Very latest form weather.com

[brettdale]

Hurricane Katrina remains a powerful Category 5 hurricane -- top winds are 160 mph. Katrina is a large hurricane with hurricane-force winds extending 105 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds extending up to 230 miles from the center. Katrina continues to move towards the north-northwest at 10 mph with a turn to the north expected tonight.

The pressure dropped as low as 902 mb this afternoon but has risen to 908 mb as of 10 p.m. CDT. The 902 mb pressure reading was the 4th lowest on record in the Atlantic Basin. Stu Ostro explains the significance of pressure from his blog posted earlier today..."We look at pressures as a good barometer (pun intended) for intensity. The difference in pressure from one location to another, known as the pressure gradient, is associated with wind speed. There are other factors involved, but basically, the greater the pressure gradient in hurricanes, typically the higher the wind speed."

Everyone along the northern Gulf of Mexico should listen to local emergency management officials for instructions. Hurricane warnings are up from Morgan City, La., to the Florida-Alabama border. This includes the city of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. A tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch have been issued from the Alabama-Florida border eastward to Destin, Florida and from west of Morgan City to Intracoastal City, Louisiana.

Although conditions are already deteriorating tonight, places such as New Orleans, La. and Biloxi, Miss. can expect to see the maximum impacts from Katrina on Monday morning and afternoon. Areas further inland such as Meridian, Miss. and Jackson, Miss. should see their maximum impacts by mid-afternoon and through the evening on Monday.

A storm surge of 20 to 25 feet or more is possible along and to the east of Katrina's landfall point Monday. On top of the water rise, pounding waves of 20 to 40 feet will produce catastrophic damage at coastal locations.

Effects from Katrina will not be confined to coastal areas. Once Hurricane Katrina makes landfall, it will progress inland Monday into Tuesday with a trail of flooding rains and damaging winds across Mississippi and Alabama and then into Tennessee. Torrential, flooding rainfall is possible with the remnants of Katrina well inland, possibly into the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes and the Northeast later this week.

Elsewhere, there are two areas of low pressure in the central Atlantic. The first area of low pressure became Tropical Depression Thirteen at 5 p.m. EDT on Sunday. Currently, it is located about 875 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and is expected to pass well north of the islands.

The other area of interest is a low pressure system that has just come off the African coast. This system also has the potential to develop into a tropical depression over the next couple of days.

In the northwest Pacific Talim has become a typhoon and is forecast to grow to a 120 mph typhoon before moving across Taiwan and into mainland China in the next 3 to 4 days.

[alfredo]

1. I noticed the two low pressure areas in the Atlantic

while looking at some western hemisphere water vapor images. Looks like more fun on the way.

If you are on a Mac, get Solscape.app gives real time solar and earth images.

http://www.jschilling.net/software.php

[whistle]

2. Didn't Bush and the republicans discontinue funding to the state

...of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans several years ago for special hurricane protection to prevent potential flooding and property destruction against hurricanes that might hit the state with force winds like Katrina? Billions for war but nothing to protect Americans against natural disasters. Funds for such events do not exist at present do they. :wtf:

<snip>
September 14, 2004
Hurricane Risk for New Orleans: "if that Category Five Hurricane comes to New Orleans, 50,000 people could lose their lives. Now that is significantly larger than any estimates that we would have of individuals who might lose their lives from a terrorist attack. When you start to do that kind of calculus - and it's horrendous that you have to do that kind of calculus - it appears to those of us in emergency management, that the risk is much more real and much more significant, when you talk about hurricanes. I don't know that anybody, though, psychologically, has come to grip with that: that the French Quarter of New Orleans could be gone." (Nb. this excerpt from a fascinating 2002 American RadioWorks documentary does not refer specifically to Ivan.)
<end of snip and link> http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/35586


<snip>
Federal assistance
After every disaster, the federal government provides assistance money. In a given fiscal year, that amounts to millions. The federal assistance database, for example, lists U.S. Department of Agriculture disaster loans to farmers. With this database you will be able to track federal assistance -- grants, loans or insurance -- and see where and how much money the government is obligating to organizations and projects.

<more>
<link> http://www.ire.org/inthenews_archive/hurricane.html

[BlakeB]

3. I'm in Southwest Louisiana...

and it's crazy out here. I feel terrible for New Orleans, I was just there a day ago and it was gridlock traffic with all the poor people evacuating. I think the whole country is praying for the Big Easy right about now. I know I am.

[wli]

4. getting stronger every year n/t