25 September 2004

Jeanne just hours from landfall, Lisa strengthens slightly...

As feared, Jeanne has intensified to a CAT3 hurricane, the 6th of the season, and is still seemingly growing stronger.  The center of the eye  is between the Bahamas and the FL coast now, and should make landfall near Vero Beach around midnight local time.  This is nearly identical to the track of Frances, who made landfall there 3 weeks ago.  That stretch of land is certainly living up to its claim of the most frequently-hit spot on the entire US coastline this year.  However, I think this is the first year to have 4 hurricane landfalls in FL during the same year.

At 21Z, Hurricane Jeanne was located at 27.1N 78.8W and tracking W at 12kts.  Maximum sustained winds are 100kts and the MSLP is 950mb. Although currently a CAT3, it could easily reach CAT4 status by landfall.  Hurricane Warnings/Watches cover basically all of the FL coastline, and into the southern GA coast.

At 09Z today, Lisa was upgraded to a Tropical Storm again, and now has an intensity of 35kts and 1002mb.  The vertical wind shear is quite high, and the forecast track is similar to Karl's... heading north into the open Atlantic, no threat to land at all.

Please visit my tropical Atlantic headquarters.

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