Hurricane Rita has been given that immortal status...a big 'un!
Category 5 Hurricane Rita
10:51 p.m. ET 9/21/2005
Tim Ballisty, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel
Hurricane Rita's rapid intensification cycle that began Tuesday afternoon continues. Top winds are up to 175 mph, now a category 5 hurricane. Rita's pressure has dramatically dropped to 897 millibars! Even as a large and extremely intense category 5 hurricane, further strengthening is possible as the atmosphere remains favorable for development over the next 24 hours.
OK...so you want to know how bad this one is?? Here is what we were saying about Katrina when she turned to a Category 5 off the coast of Louisiana...
The real news was the center's chilling declaration that, at 902 millibars of internal barometric pressure -- the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico -- Katrina was "comparable in intensity to Hurricane Camille of 1969 . . . only larger."
So...before Katrina hit, it was measuring the 'lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in the 
Gulf". Well...Rita weighs in at 897. People of SE Texas...do you get it?? No...try this...
Go to your household barometer...you know, the one that is hanging in the family room. You rarely look at it...because it rarely moves off the 'Fair' indicator. Take a real close look at it. Go down the numbers and find 900. Huh...you can't??? No, you can't...because those household gauges don't go that low (the one to the right only goes down to 950). THAT is how bad this storm is. It is beyond the 'Stormy' indicator on your wall...this one is downright nasty.
For those of you in Oregon...for comparison sake...the windstorm of December 1995, which was in essence a tropical cyclone, has a barometric pressure reading of 954 mb. That storm, although not a hurricane, was considered to have the force of a category 3 hurricane at that point.
Michelle Malkin has a good round-up of this storm. Michelle also links to Jason who is blogging from Houston during the evacuation. He's got pictures of routes and traffic. As usual The Weather Channel is a great resource for weather info, as is the Weather Underground. And for those intense photo (like the one of Rita above), go to NOAA's Operational Significant Event Imagery website. Their photo's are incredible.
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