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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
Right here in River City? :)
mark
If true, then she went from TS to Cat 5 in less than 24 hours. I'm speechless.
I think she lived about a mile from the bayou that flooded her home. She *never* thought that house would flood. We didn't either. We are just outside of New Orleans and we were planning to at least be able to go to her house in Diamondhead in the aftermath since she was above sea level. Now she is staying here with us and her house is destroyed.
I was wondering the same thing yesterday. Like Gen Honore would say they [media] were "stuck on stupid" as in the past instead of the future. People along the coast of TEXAS and for miles inland need to be warned to get out by tomorrow or hunker down if they are not directly in a hazard zone.
get the school buses out of the parking lot.
Something else to consider here as well...
The area north and northeast of Dallas is a significant cotton-producing area. At least, that's my understanding.
Right now, the cotton is in bolled out and harvest should be starting soon.
With the wind and rain, I suspect that a fair amount of the cotton crop (in that area) could be damaged.
Combine that with Mississippi's cotton losses due to Katrina and I wonder if we will see an increase in certain kinds of clothing?
Yes, my sister managed to find a few rooms in the Dallas suburds for her daughter and her extended family right near the last of the rooms available probaly around 3-4PM yesterday. Even they were going fast she said. She is a real estate agent and knows how to find these things also.
Stay safe.
The Gulf Coast is going to be gone if this season doesn't hurry up and get over with!!!
God Bless Texas!
You seem to know exactly where it is as referenced to the Arboretum.
I feel much better!
My ex-husband was from Trinity--it's in Trinity County and just east and a little north of Huntsville, TX.
League City is NOT a good place to be right now, as you can imagine. I'll keep my ears open, but I believe they must be under voluntary evacuation by now.
..just what do you mean by that cryptic statement!
i mean look at it on the infrared..my jaw jumped when i saw that..
12:45
UW - CIMSS ADVANCED OBJECTIVE DVORAK TECHNIQUE
AODT - Version 6.3
Tropical Cyclone Intensity Algorithm
----- Current Analysis ----- Date : 21 SEP 2005 Time : 124500 UTC Lat : 24:16:48 N Lon : 85:24:00 W
CI# /Pressure/ Vmax 7.2 / 914.1mb/146.0kt
Latitude bias adjustment to MSLP : -0.9mb
Eye Temp : +13.8C Cloud Region Temp : -74.4C Scene Type : CLEAR EYE
Ocean Basin : ATLANTIC
Is looter season open yet?
Rather complicated to explain but it's not quite the big deal it's being portrayed as. The Dvorak Technique was designed for a human to guess the windspeed of a storm just by looking at Satellite. The AODT is a somewhat new and experimental technique to do this automatically with a computer.
There are three agencies that officially do this manually; The Satellite Analysis Branch of the NWS, the Air Force, and the Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch of the Tropical Prediction Center (co-located with NHC in Miami.)
The AODT adjusted numbers have been T 6.9-7 for most of the time since the early morning hours, and NHC basically hasn't used them during this absence of recon; they've gone with the human-based Dvoraks, which have been one T number lower.
That said it's certainly quite possible Rita could make Cat 5 today.
From the AODT site:
The Advanced Objective Dvorak Technique (AODT) is a satellite-based algorithm developed at the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (UW-CIMSS) to aid the diagnosis of tropical cyclone (TC) intensity. It was developed as a guidance tool, and the intensity estimates/trends that are output on this web site should be interpreted in this regard, and not considered as part of any official estimate or advisory. Please consult your national TC forecast center for official estimates.
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