Ivan the Terrible - Cat 5... again

[PhotonBoy]

I read on Yahoo News that Ivan has strengthened to a Category 5 Hurricane and that 15 have been killed in Grenada. Also, looking at the 5 day forecast, it appears that Jamaica, Cuba and at least the Florida Keys will be getting hammered soon. Batten down the hatches.

Weather Underground -- National Hurricane Center

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

Geez!/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/awman.gif

Has Florida got a giant "Kick Me" sign?/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/str.gif

I really wish it wouldn't hit there. But I don't want any part of it either!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/aaa.gif

 

[Lux Luthor]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

I love hurricanes. I've been through two of them. But once they get past cat 3, they get REAL serious. Definitely not fun anymore. In fact, this thing looks huge, and may be in the Gilbert category.

 

[flashlight_widow]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

Craziness! Poor FL is getting hammered this season!

 

[raggie33]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

im wondering if my real mom went back home.this is so werid how huricanes keep hitting fla

 

[d'mo]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

I been through a few super-typhoons while living in Japan. They're cool to watch, but heaven help you if you're unprepared.

Best of luck Florida! (my grandparents and uncle are there).

 

[bobisculous]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

If it does go there way, man thats sucks. I bet no one there is repairing anything now. Theres no point till you know if its coming to you or not. After it gets past Jamaica tommorow, they have no idea where its going to go. There is a projected path, but instead of it being yellow like most, it was grey cause its so uncertain. So Playboy, we could be in for something, you just never know.
Cameron

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

[ QUOTE ]
World Book Encyclopedia Hurricane scale:

Level 1, 74-95 mph
Level 2, 96-110 mph
Level 3, 111-130 mph
Level 4, 131-155 mph
Level 5, 156 mph


[/ QUOTE ]

Even at Category 5, there are hurricanes and there are HURRICANES.

In the mid 80's Hurricane Gilbert slammed into the Yucatan with peak winds of 225 MPH! Yikes!

I was working on a floating gambling casino at the time that only opened for business in international waters. The crew was evaced. The captain asked me if I would stay on the ship and ride out the storm, just the engineer and myself. I thought it would be interesting so I agreed. It seems like a crazy decision, but not nearly as crazy as it sounds. I believe we would have made it even if we had taken a direct hit. It missed us by 450 miles. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[brightnorm]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

Tornadoes are terrible but a category 4 or 5 hurricane is equivalent to a 150 mile wide tornado, and Gilbert's peak 225 mph winds were the equivalent of a Fujita F-4 intensity tornado. People who have been through moderate hurricanes can't imagine the overwhelming power of 150mph+ winds.

Here's a tornado instensity scale

FUJITA TORNADO SCALE
· F-0. Light damage. Wind up to 72 mph. Some damage to chimneys; breaks branches off trees; pushes over shallow-rooted trees; damages sign boards.
· F-1. Moderate damage. Wind 73 to 112 mph. The lower limit is the beginning of hurricane wind speed; peels surface off roofs; mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned; moving autos pushed off the roads; attached garages may be destroyed.
· F-2. Considerable damage. Wind 113 to 157 mph. Considerable damage. Roofs torn off frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars pushed over; large trees snapped or uprooted; light object missiles generated.
· F-3. Severe damage. Wind 158 to 206 mph. Roof and some walls torn off well-constructed houses; trains overturned; most trees in forest uprooted.
· F-4. Devastating damage. Wind 207 to 260 mph. Well-constructed houses leveled; structures with weak foundations blown off some distance; cars thrown and large missiles generated.
· F-5. Incredible damage. Wind above 261 mph. Strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances to disintegrate; automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters; trees debarked; steel-reinforced concrete structures badly damaged.
F-0 and F-1 tornadoes are considered "weak," F-2 and F-3 are "strong" and F-4 and F-5 are "violent."
Fujita listed "F-6" and even higher ratings on his original scale, but F-6 or higher rated tornadoes aren't thought to exist. The damage they would do would be "inconceivable."

Brightnorm

 

[idleprocess]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

Here I thought that tornadoes could hit 400+ MPH winds...

 

[springnr]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

My eldest boy decided ta hie off to Japan and check it out first hand(teaching English to pay his way). He has first hand knowledge of earthquakes an typhoons now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I think Japan has had ~17 typhoons in the area with 7 hitting direct so far this year - and typhoon season just started.

 

[BlindedByTheLite]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

[ QUOTE ]
idleprocess said:
Here I thought that tornadoes could hit 400+ MPH winds...

[/ QUOTE ]
not 100% sure, but i think the fastest wind speed recorded in a tornado was in the lower 300's. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/aaa.gif

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

IIRC Gilbert had the highest winds that have ever been associated with a hurricane. The bad news is that in the grand scheme of things, they haven't really been measuring very long...so I would hesitate to put any absolute values on them.

It's disturbing that Ivan is already Cat 5...and is still so far away with so much warm water to cross...and to feed on.

I'm pretty sure that tornadoes are the most violent weather events on Earth. The idea of anything peeling bricks off of a building or scouring the asphalt off of a road is pretty disturbing to me..

And of course, tornadoes spin off the thunderstorm bands of all hurricanes...

 

[binky]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

Saw Cat-5 and thought "it's 5e or 6 these days". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Isn't Guantanimo in Ivan's path? I gotta wonder how all our troops and those probably-temporary structures will fare through a Cat-5.

 

[Stingray]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

I'm preparing for a major huricane for the 3rd time in the last month. Charlie missed us, Frances hit us with Cat 1 winds, and now Ivan might be on the way. Frances was an enormously huge hurricane compared to Ivan. The hurricane force winds extended out 85 miles from the center. That means that if it hadn't weakened from a 4 to a 2 and fallen apart wandering off the coast, hurricane force winds would have extended practically from Miami to Orlando simultaneously. Ivan is more powerful but also more compact, like Andrew was. Is it estimated that Andrew had gusts exceeding 200 mph in the Country Walk area of Miami. I saw the demolished buildings the next day. It looked like a war zone. I think Gilbert had sustained winds of 193 mph officially.

When Frnaces hit us last week (I'm in Coral Springs) most of the neighborhoods around me lost power and phones. Somehow our neighborhood didn't lose anything except off and on cable. Lots of trees uprooted etc. I was way overprepared for it and pretty much nothing happened to our house except a few broken tree branches.

An average hurricane produces the equivalent of 200 times the world wide electrical generating capacity per day. Far more than a tornado.

 

[357]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

Category 5 hurricanes have the potential to do catastrophic damage. Well built buildings can be leveled by a category 5.

In contrast, a category 2 like Frances will typically only do moderate cosmetic damage to well built buildings.

The forcasts I've read have Ivan dropping back down to a high category 4 (perhaps from being over land at Cuba?) before it comes near the Keys, but regardless it will still tremendous damage. As one other poster said, any hurricane over category 4 is a VERY SERIOUS and dangerous hurricane. If Ivan were to stay over warm water for an extended period and avoid going over land, it could potentially even become stronger.

 

[brightnorm]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

[ QUOTE ]
BlindedByTheLite said:
...not 100% sure, but i think the fastest wind speed recorded in a tornado was in the lower 300's. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/aaa.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Recording tornado speed is so problematic that many speed quotes are estimates derived from assessing storm damage after it has hit. The Fujita scale describes in detail the type of damage associated with a specific intensity.
"Hurricane Hunter" planes actually fly into hurricanes to measure speed but that isn't possible with tornados because of their much smaller diameter coupled with higher speed.

Brightnorm

 

[turbodog]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

We live in "tornado alley". Thankfully I have never seen one. We slept through one that went through a mile or so away early one morning. It was large enough to pick entire houses up off their foundations and move them around.

 

[357]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

I'm in earthquake country. However, I think I'd prefer hurricane country. While hurricanes happen more often, I'd prefer having the warning. We can get an 8.0+ here in 30 seconds, 1 year, 15 years, etc. The point is, there is no warning with quakes.

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Re: Ivan the Terrible - now Cat 5

HERE Is a great Atlantic Storm Track Image that extends almost to Africa so you can follow the storms from the start. The time is in ZULU at the upper left. It's usually pretty current.