Hurricane Ike is now a CATEGORY 4 hurricane - heading towards Florida

[Hugabear]

Sorry to interrupt things here, but this storm is looking scarier every day...

[postmanisu]

1. moving fast to

it will just push Hanna out of the way... 1 billion to Georgia too

[NightWatcher]

2. it's looking kinda scary down here

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT09/refresh/AL0908W5+gif/025413W_sm.gif

[neverforget]

3. Damn! Ike spun up fast!

[Wilber_Stool]

4. Thank god it's going to miss Cuba

They couldn't take another one.

[ddeclue]

5. OH CRAP!!! NOT AGAIN...

Q:What do you call a hurricane in Florida?
A:The weekend!

At least that's how it is seeming recently (and back in 2004 when Orlando got hit 3 times in 6 weeks!)

Doug D.
Orlando FL (formerly of Ft. Lauderdale)

[geomon666]

6. Whoa! Where the fuck did that come from?

Wasn't it a Tropical Storm yesterday?

[Strelnikov_]

7. And where he lands, nobody knows

[Warpy]

8. The Bahamas have been through hell

because TS Hanna has been stalled there for days giving them miserable weather with high winds and torrential rains. As soon as she gets her butt outta there, they're supposed to get Ike.

At least Josephine looks like a fizzler.

[dysfunctional press]

9. historically- that kind of storm rarely ends up hitting the u.s, especially with any real strength-

they tend to take a sharp right, and then get pushed out to sea...(i like the track of esther in 1961- the year i was born)



what are the "guiding" winds/pressure systems coming off the gulf/continent like this time around?

it could also end up following in hanna's "wake"...:shrug:

BUT- History says that florida should be safe.

[magellan]

11. From my reading at weather forums

...where I spend a lot of time during hurricane season, there's supposed to be a trough incoming from the Midwest in the 5-day range. How deep it digs, and what Hanna leaves behind, will affect when and how much of an ENE turn Ike makes. The farther south the trough digs the more it will pull Ike towards FL as he turns.

That's my basic understanding of it anyway.

I'm hoping FL doesn't see a track like Donna (1960), which bucked the history:

[dysfunctional press]

14. most of the updated computator models show ike missing florida...

[i-grok]

16. Actually 3 do and 3 don't (the 2 southernmost might be grazers though)

It's way too early to say. But if I were in Fort Lauderdale, I'd be in Chicago next week.

[dysfunctional press]

18. i don't know what kind of modelling ukmet uses(the white line)...

but their's it seems is usually fairly different than most of the others...on all storms, not just ike.

[magellan]

21. The GFDL and HWRF are the two models favored by the NHC

They look to be outliers here, driving Ike through the FL straits, but that's not at all impossible. I just don't like that solution because an eventual recurve is likely no matter how far west Ike goes, and I'd prefer it didn't bomb back across FL from the GOM as a CAT 3+ -- my little mobile home in S. Orlando won't take it!

Saturday we'll have a better idea of what this monster is going to do.

I don't like Ike! :scared:

[JCMach1]

12. Ummmmm ... Andrew anyone?

Basically same direction

[dysfunctional press]

13. andrew started much farther south...

not a comparable storm.

[JCMach1]

22. Please check the computer models today...

It's headed for South Florida...

[postmanisu]

10. moving fast to

it will just push Hanna out of the way... 1 billion to Georgia too

[i-grok]

15. I don't like Ike

...

[spin]

17. If you're the target that many days out...

the hurricane will more than likely miss you and hit somewhere else.

If you're the target three days out and the computer models have converged, it's time to prepare or to evacuate.

I've always felt that you couldn't say you've been through a hurricane unless the eye passes over you. You don't want that to happen if it's greater than a force one or maybe a weak force two. That's not to say that you won't experience a lot of problems if a hurricane brushes you, merely saying that you haven't felt the full force of the storm. Often the biggest problem is losing power. One strong tropical storm caused me to lose power for 5 days and believe me, Florida is no fun without air conditioning in the mid summer.

The closest I came to experiencing a hurricane was Hurricane Charley. Charlie came ashore as a strong force 4, but was a small intense hurricane. I was within approximately 60 miles of the center when it made landfall, and it was merely a fairly strong wind with a lot of driving rain. . Considering that I've lived in Florida for 39 years, I've never by my definition survived a hurricane. I have seen a bunch of tropical storms, but they're usually just a big nuisance with a lot of rain.

Hurricane Charley:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Charley

[geomon666]

19. We'll know for sure by Sunday. n/t

[spin]

20. Well I wish you the best of luck...

Maybe Ike will merely be a fish storm.

[Blaze Diem]

23. QUESTION: Is it possible that Ike could merge with Josephine & begat

the 'perfect storm'?
Or maybe a threesome with the remnants of Hanna??
hmmm? hmmm.

[SoCalDem]

24. Do they expect it to stay a 4 when it hits land?

It almost looks like it could re-emerge into the gulf as a 2 :scared: