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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
Don't you know that is due to global warming. The 13" of snow that the Rio Grande Valley got was Global Warming!
Thank you! Outstanding information, very much appreciated. Since they only own a Honda Del Sol, and have a dog and two cats, it will be quite cramped. Anything to shorten the trip is helpful.
Along the coast halfway between Corpus and Galveston.
It's probably the 2nd-best case place for a hurricane strike along the Texas Coast (the best being the King Ranch).
On a map, go down the coast from Galveston Bay, and Matagorda Bay is the next large bay down.
It's not that heavily populated and it's far enough down the coast to spare the worst of the effects for Houston and Galveston Bay, although if this bitch is anything like Katrina, it still could be dicey up there.
Rita looks to be much more organized at this point than Katrina did in that photo.
Thanks for the info..a follow up, if you please...does the term "strongest" here mean the lowest barometric pressure..?
Nice pic, but NN has requested graphics be less than 50 KB.
I may have been a bit hyperbolic. Winds will still be at hurricane force, but closer to 70 MPH. There will be lots of rain with this one, and San Antonio will get plenty of it. I would expect some flooding along I-35 from south of San Antonio up through New Braunfels, through Austin and maybe even to Waco. Lots of rivers through there that will overflow their banks.
I have tickets to that festival also. I haven't heard anything about cancelling it yet. But I expect some word on that tonight. I was hoping Friday's start would go on and maybe Saturday too. But Sunday looks iffy.
Just curious, because there have been several posts about the King Ranch being the best place for the storm to hit, but I do not know what the King Ranch is, or why it would be the best place.
Could you explain it to a northerner?
oh yes.....oh s**t!!
May we please try to weaken this hurricane by dropping Gore into the eyewall? Pretty please?
On the other hand, all that hot air that results every time he opens his mouth would simply strengthen the storm.
I see it on my handy dandy newly acquired Texas map!
My husband is currently sitting on the causeway trying to evacuate his 94 year old aunt out of Galveston ~ he says it's pretty much at a stand still where he is now but he is planning to take 59 north.
This link to a live Houston traffic site might help you plan a better route out for them http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/layers/
I was planning a business trip on Friday out to Orlando and back in the PM. Sounds like I could get stuck at the airport in Orlando.
Lower pressure makes for stronger, more intense storms...
It's a ginormous Ranch - 825,000 acres.
http://www.king-ranch.com/
On another forum I read something from someone in Houston, and the traffic is getting really bad. People who haven't been asked to evacuate are leaving and adding to the congestion (and I bet my brother's in that number!)
Can someone refresh me on which model was closest on Katrina 3 days out between :
GFS,BAM,UKMET or GFDL?
Powell & Black studies of dropsonde and bouy data suggest that 63% to 73% to be much more reasonable ratios that what is popularly promulgated. NHC has often come under criticism with their wind speed estimates. However, in the case of hurricane Mitch (1998), the wind speed profile was unique. More recent studies done by Hock & Franklin using GPS based dropwindsonde in 1999, gave the first clear cut view of eyewall wind profile (with accuracy of 15' and 1-4MPH).
Who owns it? Ted Turner?
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