LMAO....I was about to say that. I'm on cause I work in the morning anyways....12hr shift thankgod not a 24. Speaking of which....I better go to bed.
The new 0z August 30th GFDL and HWRF models are out. HURRICANE GUSTAV GFDL ANIMATION HURRICANE GUSTAV HWRF ANIMATION
*mumbles something incoherently* Here's TS Hannah turning southwest too! http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200808.html Could be a rough couple of weeks.
What does the traffic situation down I45 look in Houston? Do you guys know if they've begun diverting traffic through contraflow lanes or will they? Too early to know?
According to Transtar, traffic flow seems pretty good at the moment in all of Houston. SE Houston detail view.
Yeah, I was on traffic.com seeing there wasn't much traffic - just didn't want to be caught up in crazy traffic on the way back to Dallas on Sunday. Guess I may risk it.
Holy crap, off topic, but just saw that google maps has even better traffic info. You can see the current traffic in major cities, but there's also a slider you can play with to see the typical traffic patterns at any time of day you want to see. Friggin sweet.
Gustuv is ALREADY a major hurricane before entering the gulf. It's now probably going to blow up like Katrina and Rita and get to a strong Cat 4 or a 5.
This is what they've been forecasting for some time. The intensity projections have it blowing up to a Cat. 4 and then slowing down to Cat. 3 before landfall.
They've got a plan in place where you are supposed to leave by zip code. They want the coastal counties to get on the road first. Our area would still be a day or two away from that if at all.
Dang, This could get ugly. And, to top it off, it looks like Hannah is projected to veer southwest and possibly make the gulf late next week too. UGH. DD
I'm mulling getting out tonight, since I live in Galveston. The track of this thing is just too close for comfort, and I loathe getting stuck in traffic. And when it comes to my family I always play it safe. Of course, If I leave and this thing hits LA and does a u-turn towards us, then I'll be stuck in the Dallas area behind heavy rain when I need to be at work Tuesday.
August 30, 2008 7:45 AM Gustav a major hurricane; aimed at northern Gulf Link Hurricane Gustav has rapidly strengthened overnight into a major Category 3 hurricane with 120 mph winds. This was anticipated given the high heat content of the waters now being traversed by Gustav. I expect Gustav to remain a major hurricane for at least the next few days and it will probably get quite a bit stronger. The one mitigating factor is that wind shear over the central Gulf of Mexico is forecast by some models to increase by early next week, a factor that may possibly weaken Gustav prior to landfall. So where's it going? The official forecast, which doesn't reflect the latest computer model guidance, brings the storm into central Louisiana early Tuesday and bends it into East Texas by Thursday morning. Under such a scenario Houston would miss out on Gustav's high winds and strong surge, and all of Texas would miss the cyclone's "dirty side." As a result, at this time, there appears to be only a 20 to 40 percent chance that Houston gets at least tropical storm force winds from Gustav. Inland flooding could be a major threat, however. That's because of uncertain motion at the end of the storm's track, when the steering currents break down and Gustav may stall, or begin moving southwest toward the Texas coast. A slowly moving storm could easily drop a foot, or much more, of rain in certain areas. In the latest computer models we can see the possibility of such a scenario. We also can see the average of the models at this time seems to be fairly close to the official track. As we're now less than three days from projected landfall we can begin to take the official forecast seriously, and the average error of such projections has typically been about 160 miles. The models will have to shift significantly westward during the next 12 hours, I believe, for the greater Houston area to receive evacuation orders.
