Significant wind speed values ​​of Hurricane Ike during the days it affected Cuba

This paper presents significant wind speed values ​​during Hurricane Ike's impact on the island of Cuba. The Cuban Wind Energy Program's Meteorological Reference Tower Network was used for this purpose. This network consisted of a group of towers equipped with sensors to measure wind speed at different levels: 10m, 30m, 50m, and 100m in the atmospheric surface layer. Hurricane Ike struck Cuba from August 7-9, 2008, crossing the country and causing widespread damage. The hurricane made landfall in Holguín province as a Category 4 storm and weakened to a Category 3 upon landfall. The most significant impacts included extensive damage to homes, flooding at a wind farm, damage to agriculture, and damage to several survey masts deployed as part of the wind energy program. The results show average wind speed values, some of which were not located near the towers, illustrating the quantitative relationship between wind speed and height during a hurricane. The proximity of the hurricane as it approached each province is also shown. However, sometimes the highest level was not measured because the wind damaged the sensor located there. The maximum gust measured was 195 km/h at the Las Tunas tower at a height of 50 m, although the El Ramón tower in Holguín province, where the hurricane made landfall, is estimated to have been higher.