Hurricane Harbor: UPDATED Cat 4 Hurricane Harvey Making Landfall in Texas. Tropical Conditions For Days & Does It Track Towards Houston? Stay Tuned.

CAT 4 Hurricane Harvey.

Upgraded to Category 4 before Landfall.

History being made.

CATEGORY FOUR.

Look at that eye....

Brief update...

..you can keep reading for an hour ago.

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A great to look deep into a hurricane.

Look at that eye.

Awesome, terrifyingly compelling.

The models verified on intensity.

Hurricane Harvey.

Making Landfall as a Cat 3

Where is it going?

CNN advertising their story on Princess Diana but they are mentioning Harvey briefly here and there while talking on politics. "Now a Major Hurricane" is the lead.. as I said before the lead bleeds. Matt Drudge knows what, but to be honest he does love weather, and his site highlighted a story I had not heard anywhere else. There's a cruise ship out there somewhere too close to the storm? Just why? Stuck in port in a hurricane that is moving towards them? Why is there always a ship involved with a Major Hurricane? Hope they find safety until the storm is gone... which may take a week or so..... 20,000 people? That's a small city on that ship.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/20-000-stuck-at-sea-in-cruise-ships-as-Galveston-11959300.php#photo-11896143

Look at that eye.

Over very warm water.

Moving slowly.

I'm glad they upgraded but I wish they would have a few hours earlier when it was apparent based on barometric pressure dropping and eye wall replacement cycles going on that it was a Cat 3 most of the morning. I hope people got out of Dodge ...out of the way and to safety and I will continue to pray as I hope you will as so many people are in the path of this storm if the track verifies as the intensity model did showing rapid development prior to landfall. The first landfall.

As I said earlier other storms have looped from both Tropical Storms to Hurricanes and this isn't "unprecedented" but it makes a good headline and hypes up the thought that we live in new, strange times. In 1984 Hurricane Diana off the coast of North Carolina drove forecasters crazy as did a few of the hurricanes that year. I wonder what the models would have done today regarding those crazier loopers. I guess they blamed it on being 1984 back then. Has happened since time began when steering currents get funky.

http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atlantic/1984/index.html

Then there was Major Cane Mitch

Mitch is a good example.

For 2 reasons.

Mitch was the essential looper, it dipped down, emerged, reformed and made landfall again in South Florida. Mitch was at one time a Category 5 Hurricane.

180 MPH winds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Mitch

http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atlantic/1998/MITCH/track.gif

The reason I mentioned Mitch is because it is infamous for the number of people who died in Central America, however what most people don't realize is that they died from long, prolonged rains when it was mostly a stalled Tropical Storm. Before coming back the way Harvey did for it's second landfall in Florida it had been downgraded to Tropical Storm. However, the torrential rains in the villages in the mountainous regions inland are what caused the huge death toll. It's the rain, the flooding, the flash flooding that causes the death toll to go high. The winds you can hide from and pray, but the flooding will get you almost every time.

And as Harvey moves slowly, as it is forecast to crawl along the Texas coast retracing the route Carla took in ways and as rains spread inland the flooding is what could be the real killer here not the wind. And, even downgraded to a Tropical Storm or a Subtropical Storm or any kind of storm if it hovers over the area dumping rain in historic amounts that will be the story.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL131998_Mitch.pdf

Mitch was also sadly known for the loss of the ship Fantome.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/10/11/the-ship-that-vanished

So this happens time and time again. And as much as we are victims to hurricanes ... hurricanes are victims to the steering currents. And often the steering currents suddenly stop steering hurricane and on rare occasions when you have a major hurricane the hurricane itself gets a vote in where it goes. The high above the Major Hurricane can become a player when there are weak steering currents and as always a Hurricane will find the weakness and travel towards Low Pressure if it can so... time will tell where Harvey goes.

For now it's making landfall in a part of the country that has often seen Major Hurricanes, yet has not seen one in many years. So pray for those in it's path.

Keeping it short and simple. It is what it is and hurricanes are back in fashion after many years of El Nino running the show. And the forecasts for 2017 being a busier season with hurricanes likely to make landfall after tracing a huge high has also verified.

Are you prepared if a hurricane gets into the Caribbean later in the season and rides a cold front up into South Florida? Or a high shoves a hurricane West suddenly into North Florida? Or if an odd set up such as Hurricane Sandy comes along again threatening the New York or Boston area? Are you prepared? Because whether you are prepared or not... if the steering currents are right and a hurricane is strong enough to fight off shear or dry air (as Harvey did) that hurricane can come find you. Oh and hurricanes like Harvey have tornadoes in them not just flooding threats....

Prayers for all in Harvey's path and start giving to the Red Cross now as they will need the money. Anything you can give is good, if everyone just gave $5 it would add up and help the larger multitude in need. And, I can't convey again how many people will be in need. As said earlier by the NWS parts of the Texas coast may not be habitable for a long time. Think Katrina... without the failed levee system and if Harvey moves on to New Orleans with their pumps not working... it could be like Katrina but it's name will be Harvey and it will be remembered as it is currently making history.

And remember it's just August. The height of the season is next month in September. There are areas out there no one is talking about as we focus on the life and death drama of Category 3 Hurricane Harvey.