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Posted on 09/21/2005 1:36:24 AM PDT by 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
There has been no change in the steering pattern and Rita is moving westward or 275 degrees at 11 knots.
Problem is, for the last few frames (couple of hours) the motion has been NW, maybe WNW. It's turning sooner than expected, which could have major implications for eventual landfall (not to mention effects like higher tides) in areas further east than current "official" track would suggest. Just something to keep a very close eye on.
I was thinking about that today; if her winds go up to 200 or so, even if she "degrades," she still might be a 5.
There is no Cat 6 and isn't going to be.
While not routine, Typhoons as strong or stronger than Rita or Katrina are a fairly regular occurence in the Western Pacific and 5 Categories has always served just fine for them.
I think i heard they're gonna start contraflow in the am tomorrow.
Didn't Cafferty used to be the only decent personality at CNN? I mean, I remember him from the morning program and he always struck me as maybe a conservative type.
I thought I remembered him sort of countering the leftist line and being the voice of sanity now and again.
It's so rare I watch CNN that my previous recollection of Cafferty may be completely wrong.
Either way, I can't watch the guy at all now. Each time I see him he is gleefully reading email from CNN's far left viewers. This guy reads moonbat rants, one right after the other, as if they were normal, legitimate opinions.
What the heck happened to him? I guess to survive at CNN and be able to collect a paycheck he has to get with the socialist, anti-Bush program.
Her car (at the cruise line parking lot) is in danger.
914 was the last "measurement" (it was actually extrapolated based on 700 mb found at 2360 m). 908 mb was in an earlier "raw-data" message that didn't make it to an official Vortex Data Message.
Hurricane force winds and flooding. There might be some localized wind damage for some dwellings (trees down, power lines down).
NHC uses a 6 hr mean motion. It is on or damn near the NHC forecasted track
Hurricane force winds and flooding. There might be some localized wind damage for some dwellings (trees down, power lines down).
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.
Put a nice spill of barbecue mop around the end sticking in the ground and I think you can spare all your ammo!
at 4 PM CDT a Hurricane Watch has been issued for Gulf of Mexico coast from Port Mansfield Texas to Cameron Louisiana.
At 4 PM CDT a tropical storm watch has been issued for east of Cameron to Grand Isle Louisiana and from south of Port Mansfield to Brownsville.
Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 70 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 175 miles.
Speaking of the Yucatan, we got stuck in hurricane Emily, a cat 5/4, in July.
What idiots we were for not leaving, it was a nightmare, I have never been so afraid.
Nauti, where are you?
If it's 4 minutes North and 11 minutes West.....then why is the last advisory this....."Rita is moving toward the west near 13 mph and this motion is expected to continue during the next 24 hours." Is it going WNW or NW or W......? There is so much information out there I sometimes don't know what is actually happening at the moment. Clue me in!
That's for sure. Tip was larger than GOM.
My neighbor, Kristy, called at 1:50 PM and asked for prayer for her relatives in Galveston.
All of them are evacuating.
Her grandfather lives between Galveston and Dallas. She has uncles, aunts, and their children in Galveston.
The hitch is that one of them owns a lot of livestock and they are not able to move all of them; they are taking their mares and a stud, and some of the cows.
Thanks in advance.
God have mercy on these people.
There is no such thing as a weak Cat 5.
The categories are a damage control scheme. It is estimated that each level causes about 10 times as much damage as the one previous. This means that a Cat 5 is 10,000 times as damaging as a Cat 1.
He is just dreadful. Nasty.
They are saying it's about 15 miles north of the NHC track already, which, all other things being equal at this distance, translates to a 100 mile shift (northeastward) up the coast. It's potentially a big deal.
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