Wilma. Whoa.
Those infrared hurricane images remind me of a staph infection I had on my thigh a couple of years ago: a red, angry center with outer bands of decreasing intensity.
Now that we Southeast Texans know what it's like to be in a hurricane's center, we know what's coming for those poor Florida folks supposedly in the track of that record-setting meteorological staph infection known as Hurricane Wilma, at this time a Category 5 monster and the most intense hurricane ever recorded.
It's a stomach-sickening site, the projected pathway and predictions of doom and destruction.
But Florida people in general are more experienced than we are. They know their state's neck sticks out into hurricane turf. They are used to these things, surviving four wind-blasting whoppers last year alone, punching both sides of the peninsula with brass-knuckle fists. Charley. Francis. Ivan. Jeanne.
Only three hurricanes have been Category 5 at U.S. landfall: an unnamed storm hitting the Florida Keys in 1935, Camille along the Gulf Coast in 1969 and that diabolical Andrew in Florida in 1992.
Here's a good link to powerful storms: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/deadly/Table4.htm
Rita, while out in the Gulf, became a Category 5 and history's third most intense storm, based on low barometric pressure. (I still don't fully understand all this intensity-barometer stuff.) Wilma in the past 24 hours knocked her down to No. 3.
Wilma is projected to be a Category 3 or 4 by landfall ... maybe. After pumping out 175 mph winds earlier today, she lost 10 mph by midday and could come ashore with only 110 mph, chopped down by various meteorological factors, according to various news reports.
However, all this predicting is rather unpredictable. Two days before Rita hit, the storm was still projected to strike halfway between Houston and Corpus Christi.
Rita reportedly came ashore with 120 mph winds and was still cranking around 110 mph when she reached Beaumont, although official numbers will take some time to compile. A lot of wind gauges blew away, so weather analyzers are conducting "forensic meteorology," looking at damage and whatnot, to put together the picture.
Although forecasts for now call for Wilma to be a bit wimpier than Rita at landfall, it's disheartening to know what's coming Saturday, probably around the Fort Myers, Fla., area.
People might die. People will lose homes and businesses. Power and water will go out. Trees and debris will litter the community for weeks. Gas will be scarce. Simple pleasures, such as cable TV and Egg McMuffins, will temporarily disappear. Hassles will pile atop hassles.
Hurricane season doesn't end until late November, so it might be only a matter of days or weeks before another menacing red blotch appears on the infrared.
The storm will leave another hole in another community, much in the way that nasty staph infection left a hole in my leg.
But most things heal with time.
Now that we Southeast Texans know what it's like to be in a hurricane's center, we know what's coming for those poor Florida folks supposedly in the track of that record-setting meteorological staph infection known as Hurricane Wilma, at this time a Category 5 monster and the most intense hurricane ever recorded.
It's a stomach-sickening site, the projected pathway and predictions of doom and destruction.
But Florida people in general are more experienced than we are. They know their state's neck sticks out into hurricane turf. They are used to these things, surviving four wind-blasting whoppers last year alone, punching both sides of the peninsula with brass-knuckle fists. Charley. Francis. Ivan. Jeanne.
Only three hurricanes have been Category 5 at U.S. landfall: an unnamed storm hitting the Florida Keys in 1935, Camille along the Gulf Coast in 1969 and that diabolical Andrew in Florida in 1992.
Here's a good link to powerful storms: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/deadly/Table4.htm
Rita, while out in the Gulf, became a Category 5 and history's third most intense storm, based on low barometric pressure. (I still don't fully understand all this intensity-barometer stuff.) Wilma in the past 24 hours knocked her down to No. 3.
Wilma is projected to be a Category 3 or 4 by landfall ... maybe. After pumping out 175 mph winds earlier today, she lost 10 mph by midday and could come ashore with only 110 mph, chopped down by various meteorological factors, according to various news reports.
However, all this predicting is rather unpredictable. Two days before Rita hit, the storm was still projected to strike halfway between Houston and Corpus Christi.
Rita reportedly came ashore with 120 mph winds and was still cranking around 110 mph when she reached Beaumont, although official numbers will take some time to compile. A lot of wind gauges blew away, so weather analyzers are conducting "forensic meteorology," looking at damage and whatnot, to put together the picture.
Although forecasts for now call for Wilma to be a bit wimpier than Rita at landfall, it's disheartening to know what's coming Saturday, probably around the Fort Myers, Fla., area.
People might die. People will lose homes and businesses. Power and water will go out. Trees and debris will litter the community for weeks. Gas will be scarce. Simple pleasures, such as cable TV and Egg McMuffins, will temporarily disappear. Hassles will pile atop hassles.
Hurricane season doesn't end until late November, so it might be only a matter of days or weeks before another menacing red blotch appears on the infrared.
The storm will leave another hole in another community, much in the way that nasty staph infection left a hole in my leg.
But most things heal with time.
posted by Brian Pearson at 2:58 PM
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