David Schuttler
EF5
Ivan might reinstall the respect next week
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Dangerous Hurricane Frances
- Thread starter Jeff Snyder
- Start date
B Ozanne
EF5
That's what I'm thinking, it might just sneak in while everyone has let their guard down.
When I wake up tomorrow morning there better be a big hole in the middle of this thing or I am taking up needlepoint.Mike Peregrine
EF5
After Charley, if anything the people of Florida are starting to feel a sense of relief, and I doubt that this will impact their views of hurricane forecasts much ... the real problem is that if the media makes a big deal about the fact that the wind speeds have weakened, then everyone and their brother will leave Georgia and head back to their homes in Florida just about the time the torrential rains are at their worst. People get killed in floods more than anything else, so they still need to pay attention - whether the wind is whipping or not. I was really glad to hear Jim Cantore highlight this earlier by really talking up the potential dangers of the rainfall in this thing.
This morning I caught a few shots taken from the windows of a hunter plane performing dropsonde recon on Good Morning America ... it was amazing how beautiful some of the shots were from just above the cloud tops and from the edge of the eyewall - man I wish they would give up a few seats on that thing sometime -
Kevin Walter
EF1
9:30 am Eastern now. Gov Jeb is on CNN looking pretty frustrated. He is currently urging frustrated people to just get mad at him and not abandon their evacuation plans.
I can't beleive the # of media personnel there. Just in the last 10 minutes CNN has gone live to at least 2 or 3 correspondents. They look like they're having a tough time with the rain just at Tropical Storm force, and to tell you the truth it looks like it's already getting fairly intense (for landfall being 12 hours away). How many of these storms will go by before there is a catastrophe with a media team getting severely injured or killed in a hurricane. Can you imagine if this thing was still a 4?
Jeff Snyder
EF5
Just speaking of experiencing relatively high winds at 12hr from landfall... Frances is a huge storm! I mean, hurricane force winds extend out to 105 miles from the center (that's a 210+ mile cross-sectional diameter of >74mph winds), while tropical storm strength winds extend out to 185 (370-mile diameter). Compare this with even Charley which had hurricane-force winds extending to 30-mile from the eye... This makes Frances nearly three (3) times the size of Charley. It I think it would have outpaced Andrew and been the most destructive and costly natural disaster to ever impact the U.S.. There have been gusts >80mph recorded in FL in the past hour or so.
Kevin Walter
EF1
CNN has some amazing coverage already. They've just followed the dramatic life-cycle of what looked like about a $5 Million yacht that appeared to be adrift in the Intercoastal Waterway in Palm Beach. Turned out there were two people on it trying to manuever it near the yacht club (now empty) so they could tie off and save their boat. In their first attempt, their lines successfully looped the pilings but movement of the boat snapped the pole in half.
They've now successfully got it tied off, and it looks like they did a pretty good job. Rough seas, though. It'll be interesting to see how the boat fares now. Hopefully the skipper will get some sense and take refuge in the historic Biltmore Hotel.
Now they're starting to see more boats drifting. More $Millon yachts. Amazing. I guess this is how there came to be piles of yachts after Andrew.B Ozanne
EF5
I'm watching that "drama" on CNN right now. Looks like a very, very expensive yacht. I just caught the end of it. Did the piling really break away? It also looks like there are a couple more boats drifting down that way, mostly unmanned.David Schuttler
EF5
Bob Schafer
EF5
Listen to Miami-Dade (on right channel) and Miami Beach (left channel) police radio here:
http://www.melsgarage.com/
Kevin Walter
EF1
Yeah, the end piling broke away. Now they're tied up in an area more sheltered from the waves.
I'm looking for Palm Beach police scanner frequencies, but apparently the streaming audio link has been disabled due to some factors unrelated to the hurricane.
Kevin Walter
EF1
CNN must have been running out of Frances related 'headlines' to put at the bottom of the screen earlier, b/c for about 10 minutes they were putting up a blog that said 'Florida Residents should purchase flood insurance'. I think it's a little late for that!
Can you imagine going into State Farm ANYwhere in Florida today, sitting down, and calmly saying "yes, I'd like to inquire about Hurricane insurance". :lol:
Bob Schafer
EF5
Frances' size
Clipped from Herald:
Hurricane forecaster Jack Beven called Frances the ``anti-Charley.''
''Charley was very small and compact,'' he said. ``You could fit Charley in the eye of Frances right now.''David Schuttler
EF5
Kevin Walter
EF1
Wait, wait, wait...
I just did some quick math. Hurricane force winds extend to a radius of 105 miles from the eye, meaning they have a diameter of 210 miles. The storm is moving at 5mph (well, it's not really moving at this exact moment), meaning a location in the path of the eye would experience hurricane force winds for...
210/5 = 42 hours
Yikes. :shock:
Kevin Walter
EF1
Well...I guess the huge diameter of the eye itself would cause some extended period of slackened winds. So maybe only 22 hours. Only 22 hours...Similar threads
