From the Weather Channel blog, by Stu Ostro, Senior Meteorologist
What makes this hurricane truly mind-boggling is that not only is it one of the most intense hurricanes in recorded history, it is huge in size.
I sort of feel like The Man Who Knew Too Much. I don’t remember the plot, but that’s the name of an old Hitchcock flick. I and the other men and women who are meteorologists and have studied the science, and know the history of what various hurricanes in the past have done, can picture what this hurricane is capable of doing when it reaches land.
We hope that somehow, some way, it finds a way to weaken a lot before that happens. But it has been The Vortex That Wouldn’t Die for two weeks now, it has a long way to go to weaken enough to prevent a disaster, and time is running out. Katrina may or may not have peaked in intensity – as of this writing the pressure has stopped dropping and even come up a millibar – but it looks like we’re in for a long night and a long day tomorrow.
Here’s an awesome/terrifying satellite photo (if you can get through, their servers are getting pounded)