If nothing changes I'm going to have to start driving north tomorrow. I had to leave my car behind during Hurricane Andrew in '92 and flying debris took out every window completely and the car was full of water. I mean the only glass still in place was the tiny shards surrounding the edges. Since I live in apartments with no covered parking I will have no choice but to leave to save my vehicle. Hopefully I can just drive north a couple hundred miles and come back in a couple of days.

No gas in N Ft Myers Im going to have to drive inland to Clewiston tomorrow.
Tried today car battery flat charged battery took 2 hours, found out needed new battery,
$230 and 2 hours later wasted valuable PANIC time getting gas... getting a new battery.

This is the storm Tampa Bay has been dreading for a century. It doesn’t get any more real than this.

We are in a non-evac zone in St. Pete, so we are staying put. I’m not looking forward to Wednesday, nor the weeks or months to come.

My little brother (also a member here) is a chief on a Coast Guard cutter in the gulf right now. I haven’t spoken with him since he went out for his 2 months, but I’m sure he’s had a hell of a trip.

Our mom lives an hour north of Orlando. She’s getting ready…

A couple of years back we had a wind storm come through here. 70+ MPH winds with gusts higher for an hour or two. Having a house and shop surrounded by trees, I was puckered up...and on the phone with USAA upping my coverage.

During that storm I watched several hundred year old pine trees come out by the roots. Others just snapped off. I lost about a dozen trees on my property.

I can't imagine winds twice that fast, with torrential rainfall. Cut down anything that might hit your house ahead of time and GTFO is what I'd do.

I’ve been monitoring the stridency of the weather guessers and I must confess, this time they have a point. Milton is one monstrous storm.

One that appears to have surprised everyone with the pace of intensification.

God help Tampa Bay if they take a direct hit.

quote:

Milton is one monstrous storm.

I see what you did there.

https://x.com/texan_angler/status/1843366956650606905

have my brother come up from Vero to get my dad out of Edgewater, at 87 he was being stubborn but I got his attention, should be well out of the beaten path down south and no reason to add him to our CFL area of responsibility when he can get out of his place and being alone.

Got some more cigars, put up plywood at the daughters and SIL house.

Not much else to do, it's been no wind and very little rain here today, even saw the sun come out a bit.

If the rain in our area can hold off for most of tomorrow we can get the water down and maybe reduce some of the flood problems inland.

897 mm Hg.

Holy cow.

^About the pressure you'd experience at the bottom of a hole almost a mile deep.

Yep, that's 26.5 inHg. My weather station right now is reading 30.05. That's a big ol' hole out there.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
^About the pressure you'd experience at the bottom of a hole almost a mile deep.

Unless I am misunderstanding something, the air pressure at the bottom of a hole like that would be greater than at sea level: longer air column, higher pressure.

Based on a quick search, I believe 897 millibars of pressure would be the standard pressure at an elevation of 3000+ feet.

The station pressure where I live is usually about 21" Hg, and at the moment my Kestrel says it is 20.95".

^We're doing mmHg, not millibars.

Ah, as I said, misunderstood. So the pressure we're referring to would be ~35.3".

But this report says it is millibars, not mm Hg:
https://x.com/wxdam/status/1843443803145023730

Although that report does not specify, I assume it's referring to the pressure in the eye which is always the lowest in a hurricane (as I understand such things).

It does get confusing.

Some good news: there's a very strong chance that Milton will not maintain Cat 5 status, dropping to Cat 3 or low Cat 4 by landfall Florida.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
My little brother (also a member here) is a chief on a Coast Guard cutter in the gulf right now. I haven’t spoken with him since he went out for his 2 months, but I’m sure he’s had a hell of a trip.

Our mom lives an hour north of Orlando. She’s getting ready…

we're actually off the east coast trolling around the Bahamas running from this storm.
I'm glad its going to miss NC but I'm a little worried about mom's house...

I drove a Coast Guard 18-wheeler down to Ft Myers in response to Ian and that was a mess, I'm sorry its happening again.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Some good news: there's a very strong chance that Milton will not maintain Cat 5 status, dropping to Cat 3 or low Cat 4 by landfall Florida.

Don't be fooled, it will still have a Cat 5's worth of storm surge. Less wind is good but Florida is in for a very bad time. Not to be doom and gloom, I just hope folks don't see Cat 3 and think oh it won't be so bad and stick around for it.