NEWS: Hurricane Frances Makes Landfall!

Thanks for all the updates, keep em' coming as long as you can!

We started getting some of the outer bands...likely about 30mph gusts at most so far, but we are on the other side of the state... Got some rain, but not too bad... I'll let you know, as we should still have power till well into tomorrow....(I hope)

Hey folks, I am monitoring Daytona Beach/Flagler Beach area from NY since I decided now was a great time to visit the family.

What I am not seeing at the moment (cause it does look a little better for my home for now) is any mention of how far the hurricane force & tropical storm force winds are from the center.

Has this changed at all from the past 2 days?

Thanks!

U are right the storm is weeking but wat everyone is forgetting is we are not ready for another storm.Debry is everywhere. Watering is already standing and lakes overflowing, Even if this is only a tropical storm whyen it hits us us we are still getting 10 to 20 inches of rain on an already flooded ground and high winds in already severly damaged areasthe one thing that is gonna hurt us the most is how slow this system is moving and thte fact that we have so much damage around here that could/ will be come airborn missles.

In brevard here in the back of the office i saw a pine tree or 2 fall over i'll keep it updated just got power back on for the time being!

Keep it comin', but stay safe!

Does anyone know anything about Miami at this time? Is it going to be hit? I have a good friend there that I'm concerned about. I don't know if they left or not.
Thanks,
Tiza

It is worrying, we've not heard from some of our staff and members who have been posting to this thread and are in harms way as this slow moving mosnter starts to impact these areas of Florida.

I hope they are all safe and keep that way.

It is with the greatest respect for this storm that I advise anyone seeking to take pictures of this event to post here in this thread... As the winds get more powerful and darkness falls the dangers speak for themselves. if outside you may not be able to see wind blown objects that could really ruin your day. Please be careful.

They are talking already about power outages affecting customers in the MILLIONS in Florida and that damage is expected to continue to grow.

The rain and flooding will be beyond imagination when all is said and done. Some places could see hurricane force winds and heavy rain for as long as 20 or more hours... my god thats insane.

This looks real serious. Hope everyone is ok.

CNN says over 1M people without electricity already.
Actually, the power plants shut down as the storm approaches land. I've been thru 2 hurricanes and this is common practice.

The NWS in Melbourne hasn't posted an hourly report since 6pm. Vero Beach is also not reporting. At least not on weather.com and on the NWS website.

Here is a radar loop of a landfalling hurricane. 10pm EDT from Melbourne NEXRAD station.

www.climatepatrol.com...

Now look at the wind speeds observed in this radial velocity image. 115kts away and 100kts toward the station. The 115k kts is 132mph and cat 4 strength. Granted this could be a gust or a tornado. I'll keep my eye open for later images to see if it changes much.

Here is an image from 225z . Max winds of 123kts or around 140mph

The media is still reporting 105mph or so, I guess we'll see.

Heres some videos a friend down in florida shot of the effects of Frances.

www.planetmaddness.com...
www.planetmaddness.com...
www.planetmaddness.com...
www.planetmaddness.com...
www.planetmaddness.com...
www.planetmaddness.com...

LMFAO at the video. This is what you get when you cross breed Jim Cantore with Jay & Silent Bob.

Note: Those videos are rated at a minimum PG13

[edit on 9/4/2004 by Indy]

I've posted a series of radial velocity images. You will see the maximum winds are always well over 105mph (90 kts).

www.climatepatrol.com...

Oh, I'm not disputing your data Indy, you're the driving force behind this thread and we all appreciate it. I'm just wondering if Frances will get an upgrade after it passes much like Andrew did.

Probably no upgrade. The pressure of the store is consistant with the listed wind speeds. It may be slightly stronger than 105. I wouldn't think it would justify a 20mph jump. And these could be isolated severe storms causing the higher winds. And also these recorded speeds are probably also above ground level. I could be wrong but I am thinking they are above ground level. I don't know what the formula would be to calculate ground wind speed if these aren't the ground speeds.

Indy, you're doing an awesome job on this thread. Thank you for keeping us all informed. You're terrific. I hope you get well deserved recognition!
Thanks!