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

[johnb838]

http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/05/hurricane/index.html

[Xenalyte]

Close, but not quite - it looked more like satellite imagery. This'll work for now, though - thanks!

[raygun]

Basically what happens is that as a hurricane intensifies, the eye shrinks considerably in diameter (as the cyclonic voriticity increases) until the storm's center is wrapped very tightly about a very small radius of about 5-15 miles. As this occurs, rain bands outside of the eyewall can begin to strengthen. The strengthening of the rainbands immediately adjacent to the storm's core robs the inner eyewall of the fuel (moisture and energy) for the inner eyewall to exist, and so it dissipates.

Those outer rainbands subsequently become the main eyewall and it too, in turn, will shrink in diameter as the storm intensifies again. This eyewall regeneration cycle (EWRC) can occur several times in the life of a hurricane.

[laz]

I'm beginning to think this storm has free reign to do whatever it wants. No wind shear, warm water... Nothing holding it back and nothing standing in its way. She unleashed herself the minute she crossed the threshold to Cat 1.

[johnb838]

Rita could mess up the weekend pretty good in Austin. Could even cause some major downpours and tornados. But I have a feeling that one way or another the show will go on.

[Howlin]

And where is that, for the geographically ill-informed?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Rain, wind (40-70mph), some power outages, some flooding, and a good chance of bad flash flooding (much of Austin is hilly.)

[LA Woman3]

http://www.statesman.com/

Austin newpaper link....will have information there.
Also, look at the picture of the buses evacuating from Galveston. Compare and contrast to the bus photo in New Orleans.

[johnb838]

p.s. I lived there for 10 years, I know the mindset.

[trillabodilla]

Wow!

I know that they cause loss of life and property, and that they are a BAD THING, but I can't help but marvel at the beauty of these storms.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I read this elsewhere:

"I wonder if the 150 mph figure is based on SFMR. Research has shown that SFMR readings may be unreliable in intense hurricanes. "

I remember they were uncertain of Katrina's surface windspeed because different techniques were giving them different readings...

[freeperfromnj]

LATEST RECON INDICATES RITA IS A CAT 5 HURRICANE

The latest recon report indicated the pressure in Rita has fallen to 920 mb and the maximum flight level winds were over 175 mph. AccuWeather.com Meteorologist believe Rita has become a Cat 5 hurricane.

http://home.accuweather.com/index.asp?partner=accuweather

[WoodstockCat]

I would be aware of one thing, Jackson, MS airport didn't reopen immediately and restricted outgoing flights so the same could, repeat could happen for some Texas airports.

[Howlin]

Yes, they did!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/lweaton/FR/suisse.jpg

[HostileTerritory]

Thank you and everyone else for the advice. I've put them in an e-mail and will send it off to her.

[laz]

There will not be time to see if it dials down.

Hanging around and waiting to see if she weakens is akin to standing in front of an oncoming car and waiting to see if it slows down. So at this time, people have got to ask themselves this question: "Do I really want to see who blinks first, me or Rita?"

[Zechariah_8_13]

true.

[Ryan Spock]

I myself would do the second one...

Thanks. I think something like that is how they'll end up heading out.

[Howlin]

Isabel had the clearest one I've seen in a long time:

http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/pub/goes/030913.isabel.gif

And yes, they are deadly, but beautiful.

[raygun]

See post #1295, 110KTs on the surface.