Hurricane FELIX: Caribbean-Discussions

[Sanibel]

Felix landfell at 160mph category 5 at Punta Gorda, Nicaragua.

TWC said 2000 people were stranded in the landfall area.

CNN said 14,000 mosquito indians are in the impact area in Honduras.

[wxman57]

Here's a close-up McIDAS shot of Felix just inland. Eye filling now. Very mountainous terrain ahead. Felix will probably be a TD by tonight. Could emerge into the Gulf of Tehuantepec and regenerate in the Pacific.

[storms in NC]

I was telling people last night that this was intensifying.

Go Derek! I have new respect for you. This DID slow down.

This is yet another time I sign on with Felix and he makes my jaw drop!

Felix: Landfall at Category 5 - 160mph

I hope nobody was on Mosquito Key offshore from landfall where the eye passed directly over the low-lying key at category 5. Most likely people were there.

There are a few people on this board watched Derek Grow with each year. He has done a great job.

[Hello32020]

Here's a close-up McIDAS shot of Felix just inland. Eye filling now. Very mountainous terrain ahead. Felix will probably be a TD by tonight. Could emerge into the Gulf of Tehuantepec and regenerate in the Pacific...

Would be really interesting to see it regenerate in the Pacific.

[CrazyC83]

The NHC should hire Derek!

Anyway, the big question is whether Felix will make it across Central America...

[PhillyWX]

There are a few people on this board watched Derek Grow with each year. He has done a great job.

Derek and wxman57 have been spot on with this storm, consistently holding to a southern solution. Hats off to both of them for a spectacular job of forecasting.

[jasons2k]

Scary thought, with Felix (and Dean) staying south, most of the highest TCHP in the NW Caribbean/SE GOM has still been untouched all season.

[MetSul Weather Center]

As the images are large, I will publish the URLs. It is interesting to read the newspapers from the region this morning. The paper El Heraldo comes with the headline "Massive evacuation" and mentions "madness in supermarkets, banks and gas stations".

http://www.metsul.com/__editor/imageman ... l0409g.JPG

El Nuevo Diario also covers the evacuations in Nicaragua.

http://www.metsul.com/__editor/imageman ... l0409e.JPG

One of the most interesting points of the local coverage was to see the cartoon published this morning in the newspaper La Prensa from Honduras.



Alexandre

[wxmann_91]

I'll repost this from the global model thread

"If people could just stop loading GHCC for 15 min please... I've got some archiving I need to do, and school starts very soon for me. I know it's a weird request, but really, thanks."

GHCC is really slowing to a crawl right now.

[Cyclenall]

I'm shocked that the eye (almost a pin-hole) lasted that long over land. Imagine the choas in that landfall. Jaw dropping that we now have TWO category 5 landfalls and it's September 4 .

[Category 5]

Here's a close-up McIDAS shot of Felix just inland. Eye filling now. Very mountainous terrain ahead. Felix will probably be a TD by tonight. Could emerge into the Gulf of Tehuantepec and regenerate in the Pacific...

Would be really interesting to see it regenerate in the Pacific.

I don't think it will, the mountains will tear it apart, and some models stall it out.

[Zardoz]

...CNN said 14,000 mosquito indians are in the impact area in Honduras.

MSNBC story

Hurricane Felix roared ashore early Tuesday as a fearsome Category 5 storm — the first time in recorded history that two top-scale storms have come ashore in the same season. The storm hit near the swampy Nicaragua-Honduras border, home to thousands of stranded Miskito Indians dependent on canoes to make their way to safety.

"The wind is terrible. There's a roaring when it pulls the roofs off the houses," Lumberto Campbell, a local official in Puerto Cabezas, told Radio Ya. "There's no electricity because all the posts that hold up the cables have fallen down.

"The metal roofs come off like shaving knives and are sent flying against the trees and homes," he said before the line cut off.

The area where Felix hit is sparsely populated and dotted with lagoons and marshes but the storm threatened many poor Honduran and Guatemalan villages further inland that are perched on hillsides and vulnerable to mudslides.

Up to 40,000 Hondurans were evacuated to shelters, but some 15,000 people were unable to find transportation and were forced to ride out the storm in their homes.

“They couldn’t be evacuated because there is no fuel to take them to safe areas,” said Carolina Echeverria, a lawmaker from Cabo Gracias a Dios on the border with Nicaragua, where Felix landed.

Some 350 people were evacuated along Nicaragua's coast. Many other Miskito Indians refused to leave low-lying areas and head to shelters set up in schools, and the newspaper La Prensa reported that 20 fishermen were missing.

Communication to the area was cut off, and it was impossible to find out what was happening as the storm's winds began hitting the remote, swampy area, much of it reachable only by canoe. The Nicaraguan government sent in some soldiers before the storm hit, but was preparing to send in more help once the hurricane passed.

[wxman57]

Here's a close-up McIDAS shot of Felix just inland. Eye filling now. Very mountainous terrain ahead. Felix will probably be a TD by tonight. Could emerge into the Gulf of Tehuantepec and regenerate in the Pacific...

Would be really interesting to see it regenerate in the Pacific.

I don't think it will, the mountains will tear it apart, and some models stall it out.

I don't know that the circulation would survive, but the energy could move offshore where another LLC could regenerate.

[KBBOCA]

the CIMSS MIMIC microwave animation of the storm is really interesting to watch. Given how the eye nearly fell apart yesterday, and then to watch Felix regroup & strengthen (though this does not include landfall, yet) is fascinating.

Was it dry air that caused the weakening or an ERC?

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real- ... splay.html

[theworld]

we have some intensification goings on...

When it began to intensify, last eve about 10:30pm.

I fell bad for those who wanted to leave the impact area but could not.

[KBBOCA]

Acc. to NHC 11 a.m. advisory, Felix still a Cat 3.

--------
At 1100 am EDT...1500z...the center of Hurricane Felix was located inland near latitude 14.3 north...longitude 83.9 west or about 40 miles...65 km...west-northwest of Puerto Cabezas Nicaragua.


Felix is moving toward the west near 15 mph...24 km/hr...and this
motion is expected to continue with some decrease in forward speed during the next 24 hours. On this track the center will continue moving over northeastern Nicaragua for the next several hours and over Honduras later today and tonight.


Maximum sustained winds are near 120 mph...195 km/hr...with higher gusts. Felix is a category three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Rapid weakening is forecast as the cyclone moves over the mountainous terrain of Central America during the next 24 hours.

[Brent]

WOW.... this is just incredible. 2 Cat 5 landfalls in 2 weeks.

[WmE]

WOW.... this is just incredible. 2 Cat 5 landfalls in 2 weeks.

I second that. That's just insane.

[Epsilon_Fan]

I missed the landfall.... how strong (mph) was Felix when he went ashore?

[HURAKAN]

I missed the landfall.... how strong (mph) was Felix when he went ashore?

Estimated at 160 mph (cat. 5)

First time in Atlantic history 2 Cat. 5 make landfall in a season.

Who said this season was a bust?