Michael May Be An Unprecedented Hurricane for Panama City; Not Too Late to Evacuate

By Bill Murray and Scott Martin

The Panama City area has never experienced a category four hurricane. It might be about to.

The data is becoming even scarier tonight as Hurricane Michael moves steadily toward the coast. The storm may well be a category four hurricane already.

Our friend, Alan Gerard just tweeted that the plane has found a 130 knot flight level wind, which translates into a surface wind of 135 mph. The crew also observed a 110 knot surface wind with the SFMR instrument, which is 127 mph. The dropsonde measured 951 mb when it splashed in the ocean, which translates to a 949 millibar central pressure.

And the NOAA plane is measuring 28C sea surface temperatues all along the path of the hurricane’s center, so there is plenty of heat energy for it to draw upon.

If Michael attains category four intensity, it will be the first category four hurricane in history to pass within 50 miles of Panama City. In fact, it would be the first category four hurricane to strike the Florida Panhandle.

The storm will bring a devastating storm surge of 9-13 feet or higher near and to the right or where the center crosses the coast.

All of these counties in Florida have already issued mandatory evacuation orders today: Bay, Citrus, Dixie, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jackson, Jefferson, Levy, Okaloosa, Taylor, Wakulla, and Walton.

All of these Florida counties have voluntary or phased evacuations: Calhoun, Escambia, Hernando, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Pasco, Santa Rosa, and Washington.

We urge our friends in the mandatory evacuation areas to leave immediately. It is not too late. Waiting until tomorrow morning may be too late.

We are already in unfamiliar territory for this part of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. This is the latest into hurricane season that we have had three named storms at the same time in the Atlantic Basin since 1950 (thank you to Morgan Palmer and Philip Klotzbach for that info).

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