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

[Anita1]

Let's pray it is so!!!

[laz]

Nagin is "importing" buses from other locations.

Greyhounds, no doubt.

[bill1952]

Winds picking up now. Major rain about to hit PSL - FPR according to my radar feed at KFPR

St. Pete radar shows eye of Rita directly below lake O coming through the keys in a short while

[NautiNurse]

Ophelia was a stalled storm, causing the cooler waters to stifle development. Rita is moving along at a reasonable clip.

[No Blue States]

Hurricane survival list:

http://www.cctexas.com/?fuseaction=main.view&page=779

[sheikdetailfeather]

Let's hope these busses are not Lynx buses. They run on Lynx time. SLOOOOOW. BTW..U.S. 1 in Miami is now under water per a station my nephew is listening to out of Ft. Lauderdale.

[seeker41]

I bought those wind up halogen lights, doesn't need batteries and very bright. Got them at Costco a couple of weeks ago. Could come in handy since I'm in Houston as well.

[MEG33]

http://www.khou.com/

I'm keeping up here..

[bill1952]

It would be nice if he got on one.

[jpsb]

The general westward movement of low latitute huricanes is becuase the huricane is in the "westerlies", a west movement of air caused by the earths spin. As the huricane gains latitude (moves north) the earth spin will tend to make it want to move more to the north, this northward trend can be stopped by a high pressure ridge (think of it as a wall of air that the huricane can not get over), also the flow of air around a high is anti-cyclone which is clockwise and also tends to move Rita west.

Everything is pushing Rita west, something has to change quite a bit before Rita can move north and it doesn't look to me like anything is going to change at time soon.

[AntiGuv]

Well, if that's the case, then I don't see why Rita wouldn't strengthen as much as Katrina since the wind shear is highly favorable to that.

[RDTF]

Gotta love Jeb-
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169867,00.html

-snip-

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday told those residents who have not yet evacuated to now stay put.

"If you haven't left the Keys already, stay where you are. This is not the time to evacuate … now is the time to hunker down," Bush said during a press conference. "What we say around here is, turn around, don't drown."

Bush also warned that even if the eye of the storm may directly hit the Keys, strong winds could affect areas 120 miles out from the eye and heavy rains may cause flooding in other areas.

"It's important to remember … that a hurricane is not a point on the map or a skinny black line," he said. "This is a very serious storm that is about to hit our state."

-snip

[Howlin]

I wondered if somebody would come along and correct my theory.

[shield]

LOOK AT THE TRACKS OF THESE TWO STORMS AND THEIR DATES...1 WAS 1919---2 WAS 1933

[Jaded]

The Super W in Pasadena (BW8 & Fairmont) was getting cleaned out last night. We were there before 8 and they still had batteries, lanterns and cook stoves, spam and vienna sausage. The only water left was Raspberry flavored. They had some Coleman ice chests, too. They were going to keep restocking and said they were having stuff shipped in from other areas/cities.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Reach up there and push that "line" South, will ya?

[kassie]

Thanks for the link.

[sheikdetailfeather]

Regarding the raspberry flavored water left being the only water left in the store, why not dump it out and put water from your faucet in the container in advance of the storm or go and get empty containers and fill them with water from your faucet? Why buy water except for the containers?

[WoodstockCat]

yes, but the more important question is:

How does Karl Rove's Hurricane machine make that all happen?

;-)

[Frank_2001]

Amazing! What leadership! What courage! What a "can-do" attitude! /extreme sarcasm off