Idalia - Jamie Rhome Natl Hurricane Center

Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to affect the Tampa Bay area, before landfall north of Tampa. We speak with Jamie Rhome, deputy director, National Hurricane Center.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. We are watching a situation with tropical
storm a Dahlia, which has formedoff the Yucatan and is forecast to be
heading up the Gulf and having impacton Florida, making a landfall somewhere in
the state over the next few days. We have Jamie Rome, deputy director
of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, joining us on the line right now.

(00:21):
Jamie Rome, welcome, Yeah,thank you for having me. Well
as we speak, we have peoplehearing these sound bites in this podcast over
the next twenty four hours. Ourmain concern is the kind of impact we
are expecting in Florida. What canwe expect along the West Coast and Gulf
Coast going up toward the Big Bend, as far as rainfall, as far
as winds, as far as stormsurge or our best indications are that hurricane

(00:46):
is going to approach the western sideof Florida or the Florida Big ben on
Tuesday with it with varying obviously potentialfor hurricane force winds, but more importantly,
I think the water threat is goingto be the big one for this
storm, both in the form ofrainfall and storm surge and actually explained this,

(01:07):
you don't need a strong storm oran impressive storm in this part of
Florida to produce life threatening storm surge. And I think this is going to
be the part of the storm thatreally catches people off guard because so many
people are fixated on the wind peakintensities. And we've been hearing a lot,

(01:29):
particularly as far as storm surge,about the effect of the full moon
that's supposed to be around a coupleof days from now on the tides and
is that going to end up addingto storm surge along the West coast.
Yeah, so a surge rides ontop of the traditional tide that goes up
and down every day, and whenyou have a full moon, the normal
tide absent storm is higher than normal, especially in the fall, and so

(01:55):
that just gives the surge just alittle bit more of a boost to produce
more flooding potential. And what kindof numbers are we talking about again as
far as rainfall along the West Coastand in the Big Bend area. So
it's looking like it is a minimumfour to six inches of rain. And
I think as we march on intime and get a bit more uncertainty.

(02:17):
On zeroing in on the hardest impactedarea, those numbers could go up a
little bit. You emphasized in yourSunday morning briefing that no matter what the
map shows as far as the coneof uncertainty over the next few days,
anyone along Florida's West coast needs tobe prepared for impact from Adalia. Yeah,

(02:38):
that's right, because the hazards comeout of the colon. So the
cone is only telling you the probableprojected path of the center the center.
It's not showing you where the windsare going to go in the surge.
And in a case like this,with this angle of approach, I can
just tell you from experience the hazardsare going to come outside of the colony.
But that I mean the wind,the surge, and the rain are

(03:00):
not going to be confined inside thatcone. And I'm really worried people just
look at the cone and think that'san impact or strike area. Any parting
messages for folks along the Florida Westcoast, Big Bend to any area that
could feel an impact from Adalia.Yeah, a lot of people focus on
the current state of the storm toassess their future risk. And right now,

(03:25):
Adalia isn't all that strong. It'sjust a low in tropical storm and
not all that impresident satellite imagery,and I don't want people to have let
that lure them into a false senseof security. We have every reason to
believe that this system will intensify overthe eastern Gulf of Mexico and whip it
bring potentially hazardous to life threatening conditionsto portions of Florida. Jamie Rome,

(03:51):
deputy director of the National Hurricane Centerin Miami, thank you very much for
joining us. I'm beyond the news. Thank you