[j8k3sp00n]

Hi,

This is very early for hurricanes. Last year Naples, FL, had its first near misses for the first time in nearly 30 years. Dennis has become a category 4 as of Friday midday and most all hurricanes make a track that curves off to the NorthEast. If Dennis decides to curve inland against the West Coast of Florida, that will be real disaster because a lot of the damage from last year's hurricanes has not been repaired.

Hurricanes cost all of us in one way or another but not nearly as much as the people in their path.

I hope all the people in Dennis' path batten down the hatches and make tracks for somewhere else.

[kanaloa]

I was talking with a professor at the University I graduated from (he's the one I worked for last Summer/Fall), he is a big Paleohurricane expert (past hurricanes), and he knows a lot about modern one's as well. For any of you who know about HURDAT and Chris Landsea, well, he works some with my professor. Chris is likely the foremost expert on paleohurricanes on the planet.

In any event... my professor told me he's NEVER heard of a Category 4 Hurricane in July... EVER. In fact, as we already know... 4 named storms this early was a new record in itself.

Even I am suprised how strong this storm got... it's just amazing how early in the season it is for this.

[b_a88]

Last I knew Cuba was putting a beating on Dennis since Dennis is now down to a cat. 2.

[kanaloa]

It's forecast to strengthen back to a Category 3... the conditions in front of it are favorable for intensification again, nearly back to Cat 4. It may even reach that level if conditions remain prime... but SST's are very warm and there is little shearing.

Let's not forget the Cat 2 that quickly became a Cat 4 right before landfall in Florida last year.

[b_a88]

This is the last sentence in the current article at weather.com

When the maximum sustained winds in Hurricane Dennis peaked at 150 mph this past morning, Dennis officially became the strongest July Atlantic Basin hurricane on record and the strongest Atlantic hurricane this early in hurricane season.

There is also alot of other interesting things in the last paragraph.
Link to it here. Dennis weakens to Category 2

EDIT: It's a cat. 1 and it's over water again.

EDIT2: It's cat. 2 again.

EDIT3: Cat. 3 again and gaining strength.
<img src="http://image.weather.com/images/maps/tropical/map_spectrop04_ltst_6nh_enus_600x405.jpg"/>

[j8k3sp00n]

Hi,

I talked to 2 different people in Naples, FL, just about the time Dennis was abreast of Naples still headed NNW. They breathed a sigh of relief because storms out there usually spin off to the North East which Dennis is still forecast to do. Dennis picked up intensity because the Gulf water is about 86 degrees F and the heat reflected off the water cause thermals that cause the cells to intensify.

It is early in the year, but the official Hurricane season in Naples is June through November, so someone thought that hurricanes can come this early.

[DRAGON OF DARKNESS]

Wow, i got some pretty nasty stuff and im notting getting anything from the iner hurricane. Did you see the perfect Eye wall.

[b_a88]

Dennis is a cat.4 with winds of 135mph now.

Link to current advisory NOAA - Hurricane DENNIS Public Advisory - 1am EDT

EDIT: New advisory update. Cat.4 with sustained winds of 145mph.
NOAA - Hurricane DENNIS Public Advisory - 2am CDT

[kanaloa]

From what I could gather from NOAA, it looks like Dennis did definately get back to a nicely strengthened Cat4. However it looks like it weakened right before landfall to a Cat3 as NOAA reports winds on the landfall at only Cat3 speeds ("THE LANDFALL INTENSITY IS ESTIMATED TO BE 100 TO 105 KT" - NOAA 5pm Discusion); note that's KT and not MPH. This will be likely confirmed tomorrow/tonight.

Looks like it wasn't as bad as Ivan the Terrible last year, but no doubt Dennis was a menace in it's own right.

One Hurricane down, another new records set... as everyone looks back to the Atlantic. Emily is next.

[b_a88]

Did anyone else see Anderson Cooper on CNN he had some big footage, it was crazy. I've been watching this on tv all night last night and all day today.

This hurricane season looks like it is going to be bad, even worse than last year maybe. I saw them talking about the sudden increase in storms the last two years and they said it is we are in a high point in a cycle and this is going to be some thing that is going to last 10-50 years.