Fall may be here, but there's another tropical storm getting ready to make the bend around Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico. As of 3:00EST the Cone of Uncertainty for Tropical Storm Rita takes it very close to New Orleans. Not good...
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Here comes Rita
- Thread starter Cooknn
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This may sound callous, but I am almost hoping that Rita dumps a TON of rain on New Orleans, to reinforce the point that N.O. is well and truly screwed, both now and in the future.
Quite a few of the N.O. refugees who've come to Charlotte (a few hundred or so) have publicly declared their intention to stay here. There's no chance whatsoever of Charlotte ever being flooded (although Hurricane Hugo did put a beating on Charlotte back in '89).
Quite a few of the N.O. refugees who've come to Charlotte (a few hundred or so) have publicly declared their intention to stay here. There's no chance whatsoever of Charlotte ever being flooded (although Hurricane Hugo did put a beating on Charlotte back in '89).
Well, looks like NO is off the hook, but Rita is gonna be huge. Already a Cat 4 and looking like it will be a strong Cat 5 before it makes landfall. Two record breaking storms within 4 weeks! I've heard this trend could last for another decade or more. Wouldn't want to own property on the Gulf coast of TX right now 
Let me ask you a question. How the hell do you test for a Category 5 Hurricane?Lacero said:
Nobody is stupid enough to ever say it'll stand up to a Category 5, because it's an open ended scale... Category Five Hurricane: Winds greater than 155 mph (135 kt or 249 km/hr)
My Answer for a quick simple test for a Cat 5 Hurricane: Lob a nuclear bomb onto the site to see if the structure will survive.
From the latest National Hurricane Center update on Rita:
So what they're saying is that officially it's got 140 mph winds, but it's looking like it's actually 160 mph...they just need to confirm it. They do forecast continued strengthening over the next 12-24 hours, but it should weaken a bit before it hits land, as the waters of the western Gulf of Mexico are a bit cooler. It will still be a big one though.
If you can hold of a copy check out pages 78 & 79 in National Geographic magazine Aug.2005. They show two maps of the gulf coast region with storm paths marked out. One for the period 1985-94 and one 1995-2004 and sea temperatures for the period 1944-2004.Cooknn said:...Two record breaking storms within 4 weeks! I've heard this trend could last for another decade or more. Wouldn't want to own property on the Gulf coast of TX right now
The sea is significantly warm in the second map period with significantly more storms. A worrying trend.
150 mph winds...almost a Category 5.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCUAT3+shtml/DDHHMM.shtml
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCUAT3+shtml/DDHHMM.shtml
Rita sounds really bad, this is terrible news.
I saw a show on National Geographic last night about the Netherlands and how a quarter of the country is below sea level but they use some great technology to withstand flooding of their homes. If people are so adament about rebuilding in New Orleans then they better spend the money to protect their new homes.
I saw a show on National Geographic last night about the Netherlands and how a quarter of the country is below sea level but they use some great technology to withstand flooding of their homes. If people are so adament about rebuilding in New Orleans then they better spend the money to protect their new homes.
macartistkel said:
I'm processing alo ad of images from the Netherlands right now. Another thing that strikes me about the area (totally unrelated) is how much of the country is reliant on wind power. There are winde generators everywhere...
Any who.
iGary said:
What I meant speciifcally is how they build their homes on these concrete 1st levels that just rise up when there is a flood! Sorry it was a little vague! I just caught a little bit of the show between watching "Dancing with the Stars!"
The projected path is still moving SW, but then again, they really didn't predict Katrina would hit NO until well after it had passed by Florida (it wasn't even in the "cone of uncertainty" for a while), so projections are always questionable. It's not good in any case: either NO gets hit again, further crippling the city, or Texas gets hit with just as intense a hurricane requring resources/help to be diverted from the other states. They may very well both happen...if Rita gets close to NO at all, the levees may break again (they've said that if as little as 6in. in 3 hours fell, they may fail).
In addition to the 150mph winds, they are setting the minimum pressure at 920mb, which currently makes Rita more powerful than Andrew was at landfall.
Spooky. As with my earlier post National Geographic Aug.'05 has an article on alternative power source and NL do have a lot of wind-farms. 20% of their power comes from them and many are owned not by large power companies but by the local people who use the power. There's a great quote about it being harder to disapprove of having a wind-farm built in your back yard when it's paying for your house.iGary said:
I stole* the magazine from the coffee shop at lunchtime and once my pizza's done I'm going to sit down and have a read.
*It'll be returned.
xsedrinam said:
Yeah, WTF was up with that?
On day it was 2.59 and the next it was 3.80?
Get real.
Not at all and it could get stronger, now repeat after me George Bush, there is global warming, there is global warming. I wonder if George still believes what his MegaCorporations are telling him?