039 WFUS54 KJAN 260018 TORJAN MSC023-260115- /O.NEW.KJAN.TO.W.0326.050926T0018Z-050926T0115Z/
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS 718 PM CDT SUN SEP 25 2005
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN JACKSON HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... NORTHERN CLARKE COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI * UNTIL 815 PM CDT * AT 718 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO 7 MILES NORTHWEST OF STONEWALL...OR ABOUT 15 MILES NORTHWEST OF QUITMAN... MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH. * THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR... STONEWALL BY 725 PM CDT
RITA made landfall barely a Cat 3 111mph.
The Hurricane Research Division has detailed graphics on Rita's wind speeds at various times along its path. They generally put together a chart that shows the path of various winds in mph and knots. That chart's not there now, but they do have a graphic that shows wind speed contours for the time of landfall. Note that the max winds at landfall were analyzed as 96 kts - 111 mph, making Rita just barely a Cat 3 at landfall (and weakening).
Here's the Rita Page:
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Storm_pages/rita2005/wind.html
Here's the map for 2:30am Saturday, at landfall:
ftp://ftp.aoml.noaa.gov/pub/hrd/hwind/2005/al18.2005/0924/0730/col04deg.png
Here's a map for 3 hours after landfall: ftp://ftp.aoml.noaa.gov/pub/hrd/hwind/2005/al18.2005/0924/1030/col04deg.png
Those maps are in knots. To convert to mph, multiply by 1.152. Basically, 35 kts = 39 mph = TS force. 35 kt winds just BARELY brushed eastern Harris County. So most of Houston didn't even see tropical storm force sustained 1-minute wind speeds. We did see gusts of 40-55 mph, though. Even Beaumont may not have seen sustained hurricane force winds. The western side of Rita was weakening quickly at landfall. I did see a 62 kt (72 mph) wind at Beaumont airport as Rita passed, pretty close to hurricane force.
