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

[james_f_hall]

The Weather Channel on DirecTV. He said it right at the end of a broadcast sitting at that desk. he followed that up, let's hope that doesn't happen.

[Lanza]

I knew things had been going just too good lately.

[fatima]

Really.God prayers for all.

[gpapa]

2:32 AM GMT

[GOPJ]

Howlin: we need a "hurricane prep's and recommendation" thread - Kind of like a 3-day crash course in Y2K prep's.

Great idea -- Maybe some stuff on the best shutters - attic escapes - etc.

[jbstrick]

I think the CCRadio may be an option also. You use a built in generator to charge the batteries and it also had a LED lamp.

http://www.ccrane.com/radios/wind-up-emergency-radios/freeplay-plus-radio.aspx

I know several people who have one and love them.

[RoseyT]

"Text messaging will work?"

My friend in Luling, LA (30 miles from downtown NO) could send and receive text messages after Katrina but phone calls were a no go. It was very helpful.

[james_f_hall]

Maybe he got the idea from this article:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3046592

[WoodstockCat]

Cantore also mentioned that the models for strengthening were "scary"..125 kts (high Cat 4).

Someone was on with him earlier kind of kidding but asking where Cantore was headed later in the week...seems Jim knows the reputation he's got as "ground zero man".

[onyx]

That's really difficult to digest and decipher, isn't it?

[blam]

"All the carnage that was seen on TV was on the shore, and about a mile inland (in MS & AL - the NE quad of the storm). But the eyewall (with supposedly the highest winds went over NO). What wind damage was apparent in NO? Their catastrophe happened when the levee broke."

The NE corner that hit Mississippi was at Cat 5. (Katrina)

[SE Mom]

I guess MSNBC got too excited and jumped the gun- it's actually about 2 mph shy of a cat 3...

Just listening to Jim Cantore..he's really concerned..reminds me of the way he looked and sound before Katrina.

Also- heard a chat on CNBC amongst the business guys about the effect of Rita on the oil facilities in the Gulf- they're freaked.

[Palladin]

Time to beseech Our Blessed Mother, Mary Immaculate, Patroness of the Unbited States of America, to spare Houston and all of Texas by some great miracle!

[raygun]

Tell me about it. I was in San Antonio for Allen in 1980. I was in the brick multistoried dorms (not wooden barracks on stilts) on Lackland A.F.B. I remember that building groaning in the wind (I swear I could actually see the walls breath in the gusting wind). Allen made landfall near Brownsville. That's 250 miles to the SSE.

[jbstrick]

"I'm beginning to suspect God isn't a Texan."

You havent heard? He is a Sooner.

[daybreakcoming]

Store managers are saying they have plenty of water in warehouses that will be brought in to stores tomorrow to replinish their supplies.

[GOPJ]

Houston's perfect storm would feed on late summer's warm waters as it barreled northward across the Gulf of Mexico, slamming into the coast near Freeport.

A landfall here would allow its powerful upper-right quadrant, where the waves move in the same direction as the storm, to overflow Galveston Bay. Within an hour or two, a storm surge, topping out at 20 feet or more, would flood the homes of 600,000 people in Harris County. The surge also would block the natural drainage of flooded inland bayous and streams for a day or more.

Coastal residents who ignored warnings to flee would have no hope of escape as waters swelled and winds roiled around their homes. Very likely, hundreds, perhaps even thousands, would die.

Meanwhile, as the storm moved over western Harris County, its most dangerous winds, well in excess of 120 mph even inland, would lash the Interstate 45 corridor, including Clear Lake, the Texas Medical Center and downtown.

Many older buildings could not withstand such winds.

Anything not tied down, from trees to mobile homes to light poles, would become missiles, surreally tumbling and flying through the air, flattening small houses, shattering skyscraper windows and puncturing roofs.

"Unfortunately, we're looking at massive devastation," said Roy Dodson, president of the engineering firm Dodson & Associates, which Harris County asked to model realistic "worst-case scenarios" for a major hurricane hitting the area.

Dodson's firm modeled more than 100 storms of varying power, speed and landfall. It concluded that a large Category 4 or Category 5 -- a storm only moderately larger than the four that struck Florida last summer -- would cause as much as $40 billion to $50 billion in damage. That's 10 times the cost

Wow! Great link. Reminds me of the Pickeyoune stories -- let's hope this one does NOT come to pass....

[TheLion]

None of the models have it turning north. The one I posted by weather underground has been pretty accurate with the other hurricanes.

[Palladin]

United...United...United

The hour is late, and off to bed I go with prayers for all those in the path of the storm.

[onyx]

I hate that overly excited reporting. Sometimes it strikes me like they're hoping for "catastrophic" results.

The facts are bad enough. I usually watch the weather channel to avoid the histrionics and breathless reporting.