Usually storms weaken the further inland they get, but not sure how this is going to work since Florida is a peninsula. Don't think there's enough land to weaken it on the current path. Worried about my friends in Vero Beach. They'll be on the dirty side, albeit on the east coast. Weird phenomenon for the east coast, having a storm come from behind you and then moving out to sea. For us, it would be like a storm hitting Austin, then Houston, then Galveston, then heading out into the gulf.
The storm will weaken before it hits florida - both because it will get larger and hit dry air + windshear so it will hit around 125mph is the current forecast. By the time it crosses it will be a cat 1 storm. Keep in mind that the winds quoted for a storm are the highest winds of any part of the storm OVER WATER. Over land the winds will always be less and it's not likely that any place will get those winds (but will get more powerful gusts). South Florida has a tropical storm watch / warning - so looking at less than hurricane force winds. It will be fine. Orlando is going to get slammed though.
Katrina was down to a category 3 at landfall (and I believe the same for Rita), but the ocean rise/storm surge generated while at a Cat 5 didn't have time to come down. Same could happen with this storm where the surge is a category or 2 higher than its landfall category.
This thing looks like a real motherf***er. Raking across Merida about now, or soon. We're lucky here in Houston, and I can't imagine what it will be like in mid-Florida where the hurricane will hit.
This depends what path it takes. Yes in the outer edges might be fine but if in the direct path some of the latest says it could pass through Florida at hurricane strength. All natural disasters have some inherent unpredictability but how much do you want to gamble if you’re in the path of the storm that things won’t be so bad?
Damn. This looks like it's going to be a real bad one. Folks will be pouring out of Florida like someone kicked an ant hill. I wish the people of Florida all the good luck in the world, but if you decide to move out of the state because of this double whammy, and I've read that a lot of the population there are seriously considering it (for several reasons), you should try to avoid Central Texas. True, we don't get affected by hurricanes much, ordinarily at any rate, but the area has been hammered by an F-5 tornado before. Just an FYI.
Yeah, but don't discount the wind gusts. It's forecasted to weaken to a Cat 3 at landfall, but it’s also expected to be a larger storm. A bigger storm means a larger area of damage and a higher surge. Remember, Katrina was a Cat 5 but made landfall as a Cat 3 (125 mph), yet it was huge (approximately 400 miles in diameter), and we saw what it did. This storm looks like a monster. I hope no one there downplays it. Take all the precautions.
Intensity currently equal to Hurricane Rita at its worst. They're going to have to add a Cat6 and Cat7 before much longer. I'm not a meterologist, but I'm guessing the storm surge on the west coast of Florida is going to be insane. Rita storm surge was 18ft per Wikipedia! That's insane. If this hits Tampa dead on or slightly north, the city is going to get totally wrecked. This could be historically bad
I remember Gilbert so well…but I remember Rita way better and I had a less than 1 year old and a 4 year old and no ****ing way I stay for that kinda storm. Glad it missed us, but had it hit us you can best bet I wouldn’t be here for the 2 weeks of no power. Both of those storms were monsters that missed major population centers
I hit like but I don’t mean I like it…just that I agree. My brother lives near Orlando…he got off a cruise ship today in Tampa and said the traffic was crazy.
