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

[No Blue States]

Yes I think it is, but not nearly as much as eariler today.
Or maybe its because the sun could shine down into the eye more to show it better.

[blam]

"Great. I just got a call from my wife at the hospital. One of her co-workers who is evacuating wants to know if I can take care of their dog."

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

[Brad’s Gramma]

bttt

[MikefromOhio]

yeah...that was on the 545 PM update at the NHC...

we are about an hour short of an intermediate advisory, if there is going to be one, which I can't see there NOT being one.

NHC is earning it's paycheck again.

[RummyChick]

Watch for this reporter Acuna to appear again. She is being confusing. Shep had to have her repeat it. It sounds like she is saying 15- 17 feet OVER and ABOVE the sea wall.

[mewzilla]

They're microscopic little villages. You can see them on Mapquest.

Are they still around then? I heard on some news story last night that it was the influx of evacuees from the 1900 storm that put Houston on its way to becoming a metro area.

[WestCoastGal]

Thanks Rushmore, it was just very emotionally draining for me today to not be able to help more people than we could. :(

[steveegg]

There will be an intermediate advisory at 7 pm CDT.

[KC Burke]

You got that right! I have 60 bottles of water in my pantry...and 24 in the trunk!

Okay, okay.
But, be honest now...how much beer do you have?

[greyfoxx39]

You have FReepmail.

[Howlin]

Freeper Hurricane Rita Sign In Thread

[laz]

Don't get me wrong, I am praying for EVERYBODY...but I really don't have patience with idiots.

I think some people who refuse to leave are in a state of shock and/or denial. Here they are living their day-to-day lives, then all of a sudden destruction is racing toward them, but until it gets there it's just an image on a radar loop and it doesn't seem real. It's hard to accept their existence is about to change drastically.

A while back on this thread, I compared staying and waiting to see if Rita would weaken to standing in front of an oncoming car and waiting to see if it'll slow down. I'll take that analogy further and compare people who refuse to leave to a deer caught in the headlights. They see the car coming at them, but they can't believe it, and they freeze instead of jumping out of the way.

[Strategerist]

They're on Mapquest now, so I'm sure they exist :-)

They're right on the border of Galveston and Brazoria Counties, on the barrier Island, SW of Galveston.

Anyway, Galveston got the right eyewall of the 1900 storm but not the center, so the measured low pressure in Galveston wasn't the lowest pressure of the storm.

[DCPatriot]

27.49 inches = 931 mb.

Thanks! Yikes. Rita's a lot lower at the moment, right? Jeez louise.

I've been trying hard to keep up with this thread but it's moving too fast for me right now.

Would you please explain just what is meant by the above italics?

What is "mb"? What is the correlation of the 27.49 inches?

I apologize for asking these questions but perhaps somebody could give us a crash course in just what the hell all this means?

Thanks for any advice or input.

[BurbankKarl]

you should turn on CH2...they showed what neighborhoods will flood in the storm surge...

http://www.houstontx.gov/oem/c5ss.jpg

here you go....very large file...all the neighborhoods that may flood

[MikefromOhio]

should be an interesting read if they have a discussion...

the water is going to be getting warmer for the next 12-24 hours or so, and then things level off or cool a bit....

[ErnBatavia]

You got that right! I have 60 bottles of water in my pantry...and 24 in the trunk!

Ditto, from a former Glendalian/Burbankan...but I also keep a three pound coffee can (empty) in the trunk for peeing purposes.

Having lived on the wrong side of the collapsed Newhall Pass interchange, I spent entirely too damned many five hour standstills on the blasted 5/405/201/14 mess.

[mewzilla]

FNC's Janice Dean was saying earlier, if I understood her correctly, that there wouldn't be any radar pics from Rita while she's out in the middle of the Gulf. Radar wouldn't reach out that far?

[RDTF]

I left the office at 3:30 and had meetings and just got back on to the thread. All you Accuweather naysayers need to say your apologies! They were brave enough to call this spade a spade hours ago(CAT 5). I'm stickin with them.

[mathluv]

I live in NE TX. I always expect tornadoes when we have a hurricane hit the coast.