Re: Hurricane Hilary

Posted by Bret B on September 22, 2011, 6:18 pm, in reply to "Hurricane Hilary"
187.146.76.206

It's already a Cat 2, and predicted to hit Cat 4 tomorrow PM. Hilary's a real tiger! The NHC shifted the track a little farther out from us (closest approach about 170 miles now.) And they confirm it is very compact, so we shouldn't get any winds. Rains are harder to predict, but for now anyway the GOES loops (http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/epac/flash-avn.html and http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/watl/flash-avn.html) and the TRMM radar satellite (http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/trmm_rain/americas/americas_3hrly_zoom.gif) and the Acapulco weather radar (http://smn.cna.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=84) show the rain bands don't extend very far from the center. Right now on the radar loop the eye can be seen passing about 85 miles offshore from Acapulco, and their radar shows only moderate rains on the land. Meanwhile that big red blob from this morning has only recently begun to weaken on the GOES loops. It's the hugest, longest-lived non-tropical storm I've seen since I've been here! One of its smaller fragments might run over us in the next couple hours with some thunder and rain. TRMM shows (as of 8 hrs ago anyway) that this blob was 3 times bigger and 3 times rainier than Hurricane Hilary. And it traveled from Oaxaca all the way to Jalisco in half a day. I'm impressed...

120

Be sure to visit www.lamanzanilla.info