From Jeff Master’s Wunder Blog
Ike is now larger than Katrina was, both in its radius of tropical storm force winds–275 miles–and in it radius of hurricane force winds–115 miles. For comparison, Katrina’s tropical storm and hurricane force winds extended out 230 and 105 miles, respectively.
So pretty much anyone on the Texas coast has the chance to get at least tropical storm strength winds.
BTW, Corpus Christi to Port Aurhur (edges of the ‘cone of probablity’) is about 250 miles. In other words, the tropical storm winds now is wider than the projected landfall possibilities.
We usually focus on storms in the Atlantic, but sometimes North America is effected by tropical storms from the Pacific. And it looks like Meixco is about to get punched it both sides of the jaw this weekend.
Of course that is Hurricane Ike coming from the Gulf of Mexico. Coming from the Pacific is Tropical Storm Lowell.
I haven’t posted about Hanna or Ike for a while because I’ve been waiting to see what they did. Hanna thankfully stayed as a tropical storm and went up the east coast not bring a terrible amount of damage.
Now that Ike has finally made it’s approach into the Caribbean, the path is becoming a bit more clear. Every day for the last few the projected path has been all over the board.
As you can see, as of right now all of the Gulf Coast states need to pay attention as Ike probably will hit as a major hurricane. Right now it’s looking to aim at Houston/Galveston. But of course, all dealing with Gustav needs to watch out also. If Ike stays to the south and west of New Orleans, they will get the right-front quadrant of the storm bringing a very unstable condition.
The other thing I wanted to point out is that Cuba and Haiti especially have been really hit hard the last few weeks. I’ve lost count, but I think the death toll in the two countries is somewhere in the 5-700’s?
FLHurricane.com: Hurricane Ike Spotlight
You ready for this? Hanna, Ike, and what will be Josephine are just training acrosss the Atlantic.
That’s Hanna to the west, Ike in the middle, and what will become Josephine to the west. Paths familiar much?
Hurricane Gustav finally made landfall today south-west of New Orleans. Thankfully, as the Weather Nerd points out, New Orleans should turn out okay but also:
Let’s all remember that there’s more to Louisiana than New Orleans, and just because our teevees show us that there’s no damage in the French Quarter doesn’t mean people aren’t suffering elsewhere.
So now, here in Orlando, we’re watching Hurricane Hanna and what will probably become Hurricane Ike.
Hanna became a hurricane today south of the Bahamahs and Tropical Depresion 9 (to become Ike) formed out in the eastern waters. Ike looks to follow Hanna’s path slightly so we’ll just have to keep an eye on him as well.
Hopefully Hanna won’t be a huge mess as it looks to land between Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC. I know the upstate of SC will be hoping Hanna will fulfill the promise Fay didn’t keep and come on up and dump some much needed rain there.
click chart for larger view
source
He is a big storm and you can see where he’s going. We started getting rain yesterday and expect more bands to come through today. It’s off and on gusty in the 20-30 mph range in Orlando.
One thing to pay attention to is if this storm drifts to the west, it could come in at a steep angle. It may not make much of a change in New Orleans as they will get the brunt of it almost no matter what. But if it comes in at the steep angle, that makes it stronger as it moves into Texas. Houston will need to watch for that.
My fiend Kevin shared some good resources to track the storm including a guy riding it out in New Orleans, blogging and twittering.
All day yesterday we were getting soaked. It was Gustav. He was still over Cuba but was raining on us all day. We expect a bit more today as he moves on to Louisiana. But check out this time lapse video from NASA showing Gustav’s growth over the last 3-4 days.
That’s Hurricane Gustav (Cat 3) to the west and Tropical Storm Hanna to the east.
I always knew that once a tropical storm or weak hurricane got out into the Gulf of Mexico it usually errupts and intensifies into a major hurricane quickly. Both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita did it in 2005.
But I didn’t really know why it happens. I know the water is warm (hot!) but I didn’t know until today why this really happens. It’s called the Loop Current.
…if the water is still warm at lower depths, then water being pulled to the surface remains warm, and the hurricane can increase in intensity if other atmospheric conditions are also conducive to strengthening. Meteorologists look for areas of deep warm water of at least 26 degrees Celsius (79°F). A continuous supply of warm water is one of several critical factors in enabling hurricanes to intensify beyond the initial level of a major hurricane (Category 3)
How warm is the Gulf right now in relation to Gustav? You tell me:
This isn’t always a guarantee. If the storm moves fast it may not intensify to a grand scale. However, since Hurricane Ivan in 2004, the 5 hurricanes to make it to Cat 5 strength, 3 of them went straight through the Loop Current (this isn’t counting the Cat 3 and 4 storms) .
So keep your eye on Gustav. He’s heading right through the Loop Current.
Thankfully he’s not supposed to get to Cat 5, but this explains why storms like Gustav can grow very fast in the Gulf. Keep your eye on Gustav.
This is bad, bad, bad. Here’s what we have going on right now with Gustav to the west and Hanna to the east.
Close to 50 are dead in the Caribbean because of Fay and Gustav already.
It’s about to get worse though not just for the Caribbean. Here’s what Hurricane Gustav is expected to do this weekend:
It goes without saying that this is just horrible for New Orleans. And you may have heard about the oil rigs that are in trouble. I found this map somewhere but can’t remember where. It’s where some of the current oil rigs are around Louisiana:
Yeah, most of those oil platforms are in trouble.
My heart goes out to the Cubans and Hispolians. It’s been a tough couple weeks. And it’s probably going to get worse.
The storm track closest to Cuba was Fay. The one on top of Jamiaca is Gustav. The path aiming for Cuba from the North is Hanna.
