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

[TomGuy]

Galveston has buses lining up, drivers available, anticipate no NO fiasco.

lol.

Sound like Galveston did NOT elect a Mayor like Numbnut Nagin. He still apparently can't decide whether to call people back to NO or evac those who are there now.

[Rightly Biased]

If she comes in the Victoria TX region looks like I'll work all weekend.

Thanks for the updates NN!!

[American72]

Thanks for the Houston pings Flyer - I appreciate it. Getting a little nervous here in Spring Branch. Allison didn't flood us, but it came too close for comfort. We have flood insurance now, though. Stay safe!!

[Lanza]

Unlike ABC 13, NBC channel 2 is only showing local news right now and not going to the hideous Today show. So, that's the channel to be on for local updates. 13 went on to GMA.

[NautiNurse]

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.

Looks like Rita gained 60mph in 24 hours. Don't know if this will be in any record book. The Cat 1 75 mph wind report came from a ham radio operator, and recon is out of service now.

[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.

Rita has dropped 40mb (from 988 to 948) and increased 65mph (from 70mph to 135mph) in the past 24 hours. So, it's beaten Gilbert in mph increase but not in millibar drop.

[TomGuy]

Sort of like the 'pronounced wash-a-tah' mountains in Arkansas. Spelling is 'Ouachita'.

[Rte66]

That's what was so scary about Allison. Usually, everything is running off and draining into the Gulf. With Allison, there was so much water that the Gulf was coming up into Galveston Bay and the Bay was coming up the bayous. It was very weird to see water flowing upstream.

The San Bernard, also, was salt water very far upstream.

[AntiGuv]

Official stats in my post #266. They might change it with further analysis of the data, but it's more likely that they will increase the mb drop than that they will decrease the wind speed.

[tx_eggman]

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

Hope they're out of there, Point Comfort may cease to exist. I've fished out of there many times, it has no protection at all from any significant storm surge.

Here's Point Comfort

[VirginiaMom]

Fox and Friends were just interviewing the lady in Galveston that's coordinating the bus evac there and they asked if she was afraid the bus drivers would run away like N.Orleans drivers allegedly did.

She said of course they won't....the drivers have their family members and their pets on the busses with them. Now there's an idea! Too bad Nagin didn't think of that.

[SE Mom]

Thank you- seems like we're breaking all kinds of records this year.

Gilbert was really unbelievable.

[laz]

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

As she continues to expand, the upper Keys and the Homestead area continue to remain under the outer bands even as she moves away. Hell, I can look out my window and see her still overhead here in Cutler Ridge.

[Pharmboy]

Dear Nauti (and anyone in Dallas): I have a meeting scheduled in Big D for Friday...since you have so much experience with these 'canes, do you think flights out of DFW will be affected by Friday, say, 6PM? Thanks in advance for any help here...
PB

[steveegg]

Just damn. I hope the sat interpretation is wrong.

[meyer]

Good Lord! I went to sleep last night at Cat-2. Wake up, turn on FNC, and it's a Cat-4. And I still had to go out and get sprinklers started on the lawn, since we won't be getting any rain out of this one in eastern Tennessee.

Stay safe, people. Especially those of you in Glavaston, Houston, and nearby areas. We need a great big Canadian cold front right now.

[rintense]

All those people who left NO for Houston are in for a BIG surprise. I bet Gov. Perry will handle this a bit different than Blanco.

[NautiNurse]

You should be ok with the flight out of DFW late Fri afternoon. No guarantees.

[Ros42]

omg! Thank you for that info, I will call down there asap!

[meyer]

She said of course they won't....the drivers have their family members and their pets on the busses with them. Now there's an idea! Too bad Nagin didn't think of that.

There's a lot to learn from Nagin's mistakes. Or from Jeb's successes for that matter.