Hurricane Rita: Equivalent to a 150 Mile Wide F2 Tornado

WEATHER NEWS BRIEFS - Wednesday, 9/21/05 To speak with a meteorologist about breaking weather news, call the AccuWeather.com 24/7 Media Line: (814) 235-8710.

TODAY'S BRIEFS

Hurricane Rita: Equivalent to a 150 mile wide F2 tornado Could impact cotton prices Could cause serious damage to Houston as well as Galveston Rita and the 2005 Hurricane Season's place in history

Hurricane Rita: Equivalent to an 150 mile wide F2 tornado, could impact cotton prices, cause serious damage to Houston

Rita, being fed by the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, has already intensified to a major Category 4 hurricane as predicted, which is the same category as Katrina was when it made landfall. Since yesterday afternoon, the AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center has also been warning that this storm has the potential to reach Category 5 and rank among the most powerful of hurricanes.

Damage Potential: Cotton Production Rita will have wide-ranging negative effects if it maintains its current track and strikes Texas. As widely discussed, oil and natural gas production could be severely affected, with many Gulf drilling platforms and refineries potentially in the path of the storm. Less understood is the impact Rita could have on cotton production. Cotton is grown across southern Texas, and fields are currently full of well-developed plants, as cotton is harvested in October. Enough of the state's cotton crop could be devastated by Rita's high winds and flooding rains that cotton prices could be affected.

Damage Potential: Property Damage Rita is projected to strike between Port Lavaca, TX, and Galveston, TX. A direct hit to Galveston would be devastating to the city, but even an indirect hit would cause major property damage because of high winds and torrential rains. Galveston has also become the primary Gulf port after New Orleans was shut down by Katrina.

Houston could be seriously affected as well. In 1983, Hurricane Alicia made landfall as a Category 3 storm south of Houston, and tracked just to the west of the city. Winds from the storm blew out a tremendous amount of windows in downtown Houston. Rita is projected to be a significantly stronger storm than Alicia.

Wherever Rita ultimately strikes, there will be areas of the Texas coast that will be as devastated by Rita as those areas of Mississippi and Alabama were by Katrina.

Another serious issue is the possibility of a major storm surge driving a vast volume of water inland, as happened with Katrina. Rita will travel across the entire Gulf as a powerful hurricane, driving a huge amount of water before it. This will create a wall of water that will inundate the area where Rita strikes. Galveston would be particularly at risk were the storm to strike in its vicinity, as the storm surge could be higher than the city's sea wall.

As a Category 4 hurricane, the winds from Rita upon landfall would be the equivalent of a 150 mile wide F2 tornado, which gives an indication of how powerful Rita could be at that point, and why evacuation of areas where Rita could strike is so critical.

To interview an AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center meteorologist about this story, call: (814) 235-8710.

Rita and the 2005 Hurricane Season's place in history The formation of Hurricane Rita placed the 2005 hurricane season among rare company. The only other "R" storm named in previous hurricane seasons was Roxanne, which formed in the western Caribbean toward the end of the 1995 hurricane season, and struck Mexico. The 1969 should have had an "R" named storm, but because of missing real-time data, not all storms were named that year.

To interview an AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center meteorologist about this story, call: (814) 235-8710.

Information in this brief is provided with the expectation that stories in which it is used will credit AccuWeather.com.

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