Here is the latest information on Hurricane Katrina as of 7 p.m. CDT...
LOCATION...Latitude 24.7 North...Longitude 84.3 West...or 100 miles W of Key West. The eye of Hurricane Katrina is still clearly visible from the Key West NWS Doppler radar.
MOVEMENT...WSW 8 mph
MAX WINDS...100 mph...Category Two on the Saffir Simpson Scale
CENTRAL PRESSURE...965 mb...28.50 inches
WEATHER IN THE KEYS...A tropical storm warning remains in effect south of Key Largo to Key West an d the Dry Tortugas. Some reports at 6 p.m. CDT tonight...
MARATHON....LGT RAIN...Temp 79...DP 73...Wind S29G38...Pressure 29.71R
KEY WEST INTL...RAIN...Temp 79...DP 76...Wind S45G54...Pressure 29.59R FOG
DRY TORTUGAS...Wind S56G65...Pressure 29.10 (Dry Tortugas is 20 miles west of Key West)
LATEST RECON REPORT...The Air Force reconnaissance plane that was tracking Katrina during the day ended its mission shortly after 4 pm today. Another Air Force Hurricane Hunter plane is due to depart Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi at 10 p.m. tonight. Five flights are planned for Saturday. The NOAA Gulfstream jet will fly missions on Sunday, sampling the upper atmosphere around the Gulf of Mexico and providing a plethora of data for the computer models.
SATELLITE IMAGERY indicates clouds tops decreasing in temperature near the center of the hurricane, indicating that convection is increasing. This would indicate that intensification is about to occur. Dry air surrounding the storm is the only obstacle to intensification at the present time. Katrina will travel over some very warm water in the Central Gulf by early Sunday and a period of rapid intensification is expected to occur. This should allow the hurricane to become a category four storm before landfall. Intensification is the least understood of hurricane processes, but it is a certainty that Katrina will be a major hurricane when it reaches shore.
FUTURE TRACK: The future track of Katrina is far known at this time. The official NHC track carries it to just west of the Alabama/Mississippi border Monday afternoon. This would be a very bad scenario for Mobile, Dauphin Island and the Baldwin County coastline. It would be very similar to the track taken by Hurricane Frederic in Sepetmber 1979. Katrina could be much stronger than Frederic. The computer models came into much better agreement on the future track this afternoon. The NHC is keeping their forecast track on the eastern side of the model output. Of course, the "thin black line" of the official forecast track will change many times over the next 72 hours and the "cone of error" covers a huge area of the Gulf Coast from west of Lafayette, Louisiana to Apalachicola, Florida.
Hurricane watches will likely be issued along the northern Gulf Coast on Saturday. Inland weather watches and warnings will be issued later on Saturday.
NEEDLESS TO SAY...All Alabamians, as well as all interests along the Gulf Coast must pay close attention to the latest information on extremely dangerous Hurricane Katrina. If the current forecast track materializes, Katrina will bring horrible weather conditions to much of Alabama starting Sunday night and lasting through the day Monday into Tuesday morning. In Central Alabama, we will experience winds gusting to hurricane force or above along with torrential, flooding rains starting early on Monday.
LOCATION...Latitude 24.7 North...Longitude 84.3 West...or 100 miles W of Key West. The eye of Hurricane Katrina is still clearly visible from the Key West NWS Doppler radar.
MOVEMENT...WSW 8 mph
MAX WINDS...100 mph...Category Two on the Saffir Simpson Scale
CENTRAL PRESSURE...965 mb...28.50 inches
WEATHER IN THE KEYS...A tropical storm warning remains in effect south of Key Largo to Key West an d the Dry Tortugas. Some reports at 6 p.m. CDT tonight...
MARATHON....LGT RAIN...Temp 79...DP 73...Wind S29G38...Pressure 29.71R
KEY WEST INTL...RAIN...Temp 79...DP 76...Wind S45G54...Pressure 29.59R FOG
DRY TORTUGAS...Wind S56G65...Pressure 29.10 (Dry Tortugas is 20 miles west of Key West)
LATEST RECON REPORT...The Air Force reconnaissance plane that was tracking Katrina during the day ended its mission shortly after 4 pm today. Another Air Force Hurricane Hunter plane is due to depart Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi at 10 p.m. tonight. Five flights are planned for Saturday. The NOAA Gulfstream jet will fly missions on Sunday, sampling the upper atmosphere around the Gulf of Mexico and providing a plethora of data for the computer models.
SATELLITE IMAGERY indicates clouds tops decreasing in temperature near the center of the hurricane, indicating that convection is increasing. This would indicate that intensification is about to occur. Dry air surrounding the storm is the only obstacle to intensification at the present time. Katrina will travel over some very warm water in the Central Gulf by early Sunday and a period of rapid intensification is expected to occur. This should allow the hurricane to become a category four storm before landfall. Intensification is the least understood of hurricane processes, but it is a certainty that Katrina will be a major hurricane when it reaches shore.
FUTURE TRACK: The future track of Katrina is far known at this time. The official NHC track carries it to just west of the Alabama/Mississippi border Monday afternoon. This would be a very bad scenario for Mobile, Dauphin Island and the Baldwin County coastline. It would be very similar to the track taken by Hurricane Frederic in Sepetmber 1979. Katrina could be much stronger than Frederic. The computer models came into much better agreement on the future track this afternoon. The NHC is keeping their forecast track on the eastern side of the model output. Of course, the "thin black line" of the official forecast track will change many times over the next 72 hours and the "cone of error" covers a huge area of the Gulf Coast from west of Lafayette, Louisiana to Apalachicola, Florida.
Hurricane watches will likely be issued along the northern Gulf Coast on Saturday. Inland weather watches and warnings will be issued later on Saturday.
NEEDLESS TO SAY...All Alabamians, as well as all interests along the Gulf Coast must pay close attention to the latest information on extremely dangerous Hurricane Katrina. If the current forecast track materializes, Katrina will bring horrible weather conditions to much of Alabama starting Sunday night and lasting through the day Monday into Tuesday morning. In Central Alabama, we will experience winds gusting to hurricane force or above along with torrential, flooding rains starting early on Monday.
on August 26, 2005, 6:35 pm
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