The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
-Psalm 19:1

Do you know that God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash?
-Job 37:15



Thursday, September 13, 2007

HURRICANE Humberto makes landfall in Texas

Imagine my surprise when I turn on TWC to see Mike Seidel in Texas reporting on the landfall of HURRICANE Humberto. The things you miss during slumber... Apparently at 12:15 CDT, Humberto was upgraded to a hurricane, just before landfall, and at landfall winds had jumped up to 85mph. WOW! I never would have imagined that Humberto would have been the first landfalling hurricane in the US in two years... Who would have thunk that???

NOAA NWS DOPPLER RADAR AND AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT DATA INDICATE THAT AT AROUND 200 AM CDT...0700 UTC...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE HUMBERTO CROSSED THE TEXAS COAST JUST EAST OF HIGH ISLAND WITH MAXIMUM WINDS OF 85 MPH...135 KM/HR.
More to come later... btw, TD 8 still a TD... which is why I am not employed at the NHC. lol

Good morning,
~Dewdrop

7 comments:

  1. Surprised me.....the radar has been very impressive all morning. Looks like quite a storm for those near the center and eastern side banding. I slept through it all as well :)

    SCM

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  2. Very impressive, and such a slow mover, dumping buckets of water on parts of Texas and Louisiana. I saw reports that rain is falling in excess of 3 inches per hour, on already saturated soil. Flooding is going to be devastating with this storm. Last report I heard was that there are 75,000 without power over there. A hurricane? Go figure...

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  3. I was intially surprised yesterday, but at the rate it was intensifying, I was not totally surprised. I expected it would be closer to 75 mph, though. Why is it that surface obs are always so much less? The highest wind reported that I know about was around 60 mph in Beaumont.

    The water temps where it intensified were around 86 degrees...

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  4. I change that...I just read this from an AP story:

    One location blacked out was Jefferson County's Emergency Operations Center in Beaumont, where wind speeds of 75 to 80 mph were noted, said Michael White, the county's assistant emergency management coordinator. Officials were forced to track the storm with laptops, he said.

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  5. I have noticed that before though, Mike, and I noticed that this morning, as well. They were talking about 74mph gusts, and I thought... so where are those 85mph sustained winds??? I thought recon flights measured surface winds... Beaumont did appear to take the brunt of it. The rain is the kicker with this one, and he is supposed to take his sweet time tracking across Louisiana. It'll be a wet day for those folks. I am including an updated water vapor image in the post I am writing now... Impressive convection feeding in off the GOM. Those bands on the east are drenchers. SSTs are good and warm. No wonder...

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  6. Dew, Did you see this from the NHC?
    BASED ON OPERATIONAL ESTIMATES…HUMBERTO STRENGTHENED FROM A 30 KT
    DEPRESSION AT 15Z YESTERDAY TO A 75 KT HURRICANE AT 09Z THIS
    MORNING…AN INCREASE OF 45 KT IN 18 HOURS. TO PUT THIS
    DEVELOPMENT IN PERSPECTIVE…NO TROPICAL CYCLONE IN THE HISTORICAL
    RECORD HAS EVER REACHED THIS INTENSITY AT A FASTER RATE NEAR
    LANDFALL. IT WOULD BE NICE TO KNOW…SOMEDAY…WHY THIS HAPPENED.

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Dew comment, please...