Hurricane Ivan now up to 160mph winds

26 posts since June of 99?

I bet more than 26 hurricanes have threatened Florida since June of 99.

 

and heading straight for Jamaica and Cuba.

Is it possible to send every airliner in America to airlift everyone out of Jamaica? 160mph winds making a direct hit would be something that hasn't been seen since Camille and I don't think Jamaica can survive something like this. Seriously, I see like 10's and even 100's of thousands of deaths possible here. What can be done? This is an absolute catastophe about to happen in slow motion.

 

Yeah, no joke, Texas may very well be in Ivan's path also. That is something we don't need. That damn thing is just too big and powerful. Ivan is going to destroy everything in its path. It would be castrophic if it hits Floriday though. Oh, man I would feel sorry for the State of Florida if it hits there.

 

Quit teasing the Junior Member.

 

is this thing cat 5 yet?? what was the last cat 5 hurricane? i know gilbert hit cat 5 back in 88...but don't know of any since. andrew??

 

Yes, this thing is currently Cat 5. Hopefully it loses power the closer it gets to the US.

 

Texas isn't in its path. Every forecast model has it turning northwest within 48 hours and then north and even northeast within 120 hours.

I know the local news likes to say things like "If it stays on this path, it could be a threat to the Texas coast!" to scare the crap out of people, but there is a large trough moving over Texas, the central US and the Gulf of Mexico that will act like a force field and steer this hurricane away from the western gulf coast.

At this point, anyone from Jackson, Mississippi to the western Bahamas definitely needs to keep an eye on it. It probably will not remain a cat. 5. There is a pretty decent wind shear ahead and some cooler water, but no doubt it will stay cat. 3 and above. If it interacts with the mountains in central Cuba, that will also have an effect.

It is a seriously impressive storm and I wouldn't want to be in Jamaica right now.

 

There have actually been quite a few cat. 5 hurricanes. Most of them don't hit the US coastline. In fact, it is fairly rare for cat. 5 hurricanes to intersect major land masses.

The Atlantic, Carribbean and Gulf do not offer the consistently calm, warm and deep waters needed to produce the massive typhoons you see in the Pacific. And, there are a multitude of small land masses, changes in current, coastal mountain ranges that produce sheer, etc. There also isn't the broad stretch of open water to give them time to build strength. There have been typhoons with 200+ mph winds compared to the biggest cat. 5 hurricanes that max out around 175 mph.

 

yeah, i understand that there are cat 5 storms that develop that never hit shore. i was really talking about those that actually make landfall. any since gilbert slammed into mexico from the atlantic?? not taking into account pacific storms...

 

Just merged the two threads on this.

 

Here's the list of all of them...

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/satellite/satelliteseye/educational/cat5hur.html

Note that only Camille back in 1969 and an un-named storm in the 30's have made landfall as a cat. 5. in the US and only a handful of others made landfall at all including Gilbert. Andrew was never a cat. 5.

 

This year's hurricane season has been unbelievable. I pray that the people of Florida do not get hammered again by Ivan.

 

The irony is that it has been quieter than expected. They downgraded this season in August because there were so few storms.

This has just been a bad year for hurricanes hitting the US coast, or should I say, Florida more specifically.

 

thanks for the info!!! yeah, i couldn't remember if andrew was a 5 or not...just remember that it did a crap-load of damage.

 

Call me a sadist, but I'm actually wanting Ivan to hit Florida.

I look at it as God's way of tackling the Medicare issues. He's trying to wipe the whole lot of 'em out.

Or....

I look at it as God making sure there's no election problems this year.

 

one more question, Jeff...the storm of 1900...was that a cat 3 storm?? do you know?? don't do any research on it...just if you know off the top of your head.

 

It was a category 4.

Here's good info on that storm...

http://www.noaa.gov/galveston1900/

 

Every time i see Jeff post about the weather, i invision him standing in front of a huge weather map, with a clicker in one hand motioning with the other (a la Dr. Neil Frank).

 

Why Jackson? It's at least 110 miles inland.