Hurricane Rita News

The Gulf of Mexico is known for its hurricanes, but two category 5 monsters in the same season is a major development.

Bob Schalck sent notice of a NOAA weather buoy that lost its mooring when Hurricane Rita passed by on 23 September 2005. Bob also sent a plot of the barometric pressure measured by the buoy as the storm arrived and passed by. The plot, which is shown in Fig. 1, shows the significant drop in pressure that characterized Rita and other major hurricanes.

A few dozen Texas counties on Rita's along or near Rita's projected track were only brushed by the storm. Especially surprising was that the National Weather Service (NWS) placed many of these counties under a red flag warning the day before Rita arrived. According to the NWS advisory, "A RED FLAG WARNING MEANS WEATHER CONDITIONS WILL PROMOTE FIRES THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO CONTROL ACROSS THE WARNED AREA."

The hot dry conditions that lead to fires were caused by sinking, dry air on the western side of the hurricane. This and the breezy conditions that accompanied the hurricane necessitated the red flag alert.

Forrest M. Mims III