Hurricane Porn

Rita be Cat 4 now.
UPDATE: Possibly Cat 5. 140 knot winds are, what, 160 mph? Wow.
UPDATE: The 10 p.m. CST reading has her at 175 mph and 897MB. Good Lord. What a monster.
Updated update: Bush new in February! Why wasn’t FEMA there then?!?!?!?!?

categories Public Service Announcement | | datetime September 21, 2005 11:56 pm

2 Responses to “Hurricane Porn”

  1. Mr. Bingley says:
    September 22, 2005 at 8:11 am

    It looks like she may not weaken as much as they were hoping:

    THE INTENSITY FORECAST REMAINS SOMEWHAT PROBLEMATIC. FIRST…THE
    MORE NORTHERLY TRACK WILL LIKELY KEEP RITA OVER THE LOOP CURRENT
    LONGER THAN PREVIOUSLY EXPECTED…SO THE EFFECT OF LOWER OCEAN HEAT
    CONTENT MAY BE SOMEWHAT LESS THAN PREVIOUSLY EXPECTED IN THE FIRST
    24 HR OR SO. SECOND…THE GFS AND SHIP MODELS FORECAST SIGNIFICANT
    SHEAR OVER RITA AFTER 24 HR…WHICH RESULTS IN SHIPS CALLING FOR
    SIGNIFICANT WEAKENING. SHEAR ANALYSES FROM CIMSS AT THE UNIVERSITY
    OF WISCONSIN SHOW ABOUT 12 KT OF SOUTHERLY SHEAR CAUSED BY AN
    UPPER-LEVEL ANTICYCLONE EAST OF RITA…AND THE LARGE-SCALE MODELS
    SUGGEST THIS PATTERN WILL CONTINUE UNTIL LANDFALL. HOWEVER…THE
    GFS AND SHIPS MAY BE OVERDOING THE SHEAR. FINALLY…THERE WILL BE
    AT LEAST ONE AND POSSIBLE MORE CONCENTRIC EYEWALL CYCLES BEFORE
    LANDFALL. THE INTENSITY FORECAST IS BASED ON THE PREMISE THAT
    SHEAR AND REDUCED OUTFLOW WILL CAUSE A GRADUAL WEAKENING…
    ESPECIALLY AFTER RITA MOVES WEST OF THE LOOP CURRENT IN 24-36 HR.
    SUPERIMPOSED ON TOP OF THIS WILL BE FLUCTUATIONS CAUSED BY
    CONCENTRIC EYEWALL CYCLES. THE NEW INTENSITY FORECAST IS AN UPDATE
    OF THE PREVIOUS FORECAST…CALLING FOR SLOW OVERALL WEAKENING BUT
    NOT AS MUCH AS SHOWN BY SHIPS.

  2. Ken Summers says:
    September 22, 2005 at 9:56 am

    Check this out, too.

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