Isidore Nearing Hurricane Strength

It's so hard to look at a satellite picture and actually see just how big or small a storm is...I remember when Floyd came barreling down the pike (or maybe I should say up?) the closer it got the bigger it looked. I also remember looking at Floyd 24-36 hours before it brushed the Florida coastline and thinking, "Holy Sheet!"
By looking at Izzy, I noticed that when it was near Jamaica it looked as though it was 2x the size of that country. I don't know how big Jamaica is, so I can't give an estimate as to how much area the actual system covers.

However, having looked back the Public Advisories I see that yesterday's 11AM Advisory said that the Tropical Storm Force winds extended outward up to 85miles from the center of Isidore. At 5pm they changed it 70 miles; at 11PM and 2AM they were back to 85 miles outward; then at 5AM and 8AM it was 115 miles out, and the new advisory says the TS Force winds extend out 140 miles from the center. I'm sure you can all do your math, but it has pretty much doubled as far as how far out those winds extend in only 24 hours and if that's any indication of how big the storm actually is, well you can draw your own conclusions. That is also very important because it will determine how much Izzy will affect Florida's weather once it gets close. We all know what would happen with a direct hit so I don't need to go into that..but say the storm is only 100 miles offshore someone is gonna feel it. Notice also that the strongest winds were to the north and east of the center....that will make a huge difference on what the Florida coastline will feel depending on how close it gets. When Allison came ashore last year in TX, I was driving back home from GA and I got to Valdosta and had to stop. The feeder bands from Allison were directly over Valdosta, and given the fact that she was not even that strong of a storm, it was a very bad weather situation. Sometimes we got as much as 4" of rain/hour. Not to mention tornadoes, thunderstorms and all the other good stuff that comes with those feeder bands. At one point it rained so much that the water was coming into my hotel room. Not to mention that while I was in the shower the power went off. That was scary also...all I could think of was the movie "Pyscho".

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You know you're a hurricane freak when you wake up in the morning and hit "REFRESH" on CFHC instead of the Snooze Button.

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