stormdigest

Forecasters: Gustav could strengthen to Category 3 hurricane -- OrlandoSentinel.com

 

Here comes Gustav, now a tropical storm, was already a hurricane. Forcasters predict Gustav will be a Category 3 hurricane by Saturday at 8am, just south of Cuba's western end. Then it may head in to the warm waters of Gulf of Mexico, and could strengthen significantly.

Forecasters warned that Gustav had the potential to grow into a perilous Category 3 hurricane and approach the Gulf Coast by Monday morning -- though cautioned that a storm's track and intensity are extremely difficult to predict several days in advance.

"We know it's going to head into the Gulf. After that, we're not sure we're it's heading," said Rebecca Waddington, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center. "For that reason, everyone in Gulf needs to be monitoring the storm."

City officials were taking no chances, and drawing blueprints of how to evacuate the city if necessary. New Orleans plans to institute a mandatory evacuation order should a Category 3 or stronger hurricane be within 72 hours of the city.

Link: Forecasters: Gustav could strengthen to Category 3 hurricane -- OrlandoSentinel.com.

Forecasters: Floridians Should Prepare for Hurricane - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

Will Tropical Storm Fay become a hurricane is what forcasters and Floriadians are bracing for at this point. On it's current track the storm could hit the keys as soon as Monday.

Drudge provided links:

FAY THREAT TO FLORIDA...

Now aimed at Tampa...

5-DAY CONE...

SATELLITE...

Link: FOXNews.com - Forecasters: Floridians Should Prepare for Hurricane - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News.

KEY WEST, Fla.  —  Residents and tourists in the Florida Keys prepared Saturday for Tropical Storm Fay, which forecasters said could strengthen to a hurricane and begin battering the island chain as soon as Monday.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency because Fay "threatens the state of Florida with a major disaster," he wrote in an executive order.

Forecasters predicted Saturday afternoon that the sixth named storm of the 2008 season would make landfall somewhere along western coast of Florida on Tuesday as a hurricane, said Corey Walton, a hurricane support meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Hurricane DOLLY Forecast Discussion

Link: Hurricane DOLLY Forecast Discussion.

DOLLY IS STRENGTHENING. THE MINIMUM PRESSURE HAS DROPPED TO 964 MB
WITH A PEAK FLIGHT LEVEL WIND OF 92 KNOTS. DOPPLER WINDS FROM THE
NWS RADAR AT BROWNSVILLE HAVE BEEN OSCILLATING BETWEEN 95 AND 109
KNOTS AROUND 2000 FEET ALTITUDE...AND THE SATELLITE PRESENTATION HAS
IMPROVED SIGNIFICANTLY SINCE YESTERDAY. IT HAS NOW A RAGGED EYE ON
BOTH VIS AND IR IMAGES.   INITIAL INTENSITY HAS BEEN INCREASED TO
85 KNOTS...MAKING DOLLY A CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE ON THE
SAFFIR/SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE. SOME ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING IS
POSSIBLE DURING THE NEXT SEVERAL HOURS BEFORE LANDFALL.

RADAR AND AIRCRAFT FIXES INDICATE THAT DOLLY IS MOVING ON A GENERAL
NORTHWEST TRACK OR 305 DEGREES AT ABOUT 6 KNOTS. HOWEVER...DOLLY IS
EXPECTED TO SLOW DOWN A LITTLE...FOLLOWED BY A GRADUAL TURN MORE TO
THE WEST-NORTHWEST LATER TODAY. THIS TRACK SHOULD BRING THE CORE OF
THE HURRICANE INLAND EARLY THIS AFTERNOON. THEREAFTER...A
DEVELOPING MID-LEVEL RIDGE OVER THE WESTERN UNITED STATES
SHOULD FORCE THE CYCLONE ON A MORE WESTWARD TRACK.

SHOULD DOLLY MOVE MORE SLOWLY OVER EXTREME SOUTHERN TEXAS THAN WE
ARE FORECASTING...IT IS POSSIBLE FOR IT TO PRODUCE EVEN MORE
RAINFALL THAN WE ARE CURRENTLY PREDICTING.

Dolly becomes hurricane, targets Texas - CNN.com

Link: Dolly becomes hurricane, targets Texas - CNN.com.

At 8 p.m. ET, the storm, with maximum sustained winds near 75 mph, was centered in the Gulf of Mexico about 130 miles east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas, the hurricane center said.  See Dolly's projected path »

A Category 1 hurricane carries sustained winds between 74 mph and 95 mph. Dolly was expected to strengthen before landfall, but the hurricane center was predicting it wouldn't be stronger than Category 1, Read said.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the Texas coast from Brownsville to Corpus Christi and for northeast Mexico from Rio San Fernando to the U.S. border. iReport.com: Are you ready for hurricane season?

Hurricane watch issued for South Texas coast | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Here we go after 2 years of hurricanes not hitting the US coast Dolly is threatening south Texas. So we are bringing posting back to stormdigest.com after a long hiatus.

After rising seemingly out of nowhere over the weekend, Tropical Storm Dolly swept across the tourist beaches of Mexico's eastern Yucatan Penninsula Sunday night and into the Gulf of Mexico this morning.

No severe damage or casualties were reported from the storm. But Dolly dropped as much as five inches of rain on the Cancun area, according to Mexico's National Meteorological Service.

A hurricane watch was issued this morning for parts of the Texas and Mexico coasts as Dolly entered the Gulf of Mexico.

Link: Hurricane watch issued for South Texas coast | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.

Snow in central U.S.; tornadoes hit Fla. - Weather- msnbc.com

Snow, tornadoes and it's March 7th. What's next locusts?

DALLAS - Snow started falling in a band stretching from central Texas to southern Ohio on Friday, while severe storms rolling through Florida spawned two tornadoes.

Up to a foot of snow was possible in several areas in the nation's midsection.

"It could get real nasty," said Dusty Harbage, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Jackson in eastern Kentucky, a region expected to be on the tail end of the wintry blast.

Link: Snow in central U.S.; tornadoes hit Fla. - Weather- msnbc.com.

Texas Eyes Erin; Dean Becomes Hurricane

Updated 8/19 12:10pm EST: 

Over the next 12 hours Jamaica will feel the wrath of Dean and by the 11pm update we should know much more about what comes next from DEAN. Indictors show the Yucatan Peninsula is on target and Dean will hold Cat 4 strength.

We will continue to update this post, you may see some of the older images and content of the post removed just for clarity.

Tourists stuck in Jamaica, Dean's path as Haiti spared

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (CNN) -- Jamaica's electrical grid was powered down Sunday morning as the first winds from Hurricane Dean began pounding the eastern end of the island.

Only a few hundred residents have moved into shelters and many tourists ignored earlier warnings to fly home.

The massive storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 145 mph, was about 130 miles east-southeast of the Jamaican capital, Kingston, and "the center of Dean will be very near the island of Jamaica by early this afternoon," the advisory said.

Hurricane-force winds extended 60 miles from the center; tropical storm-force winds extend up to 205 miles, the advisory said. It was moving west-northwest at 18 mph and was expected to continue moving in the same direction over the next 24 hours.

 

 

Updated 8/18 10:51am EST: Dean is now a Category 4 heading for Category 5 with Jamaica right it it's path.

A site we traded links with back during Rita and Katrina has the jump on Dean coverage....The SciGuy blog (blog of the Houston Chronicle site) has been on Dean for 3 days now, in his latest post he does issue this early warning to South Texas:

LATE-NIGHT UPDATE: It now appears Dean, an extremely strong Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph winds, may not turn toward southeast Texas. The official track tonight calls for a final landfall in Mexico, about 75 miles south of the Texas border. Texas coastal residents in Corpus Christi and points south should watch the storm very closely. Houston also shouldn't tune out the storm, at least not yet.

 

DEAN TRACK...
COMPUTER MODELS...

Hurricane Alley has this path:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Original Post: So we are watching Hurricane Dean and Tropical depression Erin.

DEAN TRACK...
COMPUTER MODELS...
Expected To Grow Into Massive Cat. 4 Storm

 

My Way News - Texas Eyes Erin; Dean Becomes Hurricane

European weather may be some of the most extreme in history

 Drudge today had all these links in a row about the weather in Europe. It got our attention.

Heatwave killed 500 in Hungary in past week: official...
European weather extremes submerge Britain as Balkans sizzle...

UK Official: Worst Floods In Modern History...
Rivers Crest...
340,000 without water for two weeks...
Police urge calm...
Queen 'shocked and deeply concerned'...

My Way News - Heat Wave Scorches Western States

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - When the mercury hit 104, Rick Overton took his colleagues tubing on the Boise River, thinking it couldn't get much hotter. A day later, parts of the West were in for a little relief, but not everywhere - Boise was expected to hit 107 degrees Friday.

"Once it gets that high - 105, 107, 109 - it just feels hot," said Overton, a copywriter for the digital marketing firm Wirestone.

Warnings of excessive heat were still posted Friday morning for much of Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington state. The Southwest was expected to cool off slightly, though, said weather service meteorologist Jamie Meier.

"The high pressure system that has been stubbornly parked over Southern California is on a weakening trend, allowing temperatures to cool down to seasonable temperatures," Meier said.

My Way News - Heat Wave Scorches Western States

Torrential rains ravage central Texas - Yahoo! News

About 3 inches of rain fell overnight in some areas, far short of the 10 inches forecast, but more was expected during the day and flash flood warnings were in effect.

Almost a week of nonstop rain — including 18 inches near Marble Falls on Wednesday morning — left dozens of people stranded on rooftops, cars and in trees. No fatalities were reported in the latest storm.

Torrential rains ravage central Texas - Yahoo! News

Floods Rip Through Fort Worth Suburb

 

Link: My Way News - Floods Rip Through Fort Worth Suburb.

HALTOM CITY, Texas (AP) - Heavy rain caused rapidly rising floodwaters at two mobile home parks before daybreak Monday, forcing families to their rooftops and dragging away a 4-year-old girl, authorities said.

The waters unleashed by an overnight storm flooded about 100 mobile homes along a flood-prone creek in Haltom City, washing many from their foundations, emergency officials said.

Fla. Storm Drops to Tropical Depression

 

Link: My Way News - Fla. Storm Drops to Tropical Depression.

MIAMI (AP) - Tropical Storm Barry weakened into a tropical depression as it moved toward Tampa Bay on Saturday. Forecasters discontinued the tropical storm warnings and watches issued for stretches of the Gulf Coast as Barry was about 100 miles north-northwest of Fort Myers.

The depression's sustained winds had slowed to near 35 mph and it was moving north-northeast at about 23 mph.

Tornado pounds eastern Iowa towns - CNN.com

Similar scenes of destruction were visible across Muscatine County and surrounding areas, where a tornado Friday tore through businesses and homes, knocked down trees and power lines but caused only minor injuries. Heavy rains also poured across the region, causing flooding and several traffic accidents, including one fatal wreck near Coralville.

The tornado, with winds between 136 to 140 mph, struck the town of Grandview, went north through Fruitland and dissipated in the Muscatine area about 10 minutes later, said Jeff Zogg, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Davenport.

Link: Tornado pounds eastern Iowa towns - CNN.com.

Tropical Storm Barry forms on first day of hurricane season: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Link: Tropical Storm Barry forms on first day of hurricane season: South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The Denver Post - Hail bruises the metro area

A sudden storm dropped heavy rain and up to 4 inches of hail on the metro area, enough to turn streets white.

A tornado watch was issued for Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas, El Paso, Elbert, Kit Carson, Lincoln, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgewick, Washington, Weld and Yuma counties until 8 p.m.

The National Weather Service said that rain and thunderstorms could continue over the urban corridor until 6 p.m. Rainfall rates of one quarter to three-quarters of an inch per hour were possible and could add to flooding caused by the earlier storm.

The hail piled up 4 inches deep at Elitch Gardens amusement park in downtown Denver, a spokeswoman said.

Link: The Denver Post - Hail bruises the metro area.

FOXNews.com - First Named Storm of Hurricane Season Forms in Atlantic - Science News | Current Articles

Tropical Storm Andrea has formed in the Atlantic 3 weeks ahead of the official start to the Hurricane season.

Link: FOXNews.com - First Named Storm of Hurricane Season Forms in Atlantic - Science News | Current Articles.

Rare snow storm surprises Arizona - CNN.com

PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- Parts of northern Arizona received more than a foot of snow, and children as far south as Tucson got a rare chance to play in the whiteness as one of the strongest winter storms of the year moved through the state.

Sunday's storm came amid a wave of winter storms that have brought snow, ice and strong winds to the Plains region, but also to the Southwest, including Arizona, Texas and New Mexico.

Link: Rare snow storm surprises Arizona - CNN.com.

Record snowstorm barrels into Buffalo

BUFFALO, New York (AP) -- A rare early October snowstorm left
parts of the Great Lakes and Midwest blanketed with 2 feet of snow
Friday morning, prompting widespread blackouts, closing schools and
halting traffic.

By early Friday, 14 inches of snow had been
recorded at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, with reports of
2 feet elsewhere, said Tom Paone, a meteorologist with the National
Weather Service. The snowfall was expected to continue throughout the
morning, he said.

Record snowstorm barrels into Buffalo

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Tropical Storm FLORENCE Public Advisory

Track

000
WTNT31 KNHC 051442
TCPAT1
BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM FLORENCE ADVISORY NUMBER   8
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL   AL062006
1100 AM AST TUE SEP 05 2006

...THE SIXTH NAMED STORM OF THE SEASON DEVELOPS OVER THE CENTRAL
   TROPICAL ATLANTIC OCEAN...

AT 1100 AM AST...1500Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM FLORENCE WAS
LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 17.3 NORTH...LONGITUDE 47.3 WEST OR ABOUT 935
MILES...1510 KM...EAST OF THE LESSER ANTILLES.

FLORENCE IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 12 MPH...19 KM/HR...AND THIS
GENERAL MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 40 MPH...65 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS.  SOME SLOW STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24
HOURS.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 115 MILES...185 KM
FROM THE CENTER.

THE ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 1005 MB...29.68 INCHES.

REPEATING THE 1100 AM AST POSITION...17.3 N...47.3 W.  MOVEMENT
TOWARD...WEST NEAR 12 MPH.  MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...40 MPH.
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1005 MB.

THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT
500 PM AST.

$$
FORECASTER STEWART

Link: Tropical Storm FLORENCE Public Advisory.

CNN.com - Potential storm Florence brewing in Atlantic - Sep 4, 2006

Forecasters are predicting this depression could be Tropical Storm Florence.

Link: CNN.com - Potential storm Florence brewing in Atlantic - Sep 4, 2006.