Hurricane Ike Live Thread

NOAA/NHC ^ | 7 September 2008 | NOAA/NHC

[NautiNurse]

Hurricane Ike is the fifth tropical cyclone of the 2008 hurricane season to threaten U.S. Gulf Coast states.

Reports from Turks & Caicos Islands describe 80 per cent of homes damaged or destroyed. On Sunday, Hurricane Ike's position just north of Hispanola was hampering relief efforts for devastation incurred by Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Fay. The death toll in Haiti from Gustav reached 200 people.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist held a press conference Sunday morning shortly after a Hurricane Watch was issued for the Florida Keys.

Public Advisory Updated every 3 hours

Discussion Updated every 6 hours

Buoy data:

Florida & Eastern Gulf of Mexico

Western Gulf of Mexico

West Caribbean

Forecast Models

South FL Radar Loop
FL Keys Radar Loop
Cuba Radar Warning: site gets overloaded
FL Long Range Radar Image

Ike
Single Image		Image Loop
Lat/Lon	No Lat/Lon	Short	Long
Visible	Visible	Visible	Visible
Shortwave	Shortwave	Shortwave	Shortwave
Water Vapor	Water Vapor	Water Vapor	Water Vapor
Infrared Channel 4 Enhancements
None	None	None	None
AVN	AVN	AVN	AVN
Dvorak	Dvorak	Dvorak	Dvorak
JSL	JSL	JSL	JSL
RGB	RGB	RGB	RGB
Funktop	Funktop	Funktop	Funktop
Rainbow	Rainbow	Rainbow	Rainbow

Additional Resources:

Navy Tropical Cyclone
Storm Pulse Very cool site--scroll down for Ike

KeyNews.com Key West News
Miami Herald
NOLA.com
KPLC-tv Lake Charles News
WEAR-tv Pensacola FL
TBO.com Tampa Bay Online
KHOU Houston
WKRG-tv Mobile-Pensacola

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

[NautiNurse]

I don’t put much stock into forecast beyond 72 hours with the storm over land. The forecast models diverge beyond 72 hours, with two of the more reliable models using the outlier GFS for boundary conditions.

[NautiNurse]

Agree—see post 281 for explanation of model divergence. The NHC doesn’t particularly trust what the GFS did to the GFDL and HWRF after 72 hours.

[jsh3180]

Good Morning......Cuba has not beat down Ike too much yet. A brisk breeze here this morning, steady at 28mph. Barometric pressure 29.84 and heading south. Went out to the local convenience store yesterday evening. 6 miles away and I only saw 3 cars on US1 on the round trip. Lower Keys resembles a ghost town. Going outside at first light to check on the boats and put out a few more spring lines. We’re going to hang in here unless something unexpected happens to the forecast by the 2pm advisory.
Not a cloud in the sky right now and that’s a hot humid breeze blowing.

[NautiNurse]

Yowser--WFLA-Tampa Bay showed video clip of Ike's effect on Cuba's coast. Waves crashing higher than five story buildings.

Haven't been able to locate the exact video with the taller buildings, but this one has some impressive wave action BBC-Cuba hammered by Hurricane Ike

[Elle Bee]

I'm going to head down island from Sobe in an hour or so

should be an interesting drive

.

[NautiNurse]

Good morning. Thanks much for the local update. Sounds like a good plan with Ike cruising W across Cuba.

I'm still trying to find the astounding video of waves crashing over buildings in Cuba.

[NautiNurse]

fly low bawana...

[Elle Bee]

that BBC footage @ 284 does not look like a cat 4 ... thank goodness

.

[Elle Bee]

LOL we're all tree top flyers today

.

[NautiNurse]

It could have been taken in Havana when Ike came ashore well to the east. Just a wag.

[jsh3180]

Elle.......a client of mine with a house on Sugarloaf, tried to get into the Keys yesterday evening and was turned back. Maybe because he’s a North Carolina resident full time, home here is a vacation home. Maybe with local ID they let you in?? I don’t know if they have a checkpoint up or what, but he was driving a truck with North Carolina plates and he has a N.C. DL.

[Elle Bee]

I'm going to give it a run

I have reentry stickers and DL & Registration

This is still America despite the tin pot county and city commisions

[rodguy911]

The Republicans are in charge of Louisiana now so there was no storm, no disaster, nothing to cover.

[fatima]

This one shows it.Short commercial in front.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/09/08/neill.lok.ike.cuba.cnn

[Rebelbase]

“I’m still trying to find the astounding video of waves crashing over buildings in Cuba.”

Please give me a shout if you find it.

[NautiNurse]

That’s it! Thanks much for posting the link. Amazing footage.

[eastforker]

What a storm Ike is!

[rodguy911]

The problem you have in the Keys is that with a number of near misses under our belt everyone starts ignoring the weather broadcasts. The Miami tv media(except for channel 6’s Hank Testor one of the few true journalists) salivating for any storm action that they can find to stand outside in, does not help either.

[fatima]

CNN showed this footage with their Hurricane news coverage on TV so I checked their website and sure enough it was there.

[rodguy911]

Business as usual in the keys,why do you thing I concentrate on Nat. politics instead of local! You can go crazy tracking our wacky locals,and it seldom changes,my biggest hope for this cycle is that we get Ken Davis for sheriff. He looks really good.