At this time yesterday (Saturday) Hurricane Gustav was a high-end category 4 hurricane. An increase in the winds of 6 mph would have made it a Cat 5, it may even be reclassified later on as a cat 5.  Oh how things have changed over the past 24 hours.  Hurricane Gustav is now just a minimal category 3 hurricane with winds of 100 kts (115mph).  The pressure has begun to fall again, but it is not quite as strong of a pressure fall as yesterday.

Hurricane Gustav 2008 - Infrared Satellite

Even though Hurricane Gustav doesn’t look as organized right now, it is  till forecast to make landfall as a category 4 hurricane.  Several of the forecast models bring Gustav ashore  just southwest » Continue reading “Hurricane Gustav Tracking - Now only Cat 3″

Within a 24 hour period Hurricane Gustav went from a strong tropical storm with winds of 65 mph to a dangerous category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 mph. The warm water over the NW Caribbean Sea and the light wind shear and good outflow aloft aiding in the rapid development.

Hurricane Gustav Radar 08-30-2008

The radar image above from the Cuban radar site shows a well developed eye over the Island of Youth.  The strongest winds of this storm are located within this eyewall.  Tropical storm condition are already spreading their way into the Florida Keys as seen by the long range base reflectivity below.

Hurricane Gustav 2008 Radar 08-30-2008

Here is the current advisory for Hurricane Gustav:

As of 2 p.m. EDT (1800 UTC) August 30, Hurricane Gustav was located within 15 nautical miles of 21.6°N » Continue reading “Hurricane Gustav becomes Category 4 storm”

During the early morning hours on Saturday August 30, Hurricane Gustav rapidly strengthened from a category 1 hurricane to an extremely dangerous category 3 hurricane.  This a has hug implications for residents of western Cuba as winds up to 125 mph will soon begin pounding the region.  Residents along the U.S. gulf coast are already beginning evacuations.  TSA employees have been recently rounded up from DFW airport and will soon be leaving to both Houston and New Orleans to prepare for the mass evacuations.

Hurricane Gustav currently looks like it will hit between either Houston and New Orleans.  A deviation from this path will have huge implications for the targeted city.  In 2005 Hurricane Rita sparked a mass evacuation of the 4 million residents of Houston alone.  We all remember what happened with Katrina too.

The satellite presentation of Hurricane Gustav continues to look more impressive this afternoon.   There is a well developed and clear eye.  If you look at the radar from Cuba you can see the intense rainbands rotating around this eye.  If the minimum pressure continues to fall below 954 mb, the winds of Gustav will increase and might push it to category 4 hurricane strength by this evening.

For current satellite images of Hurricane Gustav and current model forecast visit:

Hurricane Gustav Satellite Images

Hurricane Gustav Model Forecast

Hurricane Gustav Visible Satellite Image 08-30-2008