RITA 908MB NOW!!

[gp]

according to latest recon report!

593
WTNT63 KNHC 211955
TCUAT3
HURRICANE RITA TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
255 PM CDT WED SEP 21 2005

DATA FROM RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT RITA HAS REACHED
CATEGORY FIVE INTENSITY WITH ESTIMATED MAXIMUM SUSTAINED SURFACE
WINDS OF 165 MPH. THIS WILL BE REFLECTED IN THE 4 PM CDT ADVISORY.

FORECASTER AVILA

**
from a thread on www.storm2k.org

Rate of pressure drop in Rita:

9/20 5pm 973mb
9/20 11pm 965mb rate: 1.33 mb/hour
9/21 5am 956mb rate: 1.5 mb/hour
9/21 11am 944mb rate: 2 mb/hour
9/21 2pm 920mb rate: 8 mb/hour (3 hour interval)

Gilbert set the Atlantic record for a 24-hour period at 3mb/hour. That's the rate Rita has averaged over the last 15, but she's accelerating. Can she beat Gilbert's record?

For the record, the worldwide record for a 24-hour drop is 100mb (Typhoon Forrest in September 1983) and the fastest recorded rate was hurricane Beulah (6.33 mb/hour for 6 hours).

**

http://www.weatherunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=133&tstamp=200509

<snip>

There are two hurricane hunter aircraft in Rita this afternoon. The NOAA hurricane hunters found a central pressure of 934 mb at 11:17 am, and the Air Force hurricane hunters found a central pressure of 923 mb at 1:02pm. This incredible drop of 11 mb in 105 minutes is the fastest pressure fall I can ever recall seeing in a hurricane, and exceeds the 10 mb drop in 100 minutes we saw in Hurricane Charley last year. With an eye diameter of 25 miles, an eyewall replacement cycle is not likely today, and Rita may intensify to a level close to Katrina's strongest point--902 mb.

[Skidmore]

1. Why does CNN continue to report this as a CAT 4 storm?

[KyndCulture]

4. NHS has not had an advisory yet. Weatherundground is reporting.

This is the Air Force Recon data not the NOAA data... the NOAA data hasn't been updated since 1pm.

I wish they'd get coordinated.

[SW FL Dem]

37. CNN just reported the upgrade at 4:11 EDT

[dchill]

35. CNN reporting as Cat 5 now n/t

[Pirate Smile]

2. In non-meteorological language please?

[Fenris]

5. Lowest pressure of a hurricane: 892

The lower the pressure, the worse the storm.

[Pirate Smile]

16. Thanks. I have heard what low pressure in a hurricane means but

I don't know what the actual numbers mean specifically - i.e. what is dangerously low, what is normal, etc.

[Fenris]

24. Well, look here:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastint.shtml

It will give you an idea of what dangerously low is.

[henslee]

14. I guess that refers to barometric pleasure and the lower it is the worse

it is... I found this stat from a Hurricane Camille page....

"The lowest barometric pressure recorded on land in Camille was 909 mb (26.85) at Bay St. Louis. This is the second lowest barometric pressure ever measured in the United States. Only the 1935 Hurricane produced a lower pressure in the middle Keys of 892 Mb (26.35). Several reports of pressure under 915 Mb (27.00), were reported by survivors near the eye."

[Pirate Smile]

25. Holy shit!

[Pirate Smile]

26. Whoops, dupe.

[maine_raptor]

3. Where is that listed

Last report I saw was 920mb

[gp]

20. sorry dont have a link right now...

it will be announced officially in the next few minutes...

i've seen it posted a few minutes ago on www.storm2k.org, they apparently are in direct communication with the recon plane.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Will Texas be hit with a STRONG Cat 5 storm?

[Bryn]

9. Probably .. Rita is Looking more & more like Hurricane Andrew

and she's also traveling a little faster. I shudder to think about it when she makes a landfall then it'd be all over again...destruction!

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. I called my senator already

reminding her of some little tricks that will be needed, to get the help in...

I feel I am watching the destruction of the golf coast in slow motion... and this time, due to the cone, it will affect two countries and three states.

[gatorboy]

7. It's almost a gig!

Honestly though, what is the significance of the number? Is a lower number bad?

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. yes think of it this way

the lower the pressure the stronger the winds get as they get literally sucked in

[maine_raptor]

11. Yes lower bad

lower pressure causes faster winds, which pushes more water (storm surge).

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Also, the lower the mb the larger the storm surge

Low numbers are bad, very bad.

[Rainscents]

21. Yes, the lower the MB, the worst the storm.

Katrina was 907mb before she hit the land!

[WiseButAngrySara]

41. I was going to ask what Mb is...I think it was answered as milibar. I

know that atmospheric pressure is usually recorded as milimeters of mercury or mmHg, but M?(milimeters, or mercury?) B? (barometric?)

[TheDebbieDee]

8. In layman's terms can someone explain the significance

of the millibar readings and if rising (or falling) millibar readings are good?

Thanks in advance for the info.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. see above

hi numbers good, low numbers bad, the lower the numbers the stronger the winds

[BlueEyedSon]

13. low & falling = bad

[trotsky]

15. Hurricanes are low-pressure systems.

Warm, moist air rises, thus decreasing the pressure of the air below it, causing more air to be sucked in and then up. And of course as it rises, it cools rapidly, causing the torrential rains, etc.

So the lower the pressure (in millbars), the stronger this force is, and the more powerful the hurricane can be. (Not always, but generally.)

[WiseButAngrySara]

42. Dan Rather said last night that hurricanes were always counterclockwise..

Is that so?, or are they clockwise South of the equator. Why are they always counterclockwise, if so. Magnetic field???

[LeftCoast]

46. South of the equator they do rotate clock-wise and are known as typhoons.

(NT)

[MojoXN]

47. They're always counterclockwise in the N. Hemisphere...

Because of the Coriolis effect. Look it up!

MojoXN

[trotsky]

48. It is due to the rotation of the earth.

The Coriolis effect.

I don't normally like to link to Wikipedia due to anybody being able to make changes at a whim, but there is a good writeup for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect

[merh]

22. Hurricane Katrina's pressure was 920

and look how she devasated the MS Gulf Coast and parts of Alabama with her storm surge and winds.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the strongest storms to impact the coast of the United States during the last 100 years. With sustained winds during landfall of 140 mph (a strong category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale) and minimum central pressure the third lowest on record at landfall (920 mb), Katrina caused widespread devastation along the central Gulf Coast states of the US. Cities such as New Orleans, LA, Mobile, AL, and Gulfport, MS bore the brunt of Katrina's force and will need weeks and months of recovery efforts to restore normality.

[walkon]

28. The lower the reading the stronger the storm.

Katrina reached 902mb. This storm looks as if it will reach that, at least. Storm surge at land fall will likely be devastating. Straight wind damage very severe, tornadoes and down bursts likely to cause significant damage well inland.

[Bryn]

30. The Lower Pressure Gets, the more intensity

Rita Number 10 on Intensity Scale (just like Hurricane Andrew in 1992)

[greenman3610]

31. low pressure info

Storm surge
This is caused by the intense low pressure at the eye of a hurricane, combining with the effect of strong winds. The sea rises 1cm for every millibar of pressure - if the pressure is 930 millibar, the sea surge will be about 80 cm. Hurricanes can raise the seas surface by as much as 4m.

The hurricane winds push the surge along in front of its path. When this surge hits low-lying coasts, the effects can be devastating. In addition to the sea surge, flooding can also result from torrential rain falling from the storm clouds.

Once it reaches the mainland, a hurricane may cause widespread damage for a few days, but with no warm water to supply heat, they quickly die out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/naturaldisasters/hurricanes.shtml

[highplainsdem]

34. Link to a page listing most powerful hurricanes, giving pressure in mb:

http://www.hurricaneville.com/all_time_storms.php


The list hasn't been updated to include Katrina, which I believe was just over 900 mb at its most powerful. But on this older list, Rita -- if it is at 908 currently -- would be the 6th or 7th most powerful hurricane.

Just heard the breaking news on CNN -- Rita is now officially a Cat 5, max. sustained winds of 165 mph.

[KyndCulture]

17. katrina's lowest was 902mb

[RepublicanElephant]

18. geez, i can't image what's going thru the minds of katrina survivors...

at the astrodome, esp. with houston under a voluntary evacuation.

and just like with katrina, the weather channel meteorologists are starting to freak.

[henslee]

23. Lowest barometric pressure recorded on land in Camille was 909 mb. eom

[berni_mccoy]

27. OMG. It's going to break the record

From wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_pressure

"The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric pressure, 86.996 kPa (869.96 mbar or 25.69 inHg), occurred in the Western Pacific during Typhoon Tip on 12 October 1979."

[DoYouEverWonder]

29. It will probably go to a Cat 5

but it is still far enough out that it could burn itself out some and go down a bit before it makes landfall. We are still talking Cat 4 but these monster storms seem to get to a point that can't be sustained for too long.

On the other hand, anything can happen so all bets are off.

[stevedeshazer]

32. This looks very bad, folks

Jeff Masters' blog is another good one, he pretty much nailed Katrina:

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html

<snip>

There are two hurricane hunter aircraft in Rita this afternoon. The NOAA hurricane hunters found a central pressure of 934 mb at 11:17 am, and the Air Force hurricane hunters found a central pressure of 923 mb at 1:02pm. This incredible drop of 11 mb in 105 minutes is the fastest pressure fall I can ever recall seeing in a hurricane, and exceeds the 10 mb drop in 100 minutes we saw in Hurricane Charley last year. With an eye diameter of 25 miles, an eyewall replacement cycle is not likely today, and Rita may intensify to a level close to Katrina's strongest point--902 mb.

[DoYouEverWonder]

33. Now a Cat 5

WTNT63 KNHC 211955
TCUAT3
HURRICANE RITA TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
255 PM CDT WED SEP 21 2005

DATA FROM RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT RITA HAS REACHED
CATEGORY FIVE INTENSITY WITH ESTIMATED MAXIMUM SUSTAINED SURFACE
WINDS OF 165 MPH. THIS WILL BE REFLECTED IN THE 4 PM CDT ADVISORY.

FORECASTER AVILA

[karlrschneider]

36. CNN just reporting CAT 5, 165 mph.

...no link, on TV

[iconoclastic cat]

38. All liberals in the western half of the Gulf: Grab your pets and GTFO!

To all conservatives: relax, FEMA is coming! No problem. But just to be safe, send all pets and small children with the liberals.

/snark

[wakeme2008]

40. And all Young Republicans

SURFS UP.....

:spank: me :)

[WiseButAngrySara]

44. Posters #38 and #40...I needed that LAUGH!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Walt Starr]

39. Lowest pressure in KAtrina was 902 MB

And Rita has yet to move over the warmest waters...

[WiseButAngrySara]

43. CNN just announced that Rita is at upper theoretical limits of hurricane

strength!!!

[iconoclastic cat]

45. Perhaps it will begin to warp gravity!