Hurricane Ike blowing ashore near Galveston in Texas

The chart above shows the windspeed at the National Buoy Data Center's buoy on the Jetty at Galveston Bay. Galveston is the island that seaward of Houston.. The winds were just shy of 40 knots just after 4 p.m.

The picture below is a satellite view of Hurricane Ike about the same time. The storm is different from other storms in that the eye is not clearly visible and is not tightly compact.
Scientist will have a long time to study that and find out why. One immediate impact if it holds up like that when Ike's eye hits land -- at 12 mph, some people will be in the eye 4 or 5 hours.

Below the satellite photo is a graph showing how fast the barometric pressure is falling as Ike approaches


--steve buser

Hurricane Ike Tropical Storm Winds forecast

The probabilities forecast for tropical storm force winds from Hurricane Ike striking various US locations within the next 120 hours (5 days) from midday Saturday, Sept 6, 2008. Notice that the probabilities now include the entire Gulf Coast, except for Texas..

Here is the Hurricane Hunters plane schedule for today:

WEATHER RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHTS
CARCAH, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER, MIAMI, FL.
0900 AM EDT SAT 06 SEPTEMBER 2008
SUBJECT: TROPICAL CYCLONE PLAN OF THE DAY (TCPOD)
        VALID O7/1100Z TO 08/1100Z SEPTEMBER 2008
        TCPOD NUMBER.....08-098

I.  ATLANTIC REQUIREMENTS
   1. HURRICANE IKE
      FLIGHT ONE -- TEAL 71
      A. 07/1800,08/0000Z
      B. AFXXX 0909A IKE
      C. 07/1500Z
      D. 21.6N 74.1W
      E. 07/1700Z TO 08/0000Z
      F. SFC TO 10,000 FT

      FLIGHT TWO -- NOAA 49
      A. 08/0000Z
      B. NOAA9 1009A IKE
      C. 07/1730Z
      D. NA
      E. NA
      F. 41,000 TO 45,000 FT

      FLIGHT THREE -- TEAL 72
      A. 08/0600,1200Z
      B. AFXXX 1109A IKE
      C. 08/0230Z
      D. 21.8N 76.6W
      E. 08/0500Z TO 08/1200Z
      F. SFC TO 10,000 FT

      FLIGHT FOUR -- NOAA 49
      A. 08/1200Z
      B. NOAA9 1209A IKE
      C. 08/0530Z
      D. NA
      E. NA
      F. 41,000 TO 45,000 FT

--steve buser