8/13/04 NOW: Charley [Florida]

[Dan Cook]

Hurricane Charlie's skirting the western Florida coast this morning, dead eye on Tampa. If you watch Key West's radar site, you can see the eye perfectly.

View attachment 0d03d750917fa001d5d09375aef2360a.png

 

[Bridget Beddow]

Good grief...that's not going to be good on the Bay from the storm surge.

 

[Zach Bailey]

If this thing ramps right up the bay, all that storm surge could be catastrophic. However, Charley is traveling at such an oblique angle towards the coast that even small movements or wobbles to the east or west could mean 10-20 miles difference as to where the eye comes ashore.

 

[rdale]

Just saw a dropsonde report come across with 965mb, which if accurate would be a 5-mb drop in just two hours!

 

[Zach Bailey]

Just saw a dropsonde report come across with 965mb, which if accurate would be a 5-mb drop in just two hours!

Wow. IIRC, that classifies as rapid deepening. Things aren't looking good for the sunshine state...

On another note, a TOR warning is up for key west...sig. wording includes mention of a "violent waterspout" and/or multiple tornadoes.

 

[rdale]

The TOR was cancelled shortly after it was issued - looked like a quick rotating cell was going to develop but it moved through so fast it probably didn't have time to tor ;>

 

[Anthony Petito]

I'd like to see some of the storm make it on shore, but don't have access to any TV (since I am at work). I tried finding some webcams in the storms path around Florida instead. Will add some others as the storm progresses, if this is even information people want.

FL:
http://www.wxnation.com/tampa/
http://www.wxnation.com/jacksonville/

Fort Myers Beach Webcam:
http://web.naplesnews.com/webcam/ftmyers_beach/
http://web.naplesnews.com/sections/webcams/front.html

Will see if I can find any mroe for other cities in the path in Florida.

 

[Ben Pinette]

Thanks Anthony! I'm in the same position, at work without access to TV info. I appreciate being able to look at anything right now!

 

[Carrie Halliday]

I lost my cable.......NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Darn construction!!! At least I can still track via the Net, as long as they leave the phone lines alone. :evil:

 

[nickgrillo]

A nice line of storms that had some good rotation to them (appears to be weakening slightly) devoloped and earned numerous TOR's.

Numerous tornadoes have been sighted by Law Enforcement across SW Florida.

Charlie looks pretty meen on radar.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Latest public advisory (valid 1am Eastern time) that the storm is up to Cat 3 w/ 125mph winds ... Pressure's at 964mb, which seems to fit a 125mph hurricane considerably better than a 105mph hurricane. The hurricane winds are relatively compact in area, as even 74mph winds only extend to 30miles outside of the eye, so the >120mph winds probably extend about 1 mile from the eye... On it's current track, it seems to even want to hit south of Fort Myers as it really is taking a right-hand turn...

 

[Glen Romine]

Latest public advisory (valid 1am Eastern time) that the storm is up to Cat 3 w/ 125mph winds ... Pressure's at 964mb, which seems to fit a 125mph hurricane considerably better than a 105mph hurricane. The hurricane winds are relatively compact in area, as even 74mph winds only extend to 30miles outside of the eye, so the >120mph winds probably extend about 1 mile from the eye... On it's current track, it seems to even want to hit south of Fort Myers as it really is taking a right-hand turn...

Just posted a similar statement under forecast, but again, I think the rightward jog in motion is just an eyewall wobble because of a temporary breakdown in western eyewall convection - I seriously doubt Ft. Meyers will get a direct hit - track should stay well west of there IMO.

Glen

 

[rdale]

WOW!

WTNT61 KNHC 131716
TCUAT
BULLETIN
HURRICANE CHARLEY UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
115 PM EDT FRI AUG 13 2004

AT 115 PM EDT...1715Z...A U.S. AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT RECONNAISSANCE
AIRCRAFT MEASURED 10000 FT FLIGHT LEVEL WINDS OF 162 MPH AT A
DISTANCE OF 8 MILES FROM THE CENTER OF THE HURRICANE. THIS GIVES
AN ESTIMATED SURFACE WIND OF 145 MPH...CATEGORY FOUR ON THE SAFFIR
SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE. A SPECIAL ADVISORY WILL FOLLOW SHORTLY.

LAWRENCE
WWWW

Guess the pressure drops we saw earlier were real! I"m amazed at how this thing has blown up in just a few hours...

- Rob

 

[Larry J. Kosch]

NWS radar showing intensity

Just looked at the NWS radar out of Key West FL. The last outer band of showers had just cleared the Key Islands. Thank God for that! I've seen in the last two hours some serious intensification in the center core of the hurricane. The eyewall was opened for a short while then it reformed. And the inner core is showing greater intensity now. That would explain the sudden increase in wind speed. Now what are the chances of Charley becoming a F-5, sorry wrong term , a CAT 5??

 

[Rachel Scarborough]

Live Feed on Tampa Bay's 10

This is a live video feed from Channel 10's back up station site. They had to evacuate their studio.

http://www.wtsp.com/news/live.asp