Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[smjjames]

Was just about to post about that actually, https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/tropical-storm-hurricane-michael-florida/h_bcb6e01ffc3d2b57d6fe196478839675 Right on the edge of Cat 5. For all practical purposes, it's probably a Cat 5.

[RedKing]

Yeah, latest official numbers seem to have it up to 150 mph, i.e. borderline cat 5. Someone really should have thought twice before naming this thing after an angel, ha.

When they list Hurricane Azrael, it's time to evacuate to a safe distance. Preferably Mars.

[Frumple]

And there's the first power flicker. Won't be long now before it stays off, methinks. See y'all on the other side, hopefully.

[smjjames]

The eyewall is hitting the shore, landfall imminent. edit: It's making landfall with 155mph winds, calling it a strong cat 4 seems like a bit of an understatement.

[RedKing]

155mph is the line between Cat 4 and 5. NOAA seems to be hedging their bets a bit by saying the sustained winds are "near" 155, maybe so they don't freak people out any further than they already are?

These are always the sort of details that get me (emphasis is mine):

A wind gust of 130 mph (210 mph) was recently reported at a University of Florida/Weatherflow observing site near Tyndall Air Force Base before the instrument failed.

"You wanna know how strong the wind is? WE DON'T KNOW -- IT BLEW AWAY THE FUCKING WIND METER. There's your answer."

Kind of like the flooding during Florence that nobody could really gauge because the river gauges were gone.

[TamerVirus]

Second strongest hurricane ever to hit Florida, right before Hurricane Andrew.
Third strongest to make US landfall ever

Where the hell did this come from? Weren't they predicting just a cat 1 not that long ago?

[smjjames]

155mph is the line between Cat 4 and 5. NOAA seems to be hedging their bets a bit by saying the sustained winds are "near" 155, maybe so they don't freak people out any further than they already are?

These are always the sort of details that get me (emphasis is mine):

A wind gust of 130 mph (210 mph) was recently reported at a University of Florida/Weatherflow observing site near Tyndall Air Force Base before the instrument failed.

"You wanna know how strong the wind is? WE DON'T KNOW -- IT BLEW AWAY THE FUCKING WIND METER. There's your answer."

Kind of like the flooding during Florence that nobody could really gauge because the river gauges were gone.

The saffir simpson scale says 157 and above is the category, but yeah, 155 is right at the point where saying it's a REALLY STRONG Cat 4 and it's a Cat 5 would both be accurate.

Second strongest hurricane ever to hit Florida, right before Hurricane Andrew.
Third strongest to make US landfall ever

Where the hell did this come from? Weren't they predicting just a cat 1 not that long ago?

Remember Hurricane Harvey? It went from 'meh remnants' to 'oh crap' pretty fast. It also intensified close to shore, so, there wasn't much time for anything.

Also, by another measure of hurricane strength, this one is stronger than Hurricane Andrew, which was 922mbar at it's lowest.

[RedKing]

Second strongest hurricane ever to hit Florida, right before Hurricane Andrew.
Third strongest to make US landfall ever

Where the hell did this come from? Weren't they predicting just a cat 1 not that long ago?

This is what happens as the oceans warm. Hasn't been any major systems in the Gulf in quite a while, so hitting all that warm water (and the gigajoules of latent thermal energy contained therein) is like getting a power-up. Rapid intensification has become the norm rather than the rare exception over the last few years. It's why Florence was a bit surprising in that she was coming at us as a Cat 4 and dropped rapidly just before landfall.

[sluissa]

Second strongest hurricane ever to hit Florida, right before Hurricane Andrew.
Third strongest to make US landfall ever

Where the hell did this come from? Weren't they predicting just a cat 1 not that long ago?

This is what happens as the oceans warm. Hasn't been any major systems in the Gulf in quite a while, so hitting all that warm water (and the gigajoules of latent thermal energy contained therein) is like getting a power-up. Rapid intensification has become the norm rather than the rare exception over the last few years. It's why Florence was a bit surprising in that she was coming at us as a Cat 4 and dropped rapidly just before landfall.

Things have changed drastically over the last 20 years. This is still probably an outlier as far as intensity and behavior, but this is closer to what we should expect now.

Used to be you wouldn't expect a 4 or 5 except from a long lived Cape Verde hurricane that formed off of Africa. Something that formed in the gulf would be a TS, 1, maybe 2 if you were unlucky.

[RedKing]

Strongest storm to hit the Florida panhandle in recorded history, strongest storm to hit the lower 48 since Katrina.

Thoughts and prayers (in a non-ironic, non-shitty way) to those in the path.


EDIT: Just saw the bit about the central pressure being down to 919. That's insane.

[Folly]

Michael basically flipped a coin to decide if it would get stronger or weaken, and the coin came up heads 10 times in a row.

[smjjames]

Looked around a bit and apparently Katrina was a close fourth during it's second landfall. But that was while Katrina was weakening a bit, this one was still strengthening and likely would have strengthened further had it taken more time to hit land. Fakeedit: What do ya know, the meterological page got edited to that fact, heh.

Strongest storm to hit the Florida panhandle in recorded history, strongest storm to hit the lower 48 since Katrina.

Thoughts and prayers (in a non-ironic, non-shitty way) to those in the path.


EDIT: Just saw the bit about the central pressure being down to 919. That's insane.

Those reliable records btw only go back to about 1850.

[TamerVirus]

The hurricane shut down at least 18 different Waffle Houses in the affected areas.
Wow.

[Madman198237]

Truly a sign of the apocalypse.

[Dunamisdeos]

I'm being told that we can expect some flooding and up to 45mph winds up here in Virginia when it arrives. That's some storm.

Thoughts and prayers indeed, I hope everyone was prepared. It sure did get strong fast.

The hurricane shut down at least 18 different Waffle Houses in the affected areas.
Wow.

Wow.