time when it moved toward Texas coast and reached a 909 mb low early 

 on 9 August local time. 



2. Meteorological data 



The Hydrometeorological Section of the U.S. Weather Bureau 

 provided surface charts of hurricane Carla winds and pressure for the 

 entire Gulf of Mexico. These charts were available at 6 h intervals 

 from 1200 GMT 9 September to 1200 GMT 10 September and at 3 h 

 intervals thereafter. Prior to this period, the surface pressure 

 charts that covered North America, obtained from the National 

 Climatic Center, provided observed surface winds from land stations, 

 a bouy and ships of opportunity. 



Ho and Miller (1980) presented several surface wind charts for 

 the period when Allen was in the western Gulf . The coverage of these 

 charts is limited to the western Gulf only. Despite the lack of 

 surface wind charts however, the time sequence of the central 

 pressure and the available surface pressure charts provided enough 

 information to construct surface wind fields. However, this 

 information was not sufficient to provide the same degree of detail 

 as obtained with hurricane Carla. 



a) Surface wind for hurricane Carla 



The hurricane Carla surface wind charts were analyzed to 

 determine the location of the eye and R, Vl^^ and k which were required 

 for the computation of wind fields. 



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