[janetjanet998]

i just noticed from the NHC discussion..amazing.if true it will not weaken until landfall
KATRINA HAS STRENGTHENED RAPIDLY OVERNIGHT INTO A CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE OVER THE VERY WARM AND DEEP LOOP CURRENT OF THE GULF OF MEXICO. THE HURRICANE HAS AN ANNULAR APPEARANCE ON SATELLITE WITH A WELL-DEFINED EYE AND SYMMETRIC OUTFLOW PATTERN... REFLECTIVE OF NEAR ZERO SHEAR.

[mewzilla]

...REFLECTIVE OF NEAR ZERO SHEAR.

Ye gad.

[commish]

Yep. All the weather forums are referring to her now as a Steady-State Annular. The combined with the Recon possibly showing her pressure going even lower is absolutely breaking my heart. Every indication is that she may come ashore with winds in excess of 180-200 MPH.

Be it NO, Slidell, Gulfport, Biloxi or pascagoula...some place is going to get wiped off the map. NOt to mention the hundreds to possibly thousands of tornados that will shred the entire LA, MS, ALA area. This monster is capable of carrying Hurrican force winds all the way into Tennessee. We could see widespread damage in Jackson. Montgomery, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Nashville, memphis -- You name it.

Not to mention what is currently happening to our oil production facilities in the gulf, and what will happen to our refineries that cover the landscape from slidell to Pascagoula. I really fear we could see gas prices approaching $3.50-$4.00 in the coming months.

[Mister Baredog]

I heard it's like Camille(1969) but much bigger. Camille was so strong the instrumentation to measure wind velocity disintergrated.(well over 200 mph)