Hurricane Rita Live Thread

NHC - NOAA ^ | 20 September 2005 | NHC - NOAA

[NautiNurse]

Hurricane Rita is in the Florida Straits, impacting the Florida Keys and South Florida Peninsula. Hurricane watches and warnings are in effect for numerous portions of South Florida. Check local weather statements for updates.

The following links are self-updating:

Public Advisory Currently published every 3 hours 5A, 8A, 11A, 2P, etc. ET
NHC Discussion Published every six hours 6A, 11A, 6P, 11P
Three Day Forecast Track
Five Day Forecast Track

Rita Forecast Track Archive
Forecast Models
Buoy Data SE Florida
Current Weather Warnings and Watches for Florida

Images:

Storm Floater IR Loop
Visible Storm Floater Still (only visible during daylight hours)
Color Enhanced Atlantic Loop
Florida Radar/Sat Loop Caution: Broadband users only
Extra Large Miami Radar Broadband only
Extra Large Key West Radar Broadband only
Miami Long Range Radar Loop
Key West Long Range Radar Loop
Miami Experimental Radar Still Image
Key West Experimental Radar Still Image

Streaming Video: (coverage may be intermittent)

WTVJ-TV/DT Miami (NBC6)
WFOR-TV/DT Miami (CBS 4)
WSVN-TV/DT Miami (Fox)

Other Resources:

Florida East Coast Surf Reports Lots of great info here, including surf cams
Central Florida Hurricane Center
Hurricane City

Category	Wind Speed	Barometric Pressure	Storm Surge	Damage Potential
Tropical Depression	< 39 mph < 34 kts			Minimal
Tropical Storm	39 - 73 mph 34 - 63 kts			Minimal
Hurricane 1 (Weak)	74 - 95 mph 64 - 82 kts	28.94" or more 980.02 mb or more	4.0' - 5.0' 1.2 m - 1.5 m	Minimal damage to vegetation
Hurricane 2 (Moderate)	96 - 110 mph 83 - 95 kts	28.50" - 28.93" 965.12 mb - 979.68 mb	6.0' - 8.0' 1.8 m - 2.4 m	Moderate damage to houses
Hurricane 3 (Strong)	111 - 130 mph 96 - 112 kts	27.91" - 28.49" 945.14 mb - 964.78 mb	9.0' - 12.0' 2.7 m - 3.7 m	Extensive damage to small buildings
Hurricane 4 (Very strong)	131 - 155 mph 113 - 135 kts	27.17" - 27.90" 920.08 mb - 944.80 mb	13.0' - 18.0' 3.9 m - 5.5 m	Extreme structural damage
Hurricane 5 (Devastating)	Greater than 155 mph Greater than 135 kts	Less than 27.17" Less than 920.08 mb	Greater than 18.0' Greater than 5.5m	Catastrophic building failures possible

Previous Threads:
Tropical Storm Rita
Tropical Depression 18

[cmsgop]

Power is Good,Football is Good, Cold Beer is Good!, I wish you all these things and Pretzels and a Non-Nagging Wife too, LOL!

[TeleStraightShooter]

I wonder what the current residents of the Astrodome take on that is.

[silentknight]

Just wow

http://www.usawx.com/rita7pmeasterntimesept20thy.jpg

[buickmackane]

Yes, that's an excellent video of Katrina, so I'll repeat the link here (warning, very large file for those on dial-up):

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/bommer/Praise%20you%20in%20this%20storm.wmv

If I only had the time, I would love to do something similar, but I'd use Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell" for the soundtrack.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Saw it, laughed out loud, made a smiley face. :-P

And I don't know if anyone's done it yet, but...

Bush's fault.

[silentknight]

They are going to move the people from the Astrodome into new shelters across the U.S.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Depending on where Rita hits...we're
77 miles from Matagorda
65 miles from Freeport
68 miles from Galveston

Hmmmmn.

(Robt does some quick figuin' on the back of a TX highway map usinfg his trusty Aggie calculator.....)

Hmmmmn.

(Doesn't that put you on an oil derrick 56 miles offshore?)

[Sprite518]

Another monster... I know everyone is saying this is going to be a Cat 4, but I just think its going to be a 5... Just have a feeling... Hopefully, I am wrong...

[Dog Gone]

I wonder what the current residents of the Astrodome take on that is.

There aren't any. The last of them were cleared out a couple of days ago.

[sheikdetailfeather]

Anderson Cooper on CNN was just talking to Mayor Nagin about the call from Amtrak to use Amtrak to get the people out of NO before. Nagin said he does not know anything about it. Anderson Cooper said he knows who Amtrak talked to and can give him a name. Nagin said "Ok. Now I know who to talk to about that."

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Thanks Robert - I don't think we are in any danger of flooding - a smallish lake in the center of our development and a creek behind - neither of which had any problem handling a really freak down pour on Mother's Day -

All new homes here - hopefully well built - I am going to work tonight making sure anything that could possibly fly in my yard is put into the garage - still haven't decided if I will just pack up and leave - it is a hard decision to make

[sinkspur]

Thanks, cmsgop. I'm still holding out hope that I'll just get a light drizzle, and be able to watch college football on Saturday.

Well, we up here in DFW are hoping we get several inches out of this baby over the weekend. We're eight inches down for the year and haven't had any appreciable rain since early July.

We could pack in four or five in our little abode up here by DFW Airport. We don't want anybody to stay behind because they have nowhere to go.

And I'm serious about that.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Aggie Calculator - does that mean you can count to 21 Robert?

[Dog Gone]

wow, is right. If my company doesn't declare an emergency closure on Thursday I'm taking the day off anyway.

Rita has transformed from a tropical storm when I woke this morning into that thing.

I'd rather overestimate this storm than underestimate it.

[ncpatriot]

What was your feeling about Katrina?

[Brad’s Gramma]

Thank you, both of you.

[afnamvet]

Mine and my family's prayers for all of you FReepers in harms way of Rita.

[steve86]

I'm still using a Generac my dad bought in 1979 after Fredric. Runs great. I just ran it for five days straight after Katrina. (starting to use a little oil though.)

Any idea how many total operating hours? If you ran it for five days straight that was close to half the MTBF for some of the portable generators (of course, they can easily be rebuilt). The thing about the Lister is it can run continuously for thousands of hours with normal monitoring.

[RDTF]

I'm with ya on that. I'm so glad Skerry is not attempting to leads us right now. SKerry is at a bar while the President is speaking. He also sent out an email about Bush and his failures with Katrina and tags it with a request for a campaign contribution.

[SE Mom]

GOOD to see you- glad you made it through!