Update: Category 5 Hurricane Rita - Live Thread, Part II

NHC - NOAA ^ | 21 September 2005 | NHC - NOAA

[NautiNurse]

Category 3 Hurricane Rita became the fifth major hurricane of the 2005 season during the night. Hurricane Rita threaded the needle through the Florida Straits and moved into the Gulf of Mexico. Storm damage in the Florida Keys and South Florida Peninsula was light, with scattered power outages, scattered tornados, and mild to moderate flooding.

Mandatory evacuations are in effect for Galveston County TX and New Orleans. Additional evacuation orders in the Greater Houston Metropolitan Area are anticipated throughout the day.

Crude oil prices reacted as oil producers shut down and evacuated workers from platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

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 Eastern Gulf of Mexico
Buoy Data Western Gulf of Mexico
Current Weather Warnings and Watches for Texas

Images:

Storm Floater IR Loop
GOM WV Loop
GOM IR Still Image
Visible Storm Floater Still (only visible during daylight hours)
Color Enhanced Atlantic Loop
Key West Long Range Radar Still Image

Streaming Video: (coverage may be intermittent)

KHOU-TV/DT Houston: mms://beloint.wm.llnwd.net/beloint_khou
WWLTV NOLA

Additional Resources:

Coastal TX Evacuation Maps
KHOU Houston
KTRK ABC News Houston
Hurricane City
Wxnation Houston

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:
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part I
Tropical Storm Rita
Tropical Depression 18

[Krodg]

I don't know any way to help Jaded, except to pray. Unless she wants to drive to OHIO and then the rooms are free.

I can't keep up with the brains on these threads...is Rita less of a threat to Houston now? My youngest daughter lives there and I haven't been able to reach her to find out whether they will be in the path or not.

QUEEN

[NautiNurse]

2:15PM EDT Wed, Sept 21 2005

Hurricane Rita maximum sustained winds 150 mph, pressure 920 mb

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I myself would do the second one...

[janetjanet998]

winds are higher then the 150 he just put out..recon just measured flight level winds of 153 knots in the WEST quad..the weaker side..god knows how high they are now in the NE quad

[geopyg]

I THINK it's for Eyewall Replacement Cycle. The eye weakens a bit before it gets stronger and bigger. (From what I gleaned from earlier Katrina threads).

[Sprite518]

Why is it so cheap?

[Moose4]

Eyewall replacement cycle; in most hurricanes the eye simply collapses every 12-24 hours and another eye forms. The storm spreads out a bit, but weakens considerably while this happens. (One of our excellent hurricane experts can explain the technical details, that's just the simple explanation that I can remember.)

The reason you hear people on here worrying about "annular" hurricanes is that annular storms don't undergo eyewall replacements; they've reached a steady state where they can sustain themselves without the eye having to collapse and reform.

}:-)4

[dirtboy]

What's a stadium effect?

When the sat photo of the eye looks like you are peering down into a bowl-shaped stadium

[spanalot]

anyone have a plot of the oil and gas rigs in the Gulf?

It looks like this is going to blow well south of the rigs and the market worries should be corrected soon.

[FD_Pilot]

Stadium Effect

The stadium effect is a rare phenomenon appearing in hurricanes in which the inward curvature of the cumulonimbi top forming the eyewall of the hurricane creates an open dome that resembles a football stadium. Its presence implies a mature and very intense hurricane/typhoon. The strongest typhoon/hurricane ever seen on record was Typhoon Tip (1979) with an estimated minimum sea level pressure of 870 mbar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium_effect

[janetjanet998]

i said this before this guy is on crack and he still is..recon just measured a flight level wind of 153 knots of the weaker WEST side..

[RDTF]

look thru the thread - someone posted a pic

[My back yard]

I just sold my house in Rockport and moved up here to South Austin. Lived there for 14 yrs. The worst we had in all that time was a tropical depression that sat on top of us for days, dumping like 20+ inches of water a day. I'm so glad I'm not there now. I do have family that were housing N O evacuees in Houston, and they are all heading up here to hide out for a while. Weird Gulf Coast times. Sheesh.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Leave the first one on the front sidewalk and you should have 1699 rounds left!

I have a 6'6" Masai spear I thought I would stick in the flower bed by the front door and see how that works.

[NautiNurse]

667
URNT12 KNHC 211808
VORTEX DATA MESSAGE
A. 21/17:53:20Z
B. 24 deg 17 min N
086 deg 10 min W
C. 700 mb 2400 m
D. 110 kt
E. 277 deg 005 nm
F. 016 deg 153 kt
G. 287 deg 007 nm
H. 920 mb
I. 9 C/ 3040 m
J. 26 C/ 3050 m
K. 3 C/ NA
L. CLOSED
M. C20
N. 12345/ 7
O. 0.02 / 1 nm
P. AF300 1418A RITA OB 05
MAX FL WIND 153 KT W QUAD 17:51:30 Z

[Bahbah]

maximum sustained winds 150 mph, pressure 920 mb

Oh no!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Some of the wx people think Avila is being too conservative with his winds, but that pressure is scary...

[sheikdetailfeather]

MSNBC SHOWS 150 MPH, 167 GUSTS NOW.

[geopyg]

So what's a "stadium effect". I'm assuming its NOT in reference to the need to go to the Superdome!?

[kgrif_Salinas]

Rita could be devastating for the Corpus Christi area. I was evaculate from Port Aransas, Tx in 1970 before Celia (Cat 3) hit. Our hotel was blown away.
On a lighter note, I think Bush needs to do a lot better PR on this hurricane. Maybe he should go before the hurricane hits and do a news conference from a bunker to show he cares. Then the Dems can't accuse him of being indifferent.