
    },
    "remarks": "",
    "dewpoint": {
        "repr": "24",
        "value": 24,
        "spoken": "two four"
    },
    "remarks_info": {
        "dewpoint_decimal": null,
        "temperature_decimal": null
    },
    "runway_visibility": [],
    "temperature": {
        "repr": "28",
        "value": 28,
        "spoken": "two eight"
    },
    "wind_variable_direction": [],
    "units": {
        "altimeter": "inHg",
        "altitude": "ft",
        "temperature": "C",
        "visibility": "m",
        "wind_speed": "kt"
    }
}