Posted on 08/28/2006 7:27:21 AM PDT by NautiNurse
Florida Governor Jeb Bush ordered a state of emergency in advance of Ernesto's anticipated Florida landfall as a hurricane. During his press briefing, Governor Bush emphasized the need to, "Have your family plan in place. Be prepared to be on your own for 72 hours. I know it sounds like a broken record." Jeb then repeated his message in Spanish.
All of the South Florida peninsula and Keys are under a hurricane watch, and portions of the watch areas may be upgraded to hurricane warnings later today.
NASA is moving Space Shuttle Atlantis from the launch pad back to its protective hangar, with the launch postponed until at least Sept. 7-8.
Hurricane Ernesto was downgraded to Tropical Storm status after battering Haiti and the Dominican Republic all day Sunday. The death toll in Haiti from Ernesto currently stands at 1 person; storm reports from Hispaniola are scarce this morning.
Ernesto has approached the eastern portion of Cuba, where the government issued a hurricane warning for six provinces, tourists were evacuated, and baseball games were played earlier Sunday than originally scheduled.
Public Advisories Updated every three hours.
Tropical Storm Discussion Updated every six hours
Ernesto Storm Track Archive Nice animated progression of 3 & 5 day forecast tracks
Buoy Data Florida & Eastern GOM
Satellite Images
Additional Resources:
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 |
Tropical Storm Ernesto I
Hurricane Ernesto
Were you aroud in 83 with Alicia?
I'm glad he wasn't in Galveston - you might not be here.
We all have, and I sure as heck ain't gonna flame you for it. But the NHC folks ain't stupid. They saw Michael Brown get deep-fried last year, and they don't want the same treatment.
Good point. Still the NO cone was just a little much for me. I'll just have to trust that it was just a coinkidink.
Still no 11 pm update.
LOL, Cape Coral here, and I share your sentiment. That time was just relentless, wasn't it? By the third one, people just didn't bother to take the boards/shutters down for a good month later, they got so sick of the up and down.
As I was telling Dog Gone yesterday, on Thursday it was hitting Texas. On Friday it was hitting NOLA. On Saturday it was hitting Tampa. On Sunday it was hitting Miami. At that rate, by Wednesday it would have done the full Maxine Waters and be hitting Texas again.
LOL. Thanks.
. . . oh, wait, that was Sheila, not Maxine.
Wouldn't surprise me either, along with the media dragging the streets to find people willing to get some face time by whining about how "Bush ruined my vacation for no reason but to play politics." I was actually thinking about trying to write a parody along those lines.
Hurricanes are what they are. The rare ones are predictable. Most are not.
Weather is a science, but it's one that we least understand. We're better at it in the mid-term than either the short term or long term.
That's nobody's fault.
The more you learn about it, the more you realize how complicated it is. It's not even a closed environment you can study. Effects from the solar system have a major effect and our learning curve on that is quite steep.
We do guesses based on past information and assumptions about new conditions we speculate will occur.
With Ernesto, those predictions pretty much stunk. But Mother Nature is what she is. We don't put the same demands on the NGS to warn us exactly when and where the next volcano will erupt.
Got That Rite,,,He Was There AFTER . As Bad AS It Can GET.
Hey, since we're talking Sheila, maybe global warming on Mars will cause hurricanes there. Women, children and minorities most affected.
No, thank goodness. I didn't move here until 85. My good friends filled me on the joy of having no power for two weeks in the Houston summer.
American Heritage had an article years ago with tons of photographs. Very sobering.
It was just unreal. By the time I'd be able to come home because the power would stay on for more than a few hours at a time and I'd just start getting settled in, it was time to pack everything up again and run for my life. All that time staring obsessively at the NHC site and Weather Underground, just waiting for the next storm to come along and finish my house off once and for all. By the time Jeanne came through, I was this close to packing up and leaving Florida for good.
I guess that's better news. One day over the Gulf Stream is not horrible. Not good, but not horrible.
Am I reading thhis correctly? Based on the color key of that graphic, the forecast for us in the Sandhills of NC is that Ernesto will be at tropical storm strength when he comes through?? I thought it is forecasted to strengthen as it left Florida and got into the Gulf Stream and hit the Carolinas as a hurricane? If this pans out, I will be happy. Of course, I will be even happier if Ernesto just dies on out.
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