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

[Lazamataz]

Gee, I sure hope we have a few more hurricanes.

WTF, already.

[Bahbah]

This thing is a monster. Another one. Pick ya'll back up when I get to work.

[Clara Lou]

I live in Bryan. We are expecting, as of this evening, to house a group of elderly on our middle school campus on one of our gyms. They'll be cool and comfortable. I just hope we don't have tornadoes out of this. Rain, I can handle. Tornadoes worry me.

[wolfcreek]

To All Those Concerned: There are NO rooms available in Austin! Maybe some rooms farther west (Burnet,Marble Falls,etc.) Hope everyone stays safe.

[Flyer]

I'm just on my way out the door, sorry.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

All the low areas that have flood tendency in Houston will certainly be at risk...any place on the 100 year flood areas need to expect to flood, I think...

[laz]

9:15AM EDT

That's what I thought. Maybe she'll go for broke and reach Cat 5 before the 24-hour mark.

All I can say is -- after this, Stan, Tammy, Vince, and Wilma had better go the way of Maria and Nate, if they dare develop at all.

[Lazamataz]

Another HUGE one.

[AntiGuv]

The fastest intensification on record was Typhoon Forrest: dropped 100 mb (from 976 to 876) and increased 98 mph (from 75mph to 173mph) in 24 hours. The record for the Atlantic is Hurricane Gilbert: dropped 72 mb (from 960 to 888) and increased 57mph (from 127mph to 154mph) in 24 hours.

I'm not sure yet how Rita compares. I'll try to figure it out.

[NautiNurse]

We are completely overcast all the way up here in Tampa Bay from Rita. This is a huge storm.

[daybreakcoming]

Delta may be earning their get-out-of-bankruptcy card.

I immediately thought the same thing when I saw that Delta plane last night. After my first cynical thought, I decided well, at least we're not bailing them out yet. However, why cut the other airlines out of the opportunity? I admit, I am not well versed on those things. :o)

[NautiNurse]

Thanks for the local update.

[Molly Pitcher]

Thanks for this thread. Evac orders for my old home county of Galveston. Oh dear...

[Dog]

So there will be no recon flights into Rita is that right?

[MEG33]

I haven't been to sleep..I do this and then will crash when all is ready..

[Lanza]

I heard on the nbews last night that Mayor White is weighing if there should be mandatory evacuations for partsof Houston proper.

I am right by Armand Bayou and ten minutes from the lake. I am not happy right now. We are leaving tonight, and I really don't want to.

[silentknight]

This is a monster

Look at these morning images - unreal

http://www5.wright-weather.com/bb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49127&perpage=25&pagenumber=3

This looks to become a cat 5 hurricane. What a freakin hurricane season this has been.

[Ros42]

I have a friend that lives in Point Comfort Texas...I have never been there, but is that close to where Rita is supposed to hit? thx

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

My mom is a widow lady that still lives in Austin. Is it gonna be safe there or do I need to get her out?

[Rte66]

The water in Allison that flooded Beechnut came just up to the back tires of my car, parked in my elevated driveway, with the nose touching my garage door (garage was too full of stuff to get the car in).

At that very moment, I started to flip out after hours and hours of straight unending pounding rain, and it stopped! And the minute it stopped, the water reached an equilibrium and within seconds, it started receding.

We had many abandoned cars in the esplanade, though. The storm had come back strong between about 2AM and 4AM and all the drunks in the bars were coming home, then got stranded in the high water just down from my house.

Being a storm nut, I was out there *observing* for my storm forum and the drunks got rowdy, then I got scared. So, I called the cops and they just laughed at me. I asked if they could at least put up a barricade to keep cars from coming onto that stretch of the street. Ha, the cop shop was on my same street several blocks down and they said they couldn't get out!