Hurricane Dennis

I've had a really bad feeling since this thing first formed... I was excited last year, and a little excited when arlene formed, but with this one, something told me to be afraid... be very afraid!!!

I have to tell ya the NHC just updated the wind maps for 7pm EST, and it's arking East back toward Apalachicola. The "average" projection line still runs up through Pensacola but the "cone" still includes us. I know it could do anything once in the gulf, but watching these updates is making me crazy!

Poor Cuba. Dennis the Bas*ard was almost a Cat. 5 when it hit them.

It might be my imagination, but I was paying attention to all the animals today. A mother bird in one of the trees by the break area booted her very young nestlings out into the bushes below for no reason, and continued to care for & feed them there... like she knew they needed to be moved to lower ground! Mika is always loud when we come home but seemed extraordinarily so today. My female parakeet who rarely talks was found berating herself in the mirror. I'm just paranoid, I know, but I can't help but think they're echoing my feeling that we should get the hell out of here!

Originally Posted by Me-n-my guys

After what us Floridians went through last year (2 hurricanes in one month, here) maybe it's o.k. for us to be a little lighthearted about it-what else can you do? It beats the heck out of deing depressed and/or afraid.

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Okay, off topic:
How did you get your cats in that same pose for your signature photo? That's cool!

Well, I'm not gonna get hit, but I hope all the other southerners will stay safe.

Originally Posted by Sooz123

Okay, off topic:
How did you get your cats in that same pose for your signature photo? That's cool!

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Thanks!
I caught Skyler & Mini sleeping like that on different occasions. Unfortunately, Tucker doesn't do that, or they would all match. (I wish)

Please be careful, those in the path of Dennis...Here's a site that might help you prepare for the worst..http://www.uan.org/ears/disaster_tips.html . My prayers are with you all!

Originally Posted by catsknowme

Please be careful, those in the path of Dennis...Here's a site that might help you prepare for the worst..http://www.uan.org/ears/disaster_tips.html . My prayers are with you all!

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Thanks! We had already discussed getting both cats microchipped, but it's a little late for this storm!

Latest word is that it's back up to Cat 3 status & will continue to strengthen. Still looking like a direct Pensacola strike, which *could* bring us some tornados. And yesterday I noticed my knees and elbows aching, I thought it was the crazy weather... but I checked my temp after I woke up from a nap feeling ookie this afternoon... I guess I'll be running from tornados with the flu!

I just heard on the radio news that over 20,000 people from Florida have lost their power.

is that true?

Originally Posted by CJandBilly

In my original post I had a #3 about my whereabouts if I weren't on. I said:

"1) I got hit, and I don't have power, so I can't get online.

2) I got hit, and I'm too busy doing clean up....

3) I got hit, and I'm dead.

"

That's what Hissy said about the joke I made.

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Okay did you edit it?

Probably in the Keys... not here in N. Florida, we've only had one or two rain bands come through and they weren't that bad... yet...

I "lurk" (mostly) on a local weather board, just to see what the weather buffs think about stuff like this (most of them are what I would call amateur meteorologists, personally I have no more interest in the weather than "normal" people ) and they're talking about a possible Cat 5 !!!!

We are hoping it doesn't come to that of course. We got everything up off the floor in the shop and the outbuilding, the bikes and the lawn tractor in the outbuilding (the highest the water has gotten in there is about 6-8", which hopefully is too low to affect the bikes or tractor) stuff moved off the deck and/or tied down. Hope everybody else in the way has gotten their preparations done in good time.

Sometimes these things will suddenly lose strength for various reasons before making landfall. I really, really, really hope this one does that!

Cindy

edited because I can't spell my name correctly!

Cassie, thanks for starting this thread. And for 'fessing up to why Hissy chastised you!

You all stay safe, hear? Hurricanes are so darned unpredicatable! Makes it hard to get to safety ahead of time, doesn't it? Here's hoping it blows out of steam soon, and is not Category 5 !

Originally Posted by RoseHawke

... and they're talking about a possible Cat 5

!!!! ...

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I would hope not! That's completely frightening and I don't know where my sister is... she, my brother-in-law, and their two toddlers rode out Ivan at their house, and only escaped unharmed because the big tree that should've crashed into the house fell into the yard instead. I need to find out if they evacuated this time, but earlier they forecasted that it would be a Cat. 2 at landfall so they probably didn't. They've never evacuated.

Even at a Cat. 3, it should completely level what's left of her rental beach house where we were married. It started out as a four story house and Ivan only left 2 there... and due to battling the insurance company it hasn't been repaired!

In the meantime, we're in the middle of another rainband. Saw it on the radar and then went outside and watched it roll in!

I'm having to interpret stuff like this (and this is mild! ) from the site I mentioned:

The rapid pressure fall shows up nicely on an IR loop. The main batch of convection surrounding the center is collapsing towards the eyewall, while the eye itself has been flushed of any cloudiness (we saw that happen with Ivan twice)

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We've got some pretty hefty rain right now, surely this isn't from Dennis already??? I'll have to check a satellite IR pic.

Cindy

My sister is in the Tampa Bay area. She said they had severe lightning storms last night, and early this morning. Is she in this Hurricane's path?

It very well could be. The first rainband made it here around 2pm.

I'm a little concerned although they've down-played it, that the images show it taken a bit of a northerly turn. BAD! Only the coastal areas here have evacuated and NO ONE in our city has boarded up!!!

Be safe TCS southern friends.
Lei

AAACK! I found out my sister and two young sons evacuated to my Aunt's house in Tennessee, but my brother-in-law went back to stay with their house in Pensacola to board up. At least they're doing that this time! They didn't with Ivan and got several broken windows!

Well, I asked about the rain we're experiencing right now on the weather board and this was the (pretty instant!) reply:

not exactly....It's a seabreeze front pushed north by Dennis....not actually a part of the circulation....but Dennis is to blame for it coming this far north

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I was asking if it was a rainband off of Dennis, so the bottom line is, well, "not exactly" .

Cindy

Could you ask them what their opinion is about the possibility of it jogging more toward Apalachicola and/or affecting Tallahassee? TWC seems to be pretty confident about a Pensacola strike, but I just wonder what the REAL chances are...

Okay, I can give you my interpretations as I REALLY try to keep my head down there over there LOL since I'm a real "fringe fan" as it were. Most of these guys are this close (picture me with my fingers barely apart) to being "real" meteorologists, and it's almost a "professional" board.

The NHC (National Hurricane Center) predictions, and the model runs overall have been really consistent over the last couple of days at putting the landfall of the eye somewhere between Gulfport MS and Pensacola FL. From what I've seen (and I'm usually so paranoid about these things due to our flooding problems that I follow them and have learned some stuff against my will!) if they're that consistent, they will continue to be so. Steering lows and troughs aren't going to pop up very quickly now, so it still should landfall somewhere in that area.

Your wind and storm surge won't be as bad as it could be, the further west it strikes, however, you will get a substantial amount of rain. And It's still going to be a pretty fierce storm when it hits the coast. I'm guessing possibilities of 100? mph winds which will add to your storm surge. And this will increase with proximity to the eye of course. On the east side of the storm you're going to have the possibility of spin-off tornadoes although these are characteristically weak compared to super-cell thunderstorm tornadoes (F1 or F2, still nothing to mess with) and LOTS of rain (like us .)

If you want to pop in to check out the boards:

Weathertalk

It's interesting, but I'm doubtful I'll ever actually learn any of this stuff !

All of this is mostly just my opinion. Go to National Hurricane Center for the real deal.

Cindy