The maps I’ve been seeing today are pretty disturbing.
If Irma makes landfall in South Carolina south of Charleston, and the eye then passes to the west of Columbia, we could be seeing damage and storm surges worse than Hugo — a lot worse, it seems to me.
I’m no meteorologist, nor yet a physicist, but it seems that the counterclockwise winds of the storm would his these population centers much harder than what we experienced in 1989.
And remember, Hugo came ashore as a category 4. This is a Category 5, and then some. The only reason it’s not a Category 6 is that there is no Category 6.
The only solace this course offers South Carolina is the probability of the storm using up a lot of its energy running up the Atlantic coast of Florida.
Which is cold comfort if you live in Florida….
By the way, as you can see, these are screenshots from my Washington Post app, updated at 9:27 a.m. and 2:19 p.m. today…
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By the way, I apologize for being reduced to talking about the weather. I realize it shows a certain lack of imagination and social effort.
I’ll endeavor to be a better host going forward….
I’ve noticed that possibility. I also note that on the path it’s on now Irma goes back into the Atlantic for awhile. The Atlantic is very warm this year, which will give it a chance to strengthen again.
Image link doesn’t work… says it can’t be displayed because it contains errors.
We’re 90 miles inland, I’ve been through plenty of thunderstorms and grew up in the midwest, I know what wind is. I’m not falling for all this media hype. I haven’t even thought about going out for supplies to make french toast.
Sorry, but it doesn’t link to anything. Those are screengrabs from my iPad, emailed to my laptop.
Here’s the link to the piece — which now shows the path shifting farther to the west…
Well Claus2, thank you for sharing your Midwest experiences with high wind and thunderstorms. Us po’ ignert folks round here ain’t never been through nuttin as bad as a hot wind from the Midwest – until you showed up.
Maybe you can tell the people of South Carolina who went through Hugo when you were in the Midwest how lucky they were to go through something as tame as a hurricane – 90 miles inland and the people of Charlotte and how surprised when downtown Charlotte looked like Beirut. Guess they were too busy trying to survive to worry about their French toast.
There are a couple things that may work in our favor. Once Irma gets over land in Florida, it will begin to weaken immediately. It may regain strength if it moves back over the ocean, but water temps close to the east coast tend to be cooler than the open Atlantic or Caribbean. If it stays close enough, those lower temps could weaken it further. I doubt it will be stronger than cat 3 at landfall in the Carolinas or Georgia. But I’m no meteorologist.
Not that those winds won’t be destructive–they will, and everyone should take precautions. And being on the storm’s right side makes it worse for Columbia.
National stories are probably going to be all about Miami. It’s essentially a sea level city with a large population smack in the path of the storm. Wind and storm surge are going to make it ugly down there.
The Euro model (which has a better rep for forecast accuracy, I hear), still has the storm heading straight up the center of Florida and dissipating over Georgia.
The NHC model has moved west so that the track stays over land in Florida.