Major Hurricane Irma- STORM MODE

[gymengineer]

This St. Augustine damage is pretty surprising given where the city is located- tornado?

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/drone-video-st-augustine-condos-destroyed-by-hurricane-irma/608160903

[Sugarloaf1989]

Do the remains of Urma have a chance the get back into the GOM?

[LongBeachSurfFreak]

1 hour ago, gymengineer said:

This St. Augustine damage is pretty surprising given where the city is located- tornado?

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/drone-video-st-augustine-condos-destroyed-by-hurricane-irma/608160903

I would have to say absolutely. They were in that band hat was producing prolific amounts of SC and spinups. You can almost see the damage path from east to west with the video which would follow the flow during that band. That area definitly didn't have regular Irma winds to produce that kind of roof damage. 

[thess]

Don't have pics on hand, but a tornado apparently destroyed a cruise park-n-go type parking garage on Merritt Island, including totaling many of the cars. (So some of the people stuck out on cruises from Port Canaveral lost their cars.)

[KPITSnow]

Seeing the first pictures from the lower keys, and it is complete devastation. 

the bullet was not dodged.

A question about surge, did the keys, much like a barrier island, possibly break the surge of the mainland?

[HarveyLeonardFan]

1 hour ago, KPITSnow said:

Seeing the first pictures from the lower keys, and it is complete devastation. 

the bullet was not dodged.

A question about surge, did the keys, much like a barrier island, possibly break the surge of the mainland?

Not true. Damage in the keys is consistent with cat 2 damage. Reporters have been surveying the keys from top to bottom and they're not seeing any evidence of widespread damage to well built structures. Key west is the wealthiest city in the Florida keys and it escaped with cat 1 damage and minimal structural damage.

The low pressure was a lagging indicator. Irma played pepper with Cuba for 18 hours and emerged a shell of herself.

[Lady Di]

Well here in SE PA just had a shower go through which is still part of this storm.  

Impressive system, it saddens me with all the arguing that occurred.  Luckily I joined way back on Eastern so I can recognize the good and informative posters.  Thank you!

 

 

[thess]

3 hours ago, KPITSnow said:

Seeing the first pictures from the lower keys, and it is complete devastation. 

the bullet was not dodged.

A question about surge, did the keys, much like a barrier island, possibly break the surge of the mainland?

Do you have any links, or do you mean on TV?

[Hoosier]

Rain associated with the remnants of Irma made it all the way into northern Illinois this morning.  

[Indystorm]

Light bands of showers alternating with clouds and peeks of sunshine here in Indy metro.   Definitely a tropical presentation with the bands even now.

[Hurricane Agnes]

Was under the Irma-derived band that Lady Di mentioned.  Got a little under 0.1 " from the stratiform-type showers.  It also brought some higher dewpoints with it - in the upper 60/low 70 range - after the extended period of mild dry weather that we have had.

[HarveyLeonardFan]

The ratings are in and CNN's numbers went through the roof on Sunday.  The 25-54 age demo is the only metric cable news advertisers care about and CNN had more viewers than FOX and MSNBC combined in this demo.  FOX and MSNBC were close with FOX finishing second.  Wow, how the mighty have fallen.  It wasn't too long ago when FOX was dominant in all categories.  I haven't seen the numbers for TWC but they were sure were greedy.  The three cable news nets were limiting commercials and TWC for most of the day was running a lot more spots.

[psv88]

Client of mine had her house on Big Pine Key completely destroyed. 

[thess]

The ratings are in and CNN's numbers went through the roof on Sunday.  The 25-54 age demo is the only metric cable news advertisers care about and CNN had more viewers than FOX and MSNBC combined in this demo.  FOX and MSNBC were close with FOX finishing second.  Wow, how the mighty have fallen.  It wasn't too long ago when FOX was dominant in all categories.  I haven't seen the numbers for TWC but they were sure were greedy.  The three cable news nets were limiting commercials and TWC for most of the day was running a lot more spots.

For what it's worth, I did notice that TWC seemed to air most of the Naples landfall, about 90 minutes' worth, virtually commercial free. (Or so it seemed via my DIRECTV Now account, which I reactivated to watch storm coverage when I got weary of social media "coverage".)

[Stormlover74]

Surreal

'For first time in 300 years, there’s not a single living person on the island of Barbuda'

Barbuda has been left completely devastated by Hurricane Irma. An estimated 95% of Barbuda’s structures are damaged, and the entire island of around 1,800 people has been evacuated.

“The damage is complete,” says Ambassador Ronald Sanders, who has served as Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the U.S. since 2015. “For the first time in 300 years, there’s not a single living person on the island of Barbuda — a civilization that has existed on that island for over 300 years has now been extinguished.”

https://usat.ly/2jq503O

[ncforecaster89]

On 9/11/2017 at 11:05 PM, HarveyLeonardFan said:

I'm very disappointed with the extreme rudeness and elitism demonstrated by the moderators during the entire course of the tracking of Harvey. The nastiness and superiority among the moderators and some veterans was embarrassing and many new users will not be returning.

I was also appalled at the criticism leveled at the select few who had the courage to express doubts that Irma was going to produce catastrophic damage on our shores. 40/70 kicked major azZ but was maligned in real time, but was proven right. Other posters were also attacked for casting doubts about the ultimate impact. These users were prescient. Instead of being applauded they were either banned, limited, or suspended. 

The nhc did a poor job with this hurricane and their criticism shouldn't have been censored.  This was basically a cat 2 hurricane with a few higher gusts. I find that 142 mph gust in Naples to be highly dubious and as valid as a weekend course completion certificate from trump university.

 

Can't speak to the rest of this post, as I was busy documenting #Irma in SW Fl, except to say that the officially recorded 142 mph gust most definitely matches the peak winds myself,  Michael Laca, and other highly experienced chasers experienced at the city parking garage in #Naples.   In fact, its peak winds are at least top 3 (along with Katrina and Harvey), maybe even#1, in my own chase career!

The biggest difference I observed,  with regard to the two others, is the relative short duration of those extreme winds; which appears to have limited the more severe wind damage that otherwise would have occured, although certainly bad enough.  

I'm still stranded at the Jacksonville,  Fl airport awaiting a flight back home, after my car rental broke down on me.   As a result,  I'm still trying to catch up posting damage pics taken the days following the storm in Naples...which can be viewed on Twitter @tbrite89.    

[Paragon]

6 hours ago, ncforecaster89 said:

Can't speak to the rest of this post, as I was busy documenting #Irma in SW Fl, except to say that the officially recorded 142 mph gust most definitely matches the peak winds myself,  Michael Laca, and other highly experienced chasers experienced at the city parking garage in #Naples.   In fact, its peak winds are at least top 3 (along with Katrina and Harvey), maybe even#1, in my own chase career!

The biggest difference I observed,  with regard to the two others, is the relative short duration of those extreme winds; which appears to have limited the more severe wind damage that otherwise would have occured, although certainly bad enough.  

I'm still stranded at the Jacksonville,  Fl airport awaiting a flight back home, after my car rental broke down on me.   As a result,  I'm still trying to catch up posting damage pics taken the days following the storm in Naples...which can be viewed on Twitter @tbrite89.    

Thanks, so 142 mph was the peak gust reported anywhere in the US (and 112 mph was the peak sustained wind?)  As far as the islands are concerned (Cuba, Virgin Is, etc.) what were the peak recorded sustained winds and gusts with Irma?

[ncforecaster89]

3 hours ago, Paragon said:

Thanks, so 142 mph was the peak gust reported anywhere in the US (and 112 mph was the peak sustained wind?)  As far as the islands are concerned (Cuba, Virgin Is, etc.) what were the peak recorded sustained winds and gusts with Irma?

To the very best of my knowledge, the figures you listed for highest recorded wind gusts in the USA are accurate.

As far as the localities outside the USA, I honestly haven't put much effort into researching that data.  That said, I believe there was a confirmed wind gust measurement of 155 mph on Barbuda before the anemometer was destroyed.  Unlike in the USA where it's likely that the 142 mph gust is close to the peak wind gust produced by Irma at that time, there's very little doubt that the aforementioned 155 mph gust was greatly exceeded by the unmeasured max gust generated on the eastern Caribbean Islands.    

Maybe another member is aware of a higher recorded gust than the 155 mph mentioned above?  Of course, it's essentially impossible for any anemometer to survive long enough to actually record a wind gust =/> 200 mph...which is theoretically assumed to have been produced by hurricane Irma.   

[Paragon]

57 minutes ago, ncforecaster89 said:

To the very best of my knowledge, the figures you listed for highest recorded wind gusts in the USA are accurate.

As far as the localities outside the USA, I honestly haven't put much effort into researching that data.  That said, I believe there was a confirmed wind gust measurement of 155 mph on Barbuda before the anemometer was destroyed.  Unlike in the USA where it's likely that the 142 mph gust is close to the peak wind gust produced by Irma at that time, there's very little doubt that the aforementioned 155 mph gust was greatly exceeded by the unmeasured max gust generated on the eastern Caribbean Islands.    

Maybe another member is aware of a higher recorded gust than the 155 mph mentioned above?  Of course, it's essentially impossible for any anemometer to survive long enough to actually record a wind gust =/> 200 mph...which is theoretically assumed to have been produced by hurricane Irma.   

Thanks, I had heard theoretical estimates of up to 225 mph for gusts in Barbuda, though that was just an estimate based on radar so one can't be sure.  The highest I actually read about being measured was 157 mph at the landfall point in Northern Cuba when Irma had regained Cat 5 status at 160 mph for a brief time.  One can only assume what would have happened if Irma had somehow not interacted with Cuba and went right into Florida in a path similar to what Andrew took or just north of there.

 

 

As it is, Irma maintained 185 mph sustained winds for a record 37 hours.  We'll never know actually how intense it was at peak, but a figure near 170 kt seems likely (or maybe even slightly more.)  

[CheeselandSkies]

Not sure if this has been posted, but some of those scenes in the Keys are right on par with some of the most significant U.S. hurricane landfalls of the past 30 years, at least in terms of combined wind and surge damage at and near the point of landfall. I'd say not as bad as Andrew or Charley in terms of wind damage, but worse than an Opal. Similar to a Hugo or Katrina at the right front eyewall in Mississippi. Haven't personally looked at a lot of images from Ivan or Wilma, but probably similar to those as well.

Irma's inner core was damaged but not destroyed over Cuba and it was on the cusp of bombing out again over that high-octane water as it went through the Keys. SW Florida residents should be very thankful it ran out of time before some shear and dry air got there.

 

[Paragon]

I heard Lower Matecumbe Key talked about in reference to Irma and that was the place where the 1935 hurricane made landfall if I'm not mistaken.    Irma was probably the most destructive hurricane in the region since then.

 

[ncforecaster89]

Unlike previous chases, I did take a short two minute cell phone video of Irma at its peak in Naples.  If interested in checking it out, I uploaded it to YouTube.  Peak wind gust occurs around the 1:09 mark and shortly thereafter.         

At some point in the future, hopefully during the off-season, will get around to editing and posting all the video footage of all the hurricanes I've documented from 2004 through Nate (20 total), as well as the 9 blizzards since 2014.

[Windspeed]

The NHC has released its Tropical Cyclone Report for Major Hurricane Irma.
 

Quote

Irma was a long-lived Cape Verde hurricane that reached category 5 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. The catastrophic hurricane made seven landfalls, four of which occurred as a category 5 hurricane across the northern Caribbean Islands. Irma made landfall as a category 4 hurricane in the Florida Keys and struck southwestern Florida at category 3 intensity.