Mean Dean, the “meanest guy you have ever seen”
That label from Jason Simpson. No doubt he will be a biggie and here are some quick facts as of 5 am, CDT:
LOCATION
Latitude 15.1N, Longitude 67.3W. Translation:
660 miles ESE of Kingston, Jamaica
240 miles SSW of San Juan, Puerto Rico
MOVEMENT
West at 17 mph. A general west to WNW track expected for at least the next 24 hours. Center of powerful Dean should pass south of Dominican Republic later today.
WINDS
Highest sustained 150 mph (Category 4) May grow stronger next 24 hours. A Hurricane Hunter aircraft will make a breakfast visit to Dean in a few hours.
PRESSURE
930 MB or 27.46 inches. Enough said!
HURRICANE WARNINGS
South Coast of Dominican Republic westward tp Haiti-Dominican Republic border.
SW Peninsula of Haiti including the city of Port-Au-Prince
Port-Au-Prince is by far the main population center of Haiti
HURRICANE WATCH
For Jamaica. (may be changed to Hurricane Warning later this morning)
A SCARY THOUGHT
This monster is projected to approach the NE coast of Yucatan before daybreak Tuesday. At that point, the NHC estimates that sustained winds will be around 160 mph with gusts just under 200 (195 mph) Caution: That is way down the road as far as hurricane forecasts go.
LATEST TRACK FORECAST
The 5 am projection is for landfall along the NE Coast of Mexico around 2 am next Thursday, some 80-100 miles south of ther U.S border. We all learned a long, long time ago that track errors can be very large that far out.
OUR FRIEND THE GULF OF MEXICO
Water temperatures could not be more favorable. I don’t remember the water being this warm across the entire Gulf. SSTs are in the high 80s over most of the Gulf. Prime fodder.
RAMBLING THOUGHTS
Can you imagine the anxious moments in coming days for the huge population centers of Corpus Christi, Galveston, Houston, New Orleans, just to name a few? There will be much loss of sleep when this powerful hurricane gets into the Southern Gulf. Things could come together to turn it more northward. Definately a wait-and-see drama that will play out. However, recent projections have stayed the course taking it ashore as mentioned above.
Remember in 2005 when all of Houston tried to evacuate. A text-book example of classic traffic jams and mass confusion.
And New Orleans. While that city seems safe now, there will be much burning of the midnight oil. I did not get a chance to listen to powerful WWL last night buit I am sure Dean was a hot topic, almost as much so as the New Orleans Saints and LSU football.
Again, this blog will be humming until Dean gets inland. As congested as U.S 280 at 7 in he morning.
Look for Brian’s video discussion a bit later this morning with ll the graphics.
Stay with us!
