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

[Ditter]

Our local weather guy just said the water in the western Gulf is cooler that in the central Gulf and Rita is expected to be a cat 3 by landfall. If it goes into Matagorda where they have said for 2 days it was going it will have been over land for 120 miles by the time it gets to me. If it goes east and comes into Galveston it will have been over land for 50 miles by the time it gets to me.

[HairOfTheDog]

I like how you think :~D

Other hosp workers have pets too.... let 'dog gone' be the pet watcher, somewhere safe in the hospital.

[LA Woman3]

I have a friend who lives in The Woodlands. She was wondering how to prepare her swimming pool for the hurricane....

[RummyChick]

accuweather guy - not bastardi- says it will likely strengthen in the next report but it probably won't be a cat 5 when it hits land. 50-60 miles south of galveston.
storm surge higher than sea wall.

downtown houston will be devastated if this changes just a bit in the track.

[No Blue States]

I pray it doesnt hold true. To be honest its hard to even post knowing how serious this is. I might say something wrong.

[freeperfromnj]

That's OK. I'm hardly an expert - I just trust accuweather and I've been following Bastardi for years. He's usually right on with snow storms too. I just pray that everyone takes this seriously and leaves. My son's godparents moved to Spring TX a few years ago - I fell in love with Texas when I went down to visit them.

[NautiNurse]

Throw lawn furniture into the pool. Safest place for it. Do not drain the pool. Best to turn off the pump the day the weather starts getting bad until the end of the storm.

[Dog Gone]

GPS dropsonde measured a 180KNT wind at 908MB on 050921/2000. That's a sustained wind of 207 MPH

Weee! This is gonna be better than that wooden roller coaster at Astroworld.

[Strategerist]

18Z GFDL has followed the NGP and GFS North; NGP and GFDL both landfall in the precise location of the 1900 storm, GFS a tad more N directly up Galveston Bay.

[NautiNurse]

Weee! This is gonna be better than that wooden roller coaster at Astroworld.

You are breaking my heart!

[SE Mom]

I know..I know.

[Dog Gone]

If you can ship the dogs over here, I can take care of them. (Or, is it too late?)

I appreciate it, blam, but it's too late. We're mandatorily evacuating about 1.5 million people. I'd guess that another million are leaving, too. Just among my friends and co-workers it's about 80% leaving, but I doubt it's anywhere that high for the folks in the poorer neighborhoods.

I'm not even counting the coastal communities that would be hit the hardest and are probably the most motivated to leave.

I don't think I could get to work if I wanted to tomorrow. I'd have to cross a major evacuation route. Fortunately, my company sent me home at noon today with some phone numbers to find out when the office will re-open. Cell phones are already worthless in Houston and the storm won't be here in earnest for 48 hours.