I don't remember who it was that asked if anyone thought he was dumb for having his family at Disney, but they won't be enjoying the parks if they stay. Disney and the other theme parks are closing tomorrow evening and most, if not all, remaining closed Sunday and Monday.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/h...0908-story.html

Nobody's pissed as used to prep starting every June 1. It's not going to miss FL. Ed Rapaport the acting hurricane center director just said on our local tv station that it's making landfall as a category 5. Jogged west a little but hurricane force wind field is 100 miles in width which is width of FL. Either way I'm screwed. Oh and the keys will likely experience a double whammy with storm surge.

What we know today as the Keys likely will be gone Sunday.

They will not be gone, but they may be re-arranged a little.

I remember Ivan pretty good. The wife and I locked ourselves out of the house in the garage without a stitch of clothing on.

Good times

Should I cancel the bonefishing trip for next week?

Naw, you might could catch some in Tampa city limits!

Good chance a lot of the historic buildings and old pubs will be gone.

Well, I believe the Aldeer weather team might be right. We may not see a bit of this (in terms of the crazy wind and tornadoes) here in the Carolinas. I wish the bitch would just die off but that ain't happening. Sending prayers for you folks in FL. I hope this thing doesn't make a run toward the panhandle though. Those folks aren't ready. Got a lot of friends down that way that haven't really been doing anything for this storm.

My crazy father in law lives in key west and refused to leave

Anyone heard when they will or if they will contraflow the interstates. I haven't looked yet but there has to be talk of atleast doing all of 75 in Florida into GA at some point.

I don't know if they will but they should at least for the two main north/south ones 75 and 95.

My Dad said that he heard on the radio comming up, that they were holding off on switchin both sides of the interstate to northbound due to the need to get fuel South. No clue if that is true or not.

They say were going to get a 9 foot storm surge.It's supposed to start Sunday morning and last at least 12 hours with winds 80 to 100.

National Hurricane Center discussion:

The environment is favorable for Irma to maintain its category 4
status, and only unpredictable eyewall replacement cycles could
result in intensity fluctuations during the next 48 hours. The
interaction of the hurricane's circulation with Cuba will probably
not result in any relevant change in intensity. In summary, the NHC
forecast brings Irma near south Florida as a category 4 hurricane.
After landfall, interaction with land and an increase in wind shear
should induce gradual weakening.

Satellite images and radar fixes from Cuba indicate that Irma has
slowed down and is now moving toward the west or 280 degrees at
about 10 kt. The hurricane should continue on this track for the
next 12 hours to 24 hours, and this track will bring the core of
Irma very close to the north coast of Cuba. After that time, Irma
should reach the southwestern edge of the subtropical high and begin
to move toward the northwest and north-northwest toward the Florida
peninsula. The precise moment of this turn is still uncertain, and
that is why NHC emphasizes that nobody should focus on the exact
track of the center. This afternoon's NHC forecast was again
adjusted a little bit westward following the trend of the ECMWF
model and both the HFIP corrected consensus and the FSU
Superensemble. In fact, these 3 aids continued to be tightly packed.

They opened the shoulders up & told folks to be careful headed north per my local news.

Last radar I saw had the eyewall pretty dang close to Cuba. If she's heading due west for the next 12 hours from it's current position then Cuba gets clobbered. Why wouldn't this suck all kinds of energy out of her?

12 to 24hrs at ~12mph = 144 miles differ on when it makes the northern turn. There is also variability in the angle of the turn. They still aren't sure where it will end up making land fall.

She will have to interact with high mountains now. She's big enough to where she doesn't notice the land interaction much as long as she has half her ass over water.

This is correct.