Evening Look at Hurricane Rita

September 20, 2005, 6:57 pm
Posted by J.B. Elliott in Tropical Weather
Rating: 0/5   Votes : 0
SOME EVENING NOTES:
* Rita is a high end category 2 and will likely be a Category 3 tomorrow, possibly later tonight.
* She still shows clearly on Key West radar as she moves almost due west into the friendly SE Gulf of Mexico.
* Sustained winds now 105 mph
* Central pressue down to 969 millibars or 28.61 inches.
* She will continue steadily westward across the Gulf where sea surface (water) temperatures are in the mid 80s. Over on the west and NW side of the Gulf you find 86 and 87 degree water temperatures. Rita will like that.
* Landfall expected to be Saturday on the Texas Coast
* Between Galveston and Corpus Christi
* She may reach Category 4 and possibly even Category 5
* Because landfall is 4 days away, confidence in forecast is not as great that far ahead
* Therefore the "cone of concern" extends from West Louisiana all the way down to the Rio Grande River near Brownsville.
* Conditions in South Florida and the Keys will very slowly diminish. A few evening reports:

Key West International Airport...driving rain, wind SE 49, gusts 62
Marathon...Mostly cloudy, wind SE 26, gusts 40
Dry Tortugas...wind NE 55, gusts 66

All wind speeds mph
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Posted by   www
on September 20, 2005, 7:22 pm
Hey, checking out Rita, flipped over on the GOES W Sat view, very wild to see 3 Tropical Storms lined up in the Pacific!! Don't think I've ever heard or seen anything like that!
By the way..I threw out the question on eye wall size. Katrina was 35 miles wide, how does she rate in size to other hurricanes? Thanks!

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Posted by  
on September 20, 2005, 8:27 pm
Rita has an eye 32 miles wide, last report. And about the total size of the storm, is a little smaller than average to my opinion.

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Posted by  
on September 20, 2005, 8:30 pm
In 1995, there were five storms lined up in a row during the last week of August/first week of September! It was a wild sight!!

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Posted by rusty  
on September 20, 2005, 8:15 pm
I dont want to be the bearer of bad fortune, but looking over the last few redar and satalite immages, Little miss Rita is moving a little Nof the offivcial forcast track. I believe this will case many of the models to move a little to the north if not closer to the western Lousiana coast. But as James always says and like we learned with Katrina. When we were 4 days out , James and the NHC was predicting a lanfall near Ceder Key Florida, some 350 miles from where she made her devistating landfall. I still believe that those in western Lousiana must keep a close eye out for this one...

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