Saturday, September 13, 2003
Hurricane Isabel dominates the weather news today, I'm Larry Lovering with this report from the AP. Hurricane Isabel weakened slightly as it churned toward the Atlantic coast early on Saturday, slowing its winds to 150 mph and dropping to Category 4 strength. National Hurricane Center forecasters have said that Isabel was moving westward at 9 mph and they expected the hurricane to continue in that direction until at least Sunday morning.
At 4 a.m. EDT, Isabel’s maximum wind speeds held at 150 mph, dropping it to a Category 4 storm. Until late Friday, the hurricane maintained Category 5 strength, the strongest on the Saffir-Simpson scale. A hurricane hits the top of the scale when its winds reach 156 mph.
Isabel moved to within 455 miles northeast of Puerto Rico Saturday morning. Forecasters expect large ocean swells and dangerous surf conditions for several days over portions of the Leeward Islands in the northeastern Caribbean Sea.
What is interesting is that the long-range forecast placed Isabel farther north than previously expected. Now, the senior forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami put it roughly 440 miles east of the Georgia-South Carolina coastal border early Thursday, if it makes a turn to the northwest as predicted.
But that forecast has a possible error of up to 432 miles on the fifth day, and meteorologists said they would know more about the potential direction of the storm late this weekend.
“It is still too early to even speculate which parts, if any, of (the) eastern coast of the United States may get affected by Isabel,” hurricane forecaster Jack Beven said.
Wind speeds probably will fluctuate over the next five days, but warm ocean temperatures and other
conditions have allowed it to intensify consistently, forecasters said.
Don Harrison, a spokesman for Home Depot stores, is reporting higher-than-normal sales for items such as plywood, generators, gas cans and chain saws at their stores in Florida. Sales of hurricane-related supplies at other stores were normal, he said.
As many as four cruise ships have changed their planned courses to avoid getting into the hurricane's path.
To read more about dangerous hurricanes and the people who work to determine more fully the path and direction of these dangerous storms, read "Inside The Hurricane," by Pete Davies. Much of the book details the events and people caught in what was the most dangerous storm of the recent past, that of Catagory 5 Mitch in 1998, where 11,000 people were killed and thousands more missing in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
That's the news for today, for weather in your area, go to weather.com.
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At 4 a.m. EDT, Isabel’s maximum wind speeds held at 150 mph, dropping it to a Category 4 storm. Until late Friday, the hurricane maintained Category 5 strength, the strongest on the Saffir-Simpson scale. A hurricane hits the top of the scale when its winds reach 156 mph.
Isabel moved to within 455 miles northeast of Puerto Rico Saturday morning. Forecasters expect large ocean swells and dangerous surf conditions for several days over portions of the Leeward Islands in the northeastern Caribbean Sea.
What is interesting is that the long-range forecast placed Isabel farther north than previously expected. Now, the senior forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami put it roughly 440 miles east of the Georgia-South Carolina coastal border early Thursday, if it makes a turn to the northwest as predicted.
But that forecast has a possible error of up to 432 miles on the fifth day, and meteorologists said they would know more about the potential direction of the storm late this weekend.
“It is still too early to even speculate which parts, if any, of (the) eastern coast of the United States may get affected by Isabel,” hurricane forecaster Jack Beven said.
Wind speeds probably will fluctuate over the next five days, but warm ocean temperatures and other
conditions have allowed it to intensify consistently, forecasters said.
Don Harrison, a spokesman for Home Depot stores, is reporting higher-than-normal sales for items such as plywood, generators, gas cans and chain saws at their stores in Florida. Sales of hurricane-related supplies at other stores were normal, he said.
As many as four cruise ships have changed their planned courses to avoid getting into the hurricane's path.
To read more about dangerous hurricanes and the people who work to determine more fully the path and direction of these dangerous storms, read "Inside The Hurricane," by Pete Davies. Much of the book details the events and people caught in what was the most dangerous storm of the recent past, that of Catagory 5 Mitch in 1998, where 11,000 people were killed and thousands more missing in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
That's the news for today, for weather in your area, go to weather.com.
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