Friday, September 23, 2005
An update from a guest weather analyst
Sorry for the late update, this is from last night:
Rita is now down to 140 mph as of 10pm central time.The storm is expected to strengthen a bit overnightdue to a warm eddy of water that the storm will begoing through. The good news is that the watertemperature off the Texas coastline is somewhat coolerthan the overall gulf temperature so the storm againwill go through a period of weakening before it hitsland. Also there is abundant wind shear not far offthe Texas coast, and this will also add to somedeterioration of the eye and the general overallstability of the storm. What this means is that thestorm may come ashore as a category 3 storm which inmeteorolgical terms means winds from 111 to 130mph.Also as far as the storm's path, it appears that aftera few more hours of wobbling to the west, the stormwill again take a northwest turn and then more to thenorth. If this path holds sway, the storm will goashore north of Galveston. To be more exact, at leastat this time, it looks like the storm will take aroute between Galveston and the Louisiana coast. Thiswould be wonderful news for Galveston and Houston asfar as a direct hit. The storm though is so hugethat both cities will not escape strong winds andheavy rain. SO TO HOUSTON AND GALEVESTON, DO NOT LET YOUR GUARD DOWN. And also remember, hurricanes cansuddenly change their minds and alter direction sotake this update with a grain of salt and know thingscan change abruptly. Now as far as the path onshore,Rita should head up through northeastern Texas andthen stall between Dallas and the Lousiana border. Ifthis scenario takes place, there could be torrentialrainfall for days in northeast Texas, extending intonorthern Lousiana and possibly Oklahoma and southernArkansas. Keep your eyes on THE EYE of the storm, andI'll have another update soon.
Sincerely,
Greg Berman
Weather Analyst
Rita is now down to 140 mph as of 10pm central time.The storm is expected to strengthen a bit overnightdue to a warm eddy of water that the storm will begoing through. The good news is that the watertemperature off the Texas coastline is somewhat coolerthan the overall gulf temperature so the storm againwill go through a period of weakening before it hitsland. Also there is abundant wind shear not far offthe Texas coast, and this will also add to somedeterioration of the eye and the general overallstability of the storm. What this means is that thestorm may come ashore as a category 3 storm which inmeteorolgical terms means winds from 111 to 130mph.Also as far as the storm's path, it appears that aftera few more hours of wobbling to the west, the stormwill again take a northwest turn and then more to thenorth. If this path holds sway, the storm will goashore north of Galveston. To be more exact, at leastat this time, it looks like the storm will take aroute between Galveston and the Louisiana coast. Thiswould be wonderful news for Galveston and Houston asfar as a direct hit. The storm though is so hugethat both cities will not escape strong winds andheavy rain. SO TO HOUSTON AND GALEVESTON, DO NOT LET YOUR GUARD DOWN. And also remember, hurricanes cansuddenly change their minds and alter direction sotake this update with a grain of salt and know thingscan change abruptly. Now as far as the path onshore,Rita should head up through northeastern Texas andthen stall between Dallas and the Lousiana border. Ifthis scenario takes place, there could be torrentialrainfall for days in northeast Texas, extending intonorthern Lousiana and possibly Oklahoma and southernArkansas. Keep your eyes on THE EYE of the storm, andI'll have another update soon.
Sincerely,
Greg Berman
Weather Analyst
# posted by Jude Boudreaux @ 9/23/2005 10:29:00 AM 
