katrina

[Guest guest]

Hurricane Katrina made its third and final landfall around 10 am CDT along the

Louisiana/Mississippi border with top winds of 125 mph. This landfall point is a

little west of where Hurricane Camille made landfall in 1969. Hurricane Katrina

made its first landfall of the day near Buras, Louisiana at 6:10 am CDT with top

winds of 140 mph. Katrina is moving northward at 16 mph and should continue to

push into central Mississippi this afternoon. Hurricane force winds could follow

Katrina inland for another 70 to 100 miles. Winds to 81 mph have been felt over

100 miles to the east of the center in Mobile.

 

While not the worst case scenario for New Orleans, Katrina rocked the city

Monday morning. A levee in New Orleans has been breached sending 3 to 8 feet of

water into the 9th Ward area of the city. Wind gusts to 86 mph were reported at

the Lake Front Airport before they stopped sending observations. Significant

structural damage has been reported in New Orleans due to Katrina. The eyewall

of the hurricane, where the strongest winds, largest surge and wave are,

remained just east of the city. Areas east of New Orleans in Louisana and along

the Mississippi coast are being hit hardest. The Weather Channel's storm tracker

Jim Cantore is reporting a storm surge of at least 27 feet in Gulfport,

Mississippi.

 

Hurricane warnings are up from Morgan City, La., to the Florida-Alabama border.

This includes the city of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. A tropical storm

warning has been posted from the Alabama-Florida border eastward to Indian Pass,

Florida and from west of Morgan City to Cameron, Louisiana.

 

Tropical Storm force winds and pounding surf are occurring all the way to the

Florida Panhandle, well east of Katrina's center. A buoy 70 miles south of the

Alabama coast reported waves to 48 feet earlier Monday morning. Waves at the

beaches could run 25 to 35 feet through the afternoon in Alabama and the Florida

Panhandle.

 

Effects from Katrina will not be confined to coastal areas. Now that Katrina is

inland it will continue northward producing a trail of flooding rains and strong

winds across Mississippi and Alabama and then into Tennessee. Torrential,

flooding rainfall is possible with the remnants of Katrina well inland, possibly

into the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes and the Northeast later this week.

 

The pressure dropped as low as 902 mb on Sunday afternoon but has since risen.

The 902 mb pressure reading was the 4th lowest on record in the Atlantic Basin.

Stu Ostro explains the significance of pressure from his blog posted earlier

today... " We look at pressures as a good barometer (pun intended) for intensity.

The difference in pressure from one location to another, known as the pressure

gradient, is associated with wind speed. There are other factors involved, but

basically, the greater the pressure gradient in hurricanes, typically the higher

the wind speed. "

 

Tropical Depression #13 dissipated this morning east of the Lesser Antilles. The

remnants should continue westward north of the islands over the next few days.

This system will continue to be monitored for any development.

 

Another area of interest is a low pressure system that came off the African

coast Sunday. This system has the potential to develop into a tropical

depression over the next couple of days as it progresses westward.

 

In the northwest Pacific Talim has become a typhoon and is forecast to grow to a

140 mph typhoon before moving across Taiwan and into mainland China in the next

2 to 3 days.

 

 

a blinding flash

hotter than the sun

dead bodies lie across the path

the radiation colors the air

finishing one by one