Rita weakening as she moves toward LA coast

[Brent]

Weakening cancel.

Down to 930... and 130 kt!!! in the NE quad.

Cat 4 uncancel.

[HouTXmetro]

Weakening cancel.

Down to 930... and 130 kt!!! in the NE quad.

Cat 4 uncancel.

2, 3, 4, 5, I don't care. She will do some damage!

[djtil]

If the West side of the eyewall gets you, as Ivan did us here, they may get 60-90 mph

based on recon the west side is currently much stronger than that......it may eventually weaken...but hasnt weakened to 60-90 yet.

[djtil]

even though i am COMPLETELY anti-bobble watching

this radar loop would have me interested were i in houston..

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ridge/lch_N0Z_lp.shtml

[HurricaneBill]

a section of ne texas will catch the ne eyewall.....most likely port arthur....claiming NE Texas is in the clear and not in trouble is irresponsible...even on a message forum.

additionally, being on the "dry" side does little to protect from likely 100-110 mph winds in the western eyewall.

Agreed, the "weaker" side of a hurricane is well......not too weak.

I live in Western Massachusetts and in 1991, went through the "weaker" west quadrant of Hurricane Bob.

We had sustained winds probably around 40-50 mph with gusts in the 60-70mph range. There were trees down everywhere.

Plus, we got around 7 inches of rain.

Sp please keep in mind, even if you are well inland, the western half of a hurricane can still pack a punch.

[ConvergenceZone]

I'm so glad to see it weakening. That's pretty much what I expected. Conditions had to be perfect to sustain what it once had. It may potentiallly weaken to a strong 2 or weak 3, which would be fantastic news. Huge difference between that and a cat 5, so that would be so awesome!!! .

[ConvergenceZone]

I also wanted to add to my post that even if she weakens to a weak cat 3, she'll still be pretty bad, but obviously not as bad as what she could have been. Just wanted to make that point clear. I'm not trying to downplay this, but just hoping for whatever we can get.

[chrisnnavarre]

Fox News Weather just reported Lightening sighted in the eye of the storm an indication of further intensification....

[djtil]

also could be a sign of dry air.

[Mac]

Weakening cancel.

Down to 930... and 130 kt!!! in the NE quad.

Cat 4 uncancel.

It will be really interesting to see what ground level winds are at landfall. We've seen this with other monster storms over the past couple of years that looked like they were falling apart shortly before landfall. And although they still had fairly impressive flight level winds, there was a drastic difference between the flight level winds and ground level winds. The 90% calculation didn't bear out. Ground level winds were far less than that.

I recall discussing the issue with Ortt. As I recall, he said something about the winds not mixing well to the surface as these storms began becoming less organized when they approached the coast. I'm not suggesting for a moment that this isn't a dangerous storm. I'm just saying it will be interesting to see if, yet once again, we have max flight level winds of Cat 4 while we have max ground level winds of cat 2.

It would be further evidence that there is much we still don't understand about these rather fickle storms.

[mf_dolphin]

The eye is definitely clearing out again on both IR and visibles. Rita may be making a comeback before landfall

[Nimbus]

The EWRC and the dry air were not enough apparently.
Sure hope the forecast recurve starts putting a few miles between Rita and Houston.
Its easy to put a ruler up to your screen and draw a straight line but the pros are telling us she is going to turn soon.
On the strong side of the storm up near the state line and into SW Louisiana it is going to be rough.

[NorthGaWeather]

also could be a sign of dry air.

[tornadochaser86]

ritas weakening its possible it may be downgraded to a cat 2 but i think it will be a weak 3 at landfall unless it slows down

[Mac]

Weakening cancel.

Down to 930... and 130 kt!!! in the NE quad.

Cat 4 uncancel.

It will be really interesting to see what ground level winds are at landfall. We've seen this with other monster storms over the past couple of years that looked like they were falling apart shortly before landfall. And although they still had fairly impressive flight level winds, there was a drastic difference between the flight level winds and ground level winds. The 90% calculation didn't bear out. Ground level winds were far less than that.

I recall discussing the issue with Ortt. As I recall, he said something about the winds not mixing well to the surface as these storms began becoming less organized when they approached the coast. I'm not suggesting for a moment that this isn't a dangerous storm. I'm just saying it will be interesting to see if, yet once again, we have max flight level winds of Cat 4 while we have max ground level winds of cat 2.

It would be further evidence that there is much we still don't understand about these rather fickle storms.

Hmmm. It happened once again. Very interesting. Hopefully, we'll one day be able to better understand when, how, and why winds mix well to the surface in some storms but don't in others.