Hi all, new to the forum and graduating with a BS in Geomatics next month. Meteorology is another interest of mine and I'll sometimes hear about the National Weather Service conducting "damage surveys" after severe weather. I have never really been about to determine who is actually on the ground or if it is anything more than a site assessment. I'm sure in flooding events, surveyors would be called in but I'm curious how that whole system works. It would be great experience if they were in need of people in our profession. Has any of this work been contracted out to private firms? Thanks in advance!
I have heard about NWS personnel visiting sites of severe weather to determine what kind of weather event occurred. They look at things like the direction that fallen trees are pointing; if they all point in the same direction, it was probably straight line winds; if they point in different directions in a certain pattern, it was probably a tornado. I doubt very much what they are doing has much relation to land surveying.
> I doubt very much what they are doing has much relation to land surveying.
Near as I have been able to tell it's a mix of available personnel and student meteorologists, with legal pads, cell phone photos, hand held Garmins...and printouts from Google Earth.
I'm not knocking it, just being honest. They can effectively determine what they need to know with simple gear.
Yes they can. They are able to determine general storm stregth by type of damage to structures, cars and trees. If a tree is broke at the top then EF1/2, if only the trunk remains and all bark is removed then EF4/5, etc...
Lets remember that the goal from NWS damage survey isn't to precisely measure the damage but to get a good general idea of how strong the storm was at that particular location.
Now we have done post river flood elevation surveys for the USACE to determine the elevation of the highest water during the flood.