Hurricane here Sunday?

Any idea as to whether the winds are stronger near the top of the higher hills/mountains? We're very high up in Clairmont on STX.

Rick, I sent you a PM.
Swan

I must say, on the current satellite images, it sure looks like it has the potential to get alot stronger! And it has slowed to 14mph...Gert on http://www.stormcarib.com says: Just a quick note, just because Maria seems barely a tropical storm, don't underestimate it! It is a big storm, with tropical storm winds expanding outward up to 175 miles, with the northern side being the strongest. Also, Maria has slowed down somewhat, making it more susceptible for strengthening. If you are under a tropical storm warning, better take it serious!

To East Ender: here is also to satellites, and to hurricane hunters!!!!

joan: I think about "Marilyn times", as we call them, when you had a big ole map and put little pencil marks when they would give you the coordinates then connect the dots. We had no idea about steering winds, troughs, sheer, NOGAPS, etc. Just sitting ducks on a little rock in the Caribbean...

From Jeff Masters' blog on Weather Underground re: Maria's track:

"We need a dropsonde mission by the NOAA jet to help reduce some of the track uncertainty, but unfortunately we have only one such airplane, and it is tied up flying missions for Tropical Storm Nate in the Gulf of Mexico. "

That's funny, East Ender. I was thinking just the same thing last night. When we would put the map on the wall (did the Daily News even print one this year?) and use a pencil every 4 hours to update the map. Sort of miss it but it is better to be this informed.

Pamela

This is a nice tracking site. You have to click on Maria on the left once the page
Opens up.
http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/TC.html

Kinda surprising that the military and gov sites look like the web circa-1996.

www.Stormpulse.com seems to understand that a good tracking site doesn't have to be ugly.

Maria was just downgraded
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
"...MARIA BARELY A TROPICAL CYCLONE...WARNINGS DISCONTINUED..."

YAY!!!!!

Maria sure did fall apart over night! Amazing! Looks like we are out of the woods with this one, thankfully!

East Ender and Pamela: do you remember Marty Merrick on Channel 8 a few years back? He had his little pointer, and map, and that's about all he had! It was too funny to watch!

Does anyone else think we're still in for some stormy weather later tonight. Maria is so long on a NE/SW angle, looks to me like the bottom will still go over us. Obviously won't be bad....I hope.

"Does anyone else think we're still in for some stormy weather later tonight."

The NHC http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/203508.shtml?tswind120?large#contents says there's currently a 5-10% chance (for STX) and a 10-20% chance (for STT/STJ) of sustained winds of 39mph or more.

Regarding rain, the NHC public advisory http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT4+shtml/102032.shtml says:
RAINFALL...MARIA IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAIN ACCUMULATIONS OF
2 TO 4 INCHES WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 6 INCHES OVER THE
LESSER ANTILLES...THE VIRGIN ISLANDS...AND PUERTO RICO.

http://weather.yahoo.com/us-virgin-islands/saint-croix-island/christiansted-22503842/ says 80% chance of rain tonight and tomorrow, 2 inches of rain.

I says, keep watching the forecasts.

Does anybody know if they cancelled the curfew that was supposed to start at 7pm tonight?

My restaurant friends, on Facebook, have posted that the curfew has been lifted, and they are open.

Curfew was canceled

looks like maria was cancelled as well

looks like maria was cancelled as well

(tu)

Maria wasn't canceled, it just gave us a break. It still exists and is close to the VI now. It could bring 2 to 6 inches of rain to the VI. It's also forecast to become a hurricane on Wednesday, well north of us.

I have a feeling that tomorrow we are going to hear that the weather people don't know anything. We were is the cone of uncertainty the entire time. She shifted to the right side of the cone at an opportune moment, leaving us on the weak side. The meteorologists all say they have improved greatly over the years in predicting track- especially in the 36 hour window- but are still having trouble with predicting intensity. On the other hand, they kept saying it was going to lose and then gain strength, and it did. Again, here is to the meteorologists, especially the ones who study tropical systems!(tu)