tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post7502458744825206639..comments2024-03-28T22:29:15.590-07:00Comments on Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Hurricane Patricia: Extreme, Poorly Predicted, and Soon to Flood TexasCliff Mass Weather Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-58630917154552820752015-10-29T10:57:50.295-07:002015-10-29T10:57:50.295-07:00Hurricane Wilmas eye contracted to just over 2 mil...Hurricane Wilmas eye contracted to just over 2 miles wide at peak intensity. Look at satellite images of wma at peak and its just a dot at the center.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00448691252980707847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-37948863590671451602015-10-25T10:25:44.351-07:002015-10-25T10:25:44.351-07:008 miles across? Has there been another storm that ...8 miles across? Has there been another storm that compact to which to compare this hurricane? One that intense, and small, almost sounds like some hybrid of a hurricane and tornado, although obviously the development factors of the two are different. Or, you being the meterologist, were they that different in this case?<br /><br />I'm curious to know, and there is likely data that defines this, how much "water" gets lifted into the atmosphere in storms like this? Is it 10s of thousands of acre feet? 100s of thousands? Millions? It has to be billions of gallons, doesn't it? <br /><br />Thanks Cliff. Great, informative post.<br />John McBridehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09503331313775640577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-12768313723055207022015-10-25T01:55:32.805-07:002015-10-25T01:55:32.805-07:00I'm a total amateur, but have been fascinated ...I'm a total amateur, but have been fascinated by hurricanes all my life, having grown up on the East coast and spending many weeks at the coast. My dad and I started tracking hurricanes together on paper maps when I was 5, 43 years ago. Right, so... I watched Patricia, and thinking about all the El Nino warm water and the lack of shear, I mused aloud on Tuesday, "I wonder if this is going to be a 200-mph hurricane". If I can call it, based on an "educated guess," why can't they even come close 48 or 72 hours out? Sure, you wouldn't muse like that on TV, but the sheer level of professional surprise is depressing.<br /><br />When will we see a Category 6, and perhaps even a Category 7, added to the hurricane scale? Because I think we need it. This is not the last super-intense hurricane, given the changes that we are seeing in climate (who cares if it's natural variation or human-caused climate change? I don't, I just think it's useful to describe events unambiguously). Even if these monster storms remain uncommon or even very rare, it would be useful to distinguish a "weak" Cat 7 from a strong Cat 5.<br /><br />Also, given that the winds at landfall were EF-4+ tornado strength, what keeps us from CALLING this a tornado? It is solely the tropical formation of the storm? Is it that it wasn't built by a thunderstorm cell? I realize that with hurricane winds spanning 35-miles across, with an eye 6-miles wide, it's hard to call this a tornado, but I really can't see the difference... rotation, extreme winds, damaging forces. Is it the lack of vacuum sucking debris up into the storm and depositing it miles away? That's a pretty flimsy criteria. I think there's probably something that I'm missing that makes the hurricane break the tornado "rules," but I wonder what it is.<br /><br />I'm really glad that the storm came ashore in a less-populated area. Nothing in Mexico is built to code that would guarantee surviving a direct hit from a 200-mph storm with 20-foot storm surge.JewelyaZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09434569437851248356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-12890219259100553052015-10-24T21:07:16.273-07:002015-10-24T21:07:16.273-07:00Don't I recall H. Katrina and H. Rita crossing...Don't I recall H. Katrina and H. Rita crossing an unusually warm Gulf on their run-ups? I think a degree or two. Maybe one built faster, and one built higher, than predicted. Hazy on that...Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18412411532260194366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-44577853484355250102015-10-24T14:25:42.100-07:002015-10-24T14:25:42.100-07:00Doesn't NOAA somehow fly into or above the eye...Doesn't NOAA somehow fly into or above the eye of hurricanes to measure intensity? clive boultonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13368132383395164003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-22296392201108011502015-10-24T09:19:10.986-07:002015-10-24T09:19:10.986-07:00Yep, deploying the pontoons to our vehicles here i...Yep, deploying the pontoons to our vehicles here in NE Houston. We've been very dry the last six weeks or so, now we get our reprieve over a period of about 36 hours. Crazy. The lines at the grocery stores yesterday and this morning have been ridiculous. You'd think for people that live in a tropical storm prone area, that they'd be a bit more sensible about this. Good thing I did my long run today.Tim Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06226231255162288115noreply@blogger.com