Going into the eye of Ike

This is what it looks like when a weather buoy goes into the eye -- winds go up, air temperature and pressure drop dramatically. Unfortunately, that may have been the end of this buoy -- it had not reported for more than 2 hours after these readings.

This buoy is (maybe was) about 123 miles southeast of Galveston, about 13 miles from the 4 p.m. position of the Gulf-eating Hurricane.

-steve buser

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

Mighty Ike expected to mess with Texas

This is the latest view of Hurricane Ike from NASA's Global Climate and Hydrology Center.

I have marked New Orleans (where I am) and Houston (the apparent landfill target -- and where I am glad I am not.)

Our thoughts and prayers are with those in Houston and the surrounding area. Notice the eye which has opened up in the center of Ike -- that had not be visible yesterday -- he seems to be getting better organized. Fortunately, weather forecasters say there are lot of things keeping Ike from organizing up to a Category 4 or 5 storm (wind shear, dry air wrapping in to the swirl periodically, etc). Ike is expected to be a Category 2 or 3 storm when it pushes as much of the Gulf as it can control up over the beaches of Galveston later tonight.

-steve buser