NOAA Busy: Rita and More

Tropical Depression 18 has now become Tropical Storm Rita, and of particular significance is once it becomes a hurricane, it will be only the 2nd time the "R" names have been used since hurricanes began being named in 1950.

It's busy for The National Hurricane Center - there are 3 tropical storms, 1 tropical depression and 2 hurricanes currently being tracked collectively in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific. Max Mayfield needs to let us know if we should break out the emergency stores of Red Bull and ship it to Miami....

Cone and discussion below -

And from NOAA tropical discussion:

TROPICAL DEPRESSION EIGHTEEN HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO TROPICAL STORM RITA...CENTERED NEAR 22.7N 72.9W...OR 285 NM ESE OF NASSAU BAHAMAS...AT 19/0000 UTC MOVING NW 8 KT. ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 1005 MB. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WIND SPEED HAS INCREASED TO 45 KT WITH GUSTS TO 55 KT. SEE LATEST NHC FORECAST/ ADVISORY UNDER AWIPS/WMO HEADERS MIATCMAT3/WTNT23 KNHC AND THE PUBLIC ADVISORY UNDER HEADERS MIATCPAT3/WTNT33 KNHC FOR MORE DETAILS. DEEP CONVECTION HAS BEEN STRENGTHENING AROUND RITA DURING THE PAST SEVERAL HOURS...BUT THE CONVECTIVE PATTERN IS SOMEWHAT ELONGATED FROM SE TO NW WITH THE ASSOCIATED UPPER LEVEL RIDGE ORIENTED ON THE NRN SIDE OF THE SYSTEM. THE LOW-LEVEL CIRCULATION IS PARTIALLY EXPOSED ON THE SW SIDE BUT THE CENTER REMAINS EMBEDDED BENEATH THE CONVECTION. IN FACT...IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE CENTER COULD BE REFORMING SLIGHTLY FARTHER N WHERE THE TSTM ACTIVITY HAS BEEN STRONGEST. NUMEROUS MODERATE/STRONG CONVECTION FROM 21N-24.5N BETWEEN 69W-74W.

Comments

[Justene]

Any idea how deep into the alphabet we got the last time we hit R?