KSHB: Weather: Action Weather Blog:

Happy last FULL day of summer! Fall officially begins tomorrow... Sept. 22... at 5:23pm!

And just as we go into fall... a cold front will be moving through the region... bringing us cooler temperatures.

It still looks like we'll hit the lower-to-mid 80s ahead of the front for a warm day Thursday... but we're still thinking Friday looks much cooler with rain and clouds around:

And I hate to say it... but we have our SECOND CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE of the season tonight! Hurricane RITA continues to gain strength in the Gulf of Mexico. This evening, the storm is the THIRD most INTENSE hurricane in the Atlantic Basin on RECORD!! Here are the latest stats:

POSITION: ABOUT 580 MILES EAST-SOUTHEAST OF GALVESTON TEXAS AND ABOUT 680 MILES EAST-SOUTHEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI TEXAS.

MOTION: TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 13 MPH AND THIS MOTION IS
EXPECTED TO CONTINUE DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

WINDS: MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 165 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. SOME FLUCTUATIONS IN INTENSITY ARE LIKELY DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

PRESSURE: FALLING RAPIDLY DURING THE DAY AND THE LATEST MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE REPORTED BY AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT WAS 898 MB...26.52 INCHES.

Pretty amazing. And very impressive on satellite. Click the image below to see the loop:

The path of RITA thus far, is errily close to that of Katrina. But this storm will continue a northWESTERLY track... making landfall somewhere along the central Texas coast. Right now, it looks like it would be South of Houston and Galveston. Many communities along the Texas coast have already begun MANDATORY evacuations. FYI... the population of Houston is about FOUR times greater than pre-Katrina New Orleans. That is a lot of cars on the road, trying to get out of town...

Now, could Rita affect our weather? Some of the models continue to show that! It looks like it would be next Tuesday or Wednesday right now... but we'll see...

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This hurricane is very impressive, but what will its status be if/when it nears closer to us? Also will the rest of the hurricane seasone be this active and are there others storms forming in the atlantic right now.

JOSH:
We are seeing signs that Rita will hang out over Texas and Oklahoma for a few days, after making landfall. This will allow the storm to weaken into a tropical depression... and eventually, Rita will lose tropical characteristics. It is this remnanat moisture that MIGHT be drawn towards Kansas City. It is still not certain how things will play out, though!

In the Atlantic... Tropical Storm Philippe is still out there. The storm is not a threat to land at this point, and has been weakening. As for tropical WAVES that bear watching for further development... there are at least two ongoing in the Atlantic. You can see them on the satellite loop:
http://www.goes.noaa.gov/browsh.html

AND we also have a lot of activity in the Pacific! This is where Hurricane Jova, Tropical Storm Kenneth AND Tropical Depression Max are all moving northwest. Fortunately, none of these storms pose a threat to land at this time!

Jamie