Latest recon has the pressure at 952.6 and falling.
Flight level winds at 131 mph (gusts over 140), which puts it at Cat4.
From accuweather thread, FWIW:
Ship 115 NE of the eye is reporting 78mph winds and 11m (call that 33 ft) waves. Probably a US Naval vessel, nobody else in their right mind would be running around in that sort of conditions. They'll be fine though. Ought to heading to port nevertheless. Maybe they're trying to outrun the storm, or maybe they're just daft.
Storms that have been on the south and west of the center all day are starting to wrap around to the north eastern sides of the center and are starting to form a classic eye. This combined with the pressure drops noted this afternoon and wind speed increases noted by recon in the storm right now all indicate that Gustav is getting stronger.
The chances of seeing a CAT 4 at landfall are currently rising.
As if that was worrisome enough, the convection moving from the SW to the NE quadrants could cause the storm to wobble to the north. Think about suddenly moving a lot of weight from your left side to your right - you would probably stumble to the right - those are the simple physics of the situation. Its impossible to know if this will occur or how much this will affect the storms path but I'm sure that everyone at this point realizes just how much a simple wobble at the wrong time could mean a virtual direct hit on NOLA.
None of this is certain, but really there is absolutely nothing in regards to this storm right now that should make anyone feel comfortable about NOLA being spared. It may, it may not, but right now the chances for that happening are not increasing.
Damn. Forecasted storm surge:
Yes, that's 18' of surge in the New Orleans area.
Flight level needs to be adjusted lower for surface winds. Its about 120 or so on the surface which is still a high end 3.
It's Sunday and there ain't to do.........
.pat-na!
That shows you how the storm has already started to jog to the north. ing great.
951 mb is the latest from the Hurricane Hunters.
Cool image of the day (the Hurricane Hunter track of winds on their flight)
AHF if you have google earth you can get that directly. Go to tropicalatlantic.com. Its really awesome.
Thanks for the heads up, was wondering how they were getting that on GEarth.
Yeah its really nice. You can track multiple flights up there - they should have 2 planes ujp all times frmo this point on.
New pressure found - 949.00
The rate of pressure falls is really really really bad news. Tehre is also now a 10 degree tempature difference between the eyewall and eye which indicates a rapid strengthening cycle as well.
This storm is flat out getting stronger.
If one can survive the storm, think of all the free they could get
haha
I don't think the looters are gonna fly with free reign again like they did a few years ago.
Theres like 1800 National Guard Troops on the ground there.
Oh ....
Is there any of the wind sheering going on or has that all gone away?
I'm no weathermanny, but it looks like this thing is just going to continue to intensify on through landfall. The shear, the dry air, it's either all gone or this thing has so much power it just doesn't matter any more.
you can't control what the hurricane do. it has a mind of its own.
seriously. this thing is flat out crazy.
Its struggling. If it wasn't you'd see a nice eye under everything. I doubt it gets weaker and it probably at the least maintains the speeds it has now. Strengthening is possible as well.
Just hope that it weakens.
In a really sick way i want this thing to do as much damage as possible, I don't really want people to get hurt, however ever since i was a kid in Florida and I went through a few decent sized hurricanes, I've always been in awe of the destruction caused from the hurricane. My parents always took us for a drive along the coastline to see the damage and i was absolutely in awe of it.
For some reason into adulthood that hasn't changed. Like I said i don't want people or animals to get hurt, but my curiousity of the damage potential is still there. I guess that makes me a bad person huh?
All I know about weather I learned from this thread (mostly), but I keep hearing the MSNBC weather guy saying a "direct hit" would have been worse for New Orleans and that it heading towards Houma is better for NO.
Isn't the worst stuff on the northeast side of the eye?
Nope HL...almost sound like a First Responder....we kinda have a warped view on things.
Good call for us means bad for someone else.
That is what I thought too.
It's good to read that i'm not the only one that gets excited when i hear a major Hurricane is comingFor NO's sake i hope it does not make a direct hit, i drove through NO few months after Katrina on my way moving to California from Florida and it was very sad. I couldn't wish that on anyone.
Well, the MSNBC weather guy knows jack .
*slowly raises hand*
ever since i was like 5, i've been fascinated by tornado and hurricane destruction. i always wish for no injuries or death though.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
