Double Urk!

[edschweppe]

Or maybe it should be "quadruple urk!"

Just yesterday, I wrote about how Hurricane Rita had brewed up from a tropical storm to a Category 2 hurricane in less than a day. I mean, the 8:00 AM EDT Tuesday bulletin still had her as a tropical storm.

Today at 2:00 AM EDT she was upgraded to a major, Category 3 hurricane.

Just a few hours later, at 8:00 AM, she was upgraded again, to Category 4.

That's twenty four hours to spool up from a tropical storm to a near-maximum hurricane. Sweet Mother of God.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

She's a 5 now.

[edschweppe.livejournal.com]

She's a 5 now.</>

Well, I suppose the "good" news is that she's pegged the meter.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Don't bet on it. The meter only goes to 5 because there's never been a storm with stronger winds -- but that doesn't mean there can't be. Rita is over the hottest part of the Gulf right now, and therefore continuing to gain energy. There's a chance that the windspeed will drop slightly just before landfall, as the water toward shore is slightly cooler than that out in the middle; if that doesn't happen, this bids fair to be a record-breaker for windspeed at time of strike.

The mayor has announced a mandatory evacuation for anyone who'd be subject to storm surge from a Cat 5. This is still not us -- we're on the local high ground.

[edschweppe.livejournal.com]

Well, the highest wind speed ever recorded at a surface station remains the 231MPH (200 knots) at the summit of Mount Washington (NH) back on April 24, 1934. Of course, that wasn't a hurricane, but still ...

I'm glad to hear you're on the local high ground - but I hope you don't mind my worrying for a while. Even if you're not directly affected by flood waters, there's still those winds, rains, power outages, washed out roads, etc.