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Atlantic Hurricane season 2017 |OT|

This may be a dumb question, but do I have any reason to be concerned for my flight out of Boston to LAX on the 17th? I'm glad we decided to go to Disneyland this year instead of WDW like we did around this time last year....

I'm worried about my family in Port St. Lucie. They rode out Matthew with six kids between all the families despite a voluntary evac order, and I'm worried it gave them a false sense of security. Hoping to hear their plans soon.
 
At Puerto Rico right now. Kind of scary, I don't think we are prepared for an hurricane of this magnitude.

Center keeps inching closer and closer to us.

I work at Camuy at a warehouse, and I can tell you the amount of people that are coming to look for resources is concerning, lots of people left preparations for last minute
 
Bad news for Georgia this time. Probably the strongest for that state since 1898? If it happened. Still a long way to go and the tracks will change...

gfs_mslp_wind_seus_26.png


Wait I thought it was hitting south west Florida. Or is this after it skips over Florida? I am in Charleston SC. Hell
 
My apartment complex just sent an email out saying that if it's a Category 1 or higher there is MANDATORY evacuation? Wow... guess I'm not staying home.
 
I'm in the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico. My grandmother is a stubborn little old lady living in a wooden house who refuses to spend the night elsewhere. Rest of us are hunkering down in concrete houses--most houses in Puerto Rico are basically concrete fortresses. She has shrugged off all of our pleas... How worried should I be? The hurricane center is forecast to pass some miles north from the island. I know the northeast is gonna get hit the hardest, but what should we expect here at the northwest?
 
One positive with the storm moving straight north is the water being pushed by the storm won't be pushed directly on land for Florida. The surge will be bad but its going in a direction that may not be catastrophic...until it hits Georgia or South Carolina. :(
 
Latest UKMET model looks exceptionally strong too. Not just the GFS now.

UK met is pretty good for hurricanes. A few days ago they were saying Irma would be hitting about 160mph+ at this stage so they have been reasonably good with intensity, not over doing it like GFS.
 
Yeah we live on South Ocean Drive in Hollywood, so we fall under Plan A. I've only been in this apartment for six months so I'm definitely not used to this.

If you feel like dealing with a 15-20 foot storm surge, by all means stay.
 
Wow, interesting morning.

I had a meeting with our Financial Services Commission, various business interests and legal firms video linked between Providenciales and Grand Turk (and India for tech support) regarding tweaking upcoming corporate legislation that will rewrite the CSP industry and after about two hours this woman in Grand Turk stood up on the video and basically shouted: "Hold on for just a moment... Is anyone going to address the fact that we're sitting here talking about introducing legislation by October 1st when a category 5 hurricane is coming right at us and we could be suffering a humanitarian disaster for the next 4 months? What are we DOING here?!?"

Everyone just went silent, but the guy chairing the meeting said 'Our industry has to prepare as if it'll miss us until it doesn't." And they were both right. But still, tension.

Then at the hardware store people were buzzing. Real fear in the air - many of these people live in wooden shacks. A lot didn't yet realise it was a cat 5 and news was spreading. The island is like an anthill that has been kicked this morning - everyone is scrambling.

Then I met a friend who was in tears because she experienced at Cat 5 as a teenager in St. Martin. Her house was destroyed and it took 3 weeks to get airlifted out. She was a refugee in Wales for months and when they went back they immediately moved to St. Lucia as there was nothing left - 80% devastation on that island. We were thinking about how they're getting on today - can't be good.

So as you can imagine nerves are jangling here. But every update brings us closer and closer to safety right now. The euro model is very favourable to us right now.

EDIT: The last time a hurricane this big hit us it turned two islands... into one.
 
Here is a map describing the minimum central pressure for parts of the Atlantic based on current sea surface temperatures and wind shear. Irma is pretty close to the theoretical MPI in the part of ocean she is in.

atlpot.png.f15091101fd0a4084219d8c00f46ff78.png
 
I'm in the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico. My grandmother is a stubborn little old lady living in a wooden house who refuses to spend the night elsewhere. Rest of us are hunkering down in concrete houses--most houses in Puerto Rico are basically concrete fortresses. She has shrugged off all of our pleas... How worried should I be? The hurricane center is forecast to pass some miles north from the island. I know the northeast is gonna get hit the hardest, but what should we expect here at the northwest?
Near Aguadilla/Isabella?

I'm worried also, but what can yo do? I have family that's going to be in a concrete house as well, but the area is basically the top of a mountain so they're going to feel the full force of whatever comes by.

Ironically one of the tools that has worked in the past is just calling a 'resheltering' a 'hurricane party.' The promise of seeing family is sometimes enough to get the stubborn to join you. I've been through many hurricanes and tropical storms so I don't completely rely on the forecast path and I really don't mess around with Cat 5 storms.
 
1) where are you?

2) how the hell did two islands become one? Please go on!

Turks and Caicos. And the islands are limestone with small channels between them. The hurricane can dump so much sand into a channel that the flow stops and sand builds. Once that happens the flow can't restart and land just develops.

Check little water cay on Google maps, that's the one I'm talking about. It and big water cay used to be two islands, hence the two names.
 
Where are you at? I'm in San Juan right now. Honestly, I think this shit hit us at the worst time possible and we're still recovering from last year's blackout.

I work at Camuy at a warehouse, and I can tell you the amount of people that are coming to look for resources is concerning, lots of people left preparations for last minute
I live in Caguas, but I think we still will get hit by gusts of 100mph or more.

San Juan is gonna get hit hard, the entire northeast coast. Stay safe guys.
 
Yeah we live on South Ocean Drive in Hollywood, so we fall under Plan A. I've only been in this apartment for six months so I'm definitely not used to this.

Hollywood floods when it rains. I'd be making plans to leave, just to be safe.

If your not ocean front property and this hits, you will be.
 
I live in Caguas, but I think we still will get hit by gusts of 100mph or more.

San Juan is gonna get hit hard, the entire northeast coast. Stay safe guys.
My wifes family is from Caguas as well. Shes been in contact with them but shes worried for her elders for sure.
 
That path looks less 'hook up into Florida' than before. It seems like it'd even worse for it to slip between Florida and Cuba into the Gulf as a an already major hurricane than it would be for it to jump onto shore and head north. Am I wrong there?
 
Puerto Rico, San Juan in particular is going to be a disaster if this thing goes through it.. Hugo and George's was cat3 when they hit and they caused mass destruction.. U
I can't really fathom the aftermath here...
 
Latest Euro model is rolling out and the intensity is completely wrong from the start.

Shows it going from 962mb today to 966mb tomorrow. It's already 926mb.
 
Latest Euro model is rolling out and the intensity is completely wrong from the start.

Shows it going from 962mb today to 966mb tomorrow. It's already 926mb.

Ignore intensity. The models are generally wrong about intensity.

The Euro and the NHC have the highest 4 day track verification scores for this storm right now.
 
Ignore intensity. The models are generally wrong about intensity.

The Euro and the NHC have the highest 4 day track verification scores for this storm right now.

The intensity of a cyclone has an impact on track though. A weaker system will be steered by different steering currents than a stronger one. The overall movement so far hasn't really been too significant, it's when it gets closer to the Cuba/Florida later in the forecast period that the steering becomes critical and where the models start to diverge.
 
The intensity of a cyclone has an impact on track though. A weaker system will be steered by different steering currents than a stronger one. The overall movement so far hasn't really been too significant, it's when it gets closer to the Cuba/Florida later in the forecast period that the steering becomes critical and where the models start to diverge.

Right but the Euro has been far more correct with the 4 day forecast track of the storm than the GFS even though the Euro initialized Irma at a high MSLP each time.

The Euro has also done a better job at predicting the WAR and the upcoming trough in the CONUS. Both the WAR and the trough are much more important to the steering of Irma than intensity.
 
Managed to get water today as I dropped by Publix to grab some lunch and they were unloading a pallet. Feels good, but I'm sure they'll continue to get more shipments through the week. Everyone was pretty civil.
 
What's the the factor going to cause it to turn north?
 
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