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

[NTegraT]

Rush is on KPRC KPRC

[fooman]

gfdi extends gfdl to real data. gfdi says it moves south...


good news.

[Spktyr]

City center to city center? Last time I went from D-town Dallas to D-town Austin, I seem to recall it being about 225-250mi.

On the other hand, that *is* road distance. You're probably right about Houston, it just *seems* like 400mi.

[JFC]

Shep will want to be in the big one... so he will be here in Texas. I bet Geraldo will be appearing also.

[JFC]

Shep will want to be in the big one... so he will be here in Texas. I bet Geraldo will be appearing also.

[Zechariah_8_13]

Posted 5:20 PM by Patrick The Hill.com reports that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) is upset that the current roster of hurricane names does not include any "black" names. "All racial groups should be represented," she says. I know you think I'm making this up, but I'm really not. Lee apparently wants to read headlines that say, for example, "DeShawn Kills Fourteen in Louisiana" or "Keisha's Killing Spree Said Likely to Continue." What better way to mark the progress of blacks in our society? UPDATE: Eugene Volokh (who is Jewish) has picked up on the story as well. He is insisting on the names Irving, Haym, and Shmuel.

What about Bubba, Larlene, JimBob & Cooter? They want equal representation, too!

[jpsb]

Mandatory evacs start this afternoon at 6pm. Water (mud) shutoff then too. But I have a 15000 gal supply (swimming pool)

[JFC]

mucho gracias

[jpsb]

excellent

[4everontheRight]

From the coast (Gulfport), it would take us about 3 hours to get to Jackson MS so that is a good time line to follow. My brother lives just outside Jackson and was without power for 4 days after Katrina. My dad went to Hattiesburg MS (about an hour, hour fifteen from the coast) and they got hit with 100 mph winds from Katrina

[Republican Red]

Just to make Sheila Jackson Lee feel better I googled black women named Rita and came up with Rita Dove, an African American poet.

One important Lee issue settled.

[laz]

The point is that we have no clue whatsoever (save looking at strata in various points along the Gulf Coast) what the cycle of storms is like outside 200 years. When it comes to 500, 1000, or 10000 year cycles, we are in the dark.

Al Gore knows. He knows. The voices in his head told him so.

[Spktyr]

Make sure you store several dozen gallons of water before that happens in case of contamination. Where are you in the target zone, anyway?

[No Blue States]

"Austinites need to take necessary precautions."

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX
454 AM CDT WED SEP 21 2005


"THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE FOR HURRICANE FORCE WINDS TO MOVE THROUGH THE SOUTHEASTERN PORTION OF OUR COUNTY WARNING AREA AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS TO THREATEN THE AUSTIN METRO AREA.

http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/tx/discussion.html

[Tuxedo]

Same here in SA. Starting to take precautions here at work and expecting power outages.

[MikefromOhio]

Take a look now...

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/float-vis-loop.html

MY guess is that when that plane gets in there, we will find that Rita is a Cat 5 with 160 MPH winds....

[pamlet]

Laugh... well come on down... hahaha...

It's certainly going to be an exciting weekend isn't it?..

We've got to go outside an get all the loose stuff up.. probably bring in the potted plants. I cannot kill another coconut tree - stinking things cost too much!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Hurricane Cooter DOES have a nice ring to it! ;-)

[ErnBatavia]

Rita's already way too big.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Good for my people, not good for the people on the track...and I have some cousins in Port Aransas...hope they get their butts on up and out...