Major Category 3 Hurricane Dennis to Landfall In the Afternoon

3:45pm EDT
Dennis has made landfall between Pensacola Beach and Nvarre Beach at 2:25 PM CDT (3:25EDT) as a Category 3 hurricane wind maximum sustained winds of 120mph.

3pm
Recon reports the pressure in the storm has risen to 943mb, signifying some weakening just before landfall as the storm moves onshore. Despite that, the storm should still come ashore with winds near 120mph, slightly higher than with Ivan...but not nearly as bad as it could have been or was predicted. Landfall looks to occur within the next hour near Navarre Beach/Escambia Bay, sparing Mobile once again but devestating the Pensacola/Navarre/Ft. Walton Beach area. More from Thomas Giella in the met blogs below and continual updates on the news talkback & in the chat room.

11:00AM

Dennis' strengthening phase has stopped, now it probably will remain a category 4, or hopefully stay over the cooler water long enough to be a strong cat 3. Still stronger than Ivan at landfall. Landfall will be closer to Pensacola in the mid afternoon.

Hurricane force winds may be felt 150-200 miles inland where it travels through alabama. And gusty conditions even further inland where it tracks. It looks like it will stall out in the Ohio River valley and be a potential flood event there.

9:30AM
Dennis has dropped to 930mb, and holding its strength as a strong category 4 system. It has moved more to the north in the last few bits, but expected to jog west a bit later. However, at this moment it's nitpicking. Folks at and directly east of the landfall will see the worst surge. Hurricane force winds may go inland 150-200 miles.

Some of the image servers on are image server network have gone down, and we are adjusting around that now. The mobile cam will be up as long as we can run it. Bandwidth costs are going to be astronomical this month, donations are appreciated (see link to left) Also we are looking for a colocation facility for our primary server in the Southeast, looking for reasonable rates in the off season, and reasonalbe with spikes such as during hurricane events. Also those with hosting space and the ability to assign IPs to their hosts for our image server mirror network are requested. Anyone who helps will be featured on the bottom of the page.

7:17AM
Overnight Dennis has strengthened into a 145mph hurricane with a pressure of 931mb, less than what Charley was at landfall, and the strongest Hurricane potentially to make landfall in the Gulf in 36 years and the strongest in this area ever recorded, stronger than both Frederick and Ivan.

Today it will make landfall, during the Afternoon, leaving people in the dark overnight to get the back side of the hurricane. For those in the forecasted track path, best of luck and God bless you all.

Also, the tropical wave in the Atlantic is looking to develop soon, although there is no real way to tell yet if it'll be a player or a fish spinner at the moment.

1:30AM
Dennis is back to Category 4 now, with a pressure of 937mb, 1mb less than when it was south of Cuba, so even more strengthening is possible.

Original Update
According to Recon, Dennis is at or near Category 4 Hurricane Strength once again. It's outflow and central dense overcast near the center look very healthy for a hurricane. Hopefully it will peak soon.

The track now takes in slightly west of Pensacola, nearly where Ivan crossed. Deviation to the left or right means a great deal for storm surge behavior, which will likely be more extreme than Ivan, with 12-16 possibly 20 feet of storm surge. Winds will also be an issue, even quite a ways inland. The most extreme of the winds is in a relatively small area around the center of the storm.

The storm is forecast to make landfall during the afternoon tomorrow now. Folks along the area are advised to get some sleep now before the brunt start to arrive n the morning.

The Mobile cam is recording now, the link is below. More will come tomorrow.

The chat link on the left is open throughout the event.

Site Note News talkbacks are now in lockdown mode, which means that unregistered users cannot reply.

You can still post in the other forums besides talkbacks. This enables us to moderate a lot better. I hate doing this, but I can see obvious signs of "storm stress" on a few individuals. We'll make it open again as soon as it calms down.

Registration is open for anyone, you can register Using this link. Then you will be able to reply here.

Hopefully this will only last a short time.

Event Related Links

Emergency Management
Gulf Coast Storm Alert Network
FloridaDisaster.org - Florida Emergency Management
Monroe County/Florida Keys,
Panhandle Coastal Counties West to East
Escambia County, FL, Santa Rosa, County, Okaloosa County, FL,
Walton County, FL,
Bay County, FL, Gulf County, FL, Franklin County, FL
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA)
http://www.msema.org/index.htm

Florida Keys Long Range Radar Loop
Tampa Bay, FL Long Range Radar
Miami, FL Long Range Radar
Melbourne, FL Long Range Radar
Tallahassee, FL Long Range Radar
Mobile, AL Long Range Radar

Eglin AFB Radar

Dennis
MODIS Ultra High Resolution Dennis Satellite Images
Google Map Plot of dennis along with Ivan
High Speed Storm Relative Floater - RAMSDIS ONLINE
Animated Model Plot of Dennis
Model Plot Graphic from the South Florida Water Management District of Dennis
Dennis Spaghetti Model from boatus
Weather Underground Model Plots for Dennis
Quikskat Image of Dennis

Color Sat of Dennis
Floater Satellite (Visible) of Dennis with Storm Track Overlays
(Animated)
RAMSDIS high speed visible Floater of Dennis

98L/Area in Central Atlantic
Animated Model Plot of 98L

Webcams, Video, Audio
Mark Sudduth's at coastal Alabama again ready to move east or west, he has a mobile observation tower he'll be leaving along the coast when Dennis arrives - Hurricane Trak/Mark Suddth Car & Tower Cam - Live Video Stream from Mark's HIRT Tahoe HIRT Tower On the coast in Perdido Key: Conditions and Webcam

Hurricane Now - Video reports from former CNN hurrican reporter Jeff Flock - Jeff Flock Live Stream!
Hurricane City and Jim Williams do audio shows nightly around 8PM
Weathervine.com Storm Chasing
Joseph Johnston's Mobile Bay Webcam - Mobile Bay webcam recording will being the AM of the 10th here
WKRG 5 in Mobile/Pensacola i streaming live coverage
WPMI Channel 15 from Mobile Alabama - Streaming Video 10PM
Pensacola Beach Cam 2
Panama City/Destin webcams

WJHG 7 the NBC Affiliate in Panama City Beach, FL .

Police Scanner Streams
Mobile Police - Mobile, AL

Forecast Discussions for (Show All Locations):
Tampa, Mobile Bay,
New Orleans, Key West, Tallahassee.
Melbourne

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