...RITA BECOMES THE FIFTH MOST INTENSE HURRICANE ON RECORD...

[Mr_Spock]

000
WTNT63 KNHC 212146
TCUAT3
HURRICANE RITA TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
545 PM CDT WED SEP 21 2005

...RITA BECOMES THE FIFTH MOST INTENSE HURRICANE ON RECORD...

DROPSONDE DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT RECONNAISSANCE
AIRCRAFT AT 416 PM CDT...2116Z...INDICATED THE CENTRAL PRESSURE HAS
FALLEN TO 904 MB...OR 26.69 INCHES. THIS MAKES RITA THE FIFTH MOST
INTENSE HURRICANE IN TERMS OF PRESSURE IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN.

RITA CURRENTLY RANKS BEHIND HURRICANE GILBERT IN 1988 WITH 888
MB...THE 1935 LABOR DAY HURRICANE WITH 892 MB...HURRICANE ALLEN IN
1980 WITH 899 MB...AND HURRICANE KATRINA LAST MONTH WITH 902 MB.

FORECASTER STEWART


http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCUAT3+shtml/212146.shtml?

[mike_c]

1. holy shit....

That is one bad-ass storm. Gulf coasters, get out while you can! Take your pets!

[NNN0LHI]

2. Heard someone say today that only 3 category 5's have made...

...landfall on the US mainland in the past 100 years. They are pretty rare.

Don

[Fescue4u]

5. Katrina was "only" cat 4 when it made landfall

As bad as it was, there was still room on the scale for it to be more powerful.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

I think they'll revise that after some additional research....

...just like they revised Andrew from a Cat 4 to a Cat 5.

[NNN0LHI]

19. The guy named the 3 today but I can't remember them now

I know he didn't say that Katrina was one of them.

Don

[ultraist]

3. Two of the five worst hurricanes occured in the last month

What does THAT tell us? Got Global warming?

[JuniperLea]

12. And the season isn't over

Anyone know of some good global warming reports that fortell such things? I'm wondering what is in store for the west coast now too.

[Bouncy Ball]

4. No.

God, please no. I don't know a lot about meteorology, but I do know what that pressure measurement means. The lower it is, the worse it is.

When I saw 904 for Rita, I knew it was really bad.

Now let's hope it doesn't fall further. I'm officially really freaked out. We're filling water bottles.

[onecent]

6. where are u that you are filling water bottles????

[BootinUp]

7. If you're in the projected path, I urge you

to evacuate while you can. :pals:

[Bouncy Ball]

10. We are.

Making preparations now.

[iconoclastic cat]

8. Uh, Bouncy, how far are you from the coast? n/t

[Bouncy Ball]

9. I'm far enough, but they are predicting water and electrical shortages

pretty far north into Texas. We aren't ones to take chances.

We're also filling up the tanks on our cars.

I might be scarce around here after tonight. Make that probably will be.

[TexasLady]

20. Us Too

We live in a freaking mobile home, and have made arrangements to go to a house with...a BASEMENT in TEXAS!!! Not too common to see that.
Weatherman said 80-95 MPH winds. Not taking any chances. Buying water, candles,etc...IF theres anything to come back to. Hopefully the winds wont get that bad. Ive got 5 kids and 3 animals. Damn. Just..damn.

[KoKo]

21. Prayers with you and all of our DU Texans suffering through this..

((((Good Vibes & Prayers)))))

[Freedomfried]

11. One "Bar" is equivalent to one atmosphere actual.

Thats the "weight" of the air stacked up above you into space.

So anything below 1.0 bar is kinda like a vacuum. And the higher the rotating forces in the storm structure total, the lower the air pressure in the vortex of the storm.

So I guess a .904 would be close to a 10% reduction in the pressure of the air in the center of the storm.

[strategery blunder]

13. Wow.

It's, like, dropping 10 mb every two hours.:wow::scared:

How wide is the eye? I'm gonna post this on another forum...

[Bouncy Ball]

15. It...what????

Crap.

Shit.

Other cuss words.

We SO CANNOT handle this right now. Houston is going to flood its ASS off. DAMMIT.

[Catchawave]

14. FEMA's there already?!?

Driving school buses and MRE's and water, Oh My!

My heart is with the Texas Gulf Coast, but I still won't forgive them for clusterfu*king Katrina. :(

[Liberty Belle]

16. What were the other four?

Andrew was a 5, I think. Which others?

[im10ashus]

17. And they say global warming has nothing to do with this?

Yeah right.

[iconoclastic cat]

18. Check out how quickly this thing has been buiding: (graph)

Oops! Sorry. This is where I got the info: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/21/173655/946


Tuesday, September 20
2 AM EDT
Pressure 991 mb
Winds 70 mph
5 AM EDT
Pressure 988 mb
Winds 70 mph
8 AM EDT
Pressure 988 mb
Winds 70 mph
11 AM EDT
Pressure 982 mb
Winds 85 mph
2 PM EDT
Pressure 978 mb
Winds 100 mph
5 PM EDT
Pressure 973 mb
Winds 100 mph
8 PM EDT
Pressure 969 mb
Winds 105 mph
11 PM EDT
Pressure 965 mb
Winds 110 mph