Hurricane Dean — Operation Mexico Cleanup (phase 1)

Unless your living under a rock, you have heard that Hurricane Dean is hitting the Yucatan peninsula right now (8/21/2007 early morning).  It was a very strong storm, but land and hurricanes just don’t get along.  The storm dropped from a central pressure of 906mb to 935mb in just three hours (from 5:00am to 8:00am EDT).  Sustained winds decreased from 165mph to 125mph in that same period.  Just think about how strong it could have been if Mexico had of stayed out of the way.

It’s amazing how accurate the forecast models have been for this storm.  The first runs from August 15th had this storm hitting Cancun.  Instead it nailed Majahual.  That’s only about 250miles to the south.  Google Earth shows some beautiful pictures from this area.  I think I’ll head down to The Playa Tequila Club once they have had some time to rebuild.  New hotels are nice.

Keep your fingers crossed that Dean can cross the Yucatan quickly.  Once back over the warm smooth waters of the gulf, it should be able to gain strength again.  Likely this one storm will clean up two parts of Mexico.

Update:

At 2:00pm EDT, the NHC is calling Dean a Category 1 hurricane with a central pressure of 960mb and sustained winds of 85mph.  So as Jimmy Buffett says, “it ain’t…nothin but a breeze”. 

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2 Replies to “Hurricane Dean — Operation Mexico Cleanup (phase 1)”

  1. NHC is on the three hour update cycle. At 11:00EDT the storm has continued to weaken. Pressure is at 950mb, sustained winds at 105mph. The topology is really flat there so that tells you how much energy a hurricane gets from the water. To me this is always the depressing part seeing the storm lose strength. But even in its weakened state, I’ll bet Dean is doing a great job getting chickens out of the road.

  2. A side note–
    JCowan (not sadcox) actually cheers for hurricanes. I know, it sounds pretty insensitive. I’ve never heard him champion property damage or loss of life, but he does get pretty excited about storm strength.

    He also hates Mississippi.

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