Hurricane Dennis now a Cat 4

[GoldenEagle]

This sucker is going to be a strong hurricane. I hope everyone in the way leaves and heads north. This is not a good sign at all.

Dennis now a dangerous Category 4
12:36 a.m. ET Sun.,Jul.10,2005 C. Dolce, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel

Dennis Bottom Line Landfall on Gulf Coast expected Sunday afternoon or evening Impacts will not be limited to the coast Currently undergoing significant intensification Hurricane/Tropical Alerts Prepare your home | Keep out wind & water Evacuating with pets | Keeping pets safe 2005 Storm Names

As of 1:00 a.m. ET, Dennis' maximum sustained winds increased to 135 mph making it a dangerous Category 4 hurricane. This is the second time that Dennis has reached Category 4 status. Dennis is a very symmetrical hurricane with a well defined eye and could intensify even more as it pushes to the north-northwest through the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Dennis’ outer rain bands are radiating northward bringing periodic bouts of heavy rain, gusty winds, and isolated tornadoes from the peninsula to the panhandle of Florida and points even farther north and west. Gusty winds will continue to impact much of Florida (particularly the western half of the state). Winds will increase across the Florida Panhandle as Dennis approaches during the overnight hours.

On Sunday, the northern Gulf Coast from east of New Orleans to the Florida Panhandle needs to be as prepared as absolutely possible for the destructive winds, battering waves, coastal flooding and flooding rains of a major hurricane when Dennis finally moves ashore during the afternoon or, at the very latest, the evening hours. At U.S. landfall, Dennis could be almost as potent as when it hit the south-central coast of Cuba on Friday. If mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for your area, leave. Rainfall amounts of 4-8 inches are likely for the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama, and southern Mississippi with locally higher amounts along and east of where the center of circulation tracks.

Hurricane warnings remain in effect for the northern Gulf Coast from the Pearl River east to Steinhatchee River with tropical storm warnings from Steinhatchee River to Bonita Beach along the Gulf Coast of Florida. The hurricane warning in the Florida Keys has been downgraded to a tropical storm warning from the Seven Mile Bridge to Dry Tortugas. In Louisiana, tropical storm warnings are posted from Grand Isle to the Pearl River, including New Orleans and Lake Ponchatrain.

Hurricane Dennis made a brief landfall near Cabo Cruz, Cuba on Thursday evening. The eye made a second landfall on the south-central coast of Cuba as a Category 4 hurricane, winds of 149 mph, near Cienfuegos early Friday afternoon. Dennis weakened as it moved over Cuba and was downgraded to a Category 1 storm with top sustained winds of 90 mph after emerging into the Gulf of Mexico, but it has dramatically recovered to a Category 4.

Four Atlantic weather systems -- Arlene, Bret, Cindy and Dennis -- reached Tropical Storm status by July 5, the earliest for so many named storms in recorded history. Only three major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher) have hit the U.S. coast in July in the past 100 years. When the maximum sustained winds in Hurricane Dennis peaked at 150 mph on Friday morning, Dennis officially became the strongest July Atlantic Basin hurricane on record and the strongest Atlantic hurricane this early in hurricane season.

[ntndeacon]

yea it might be passing right over us too. I am not on the coast, (4 hrs inland) but if it follows the same path as Ivan, Alabama is in for more heavy hurting...Orange Beach is still not recovered from last years hurricane.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Praying for those souls in the path of this one.

[sovereignstar]

I'm praying for it to stay far from Jacksonville. Stay far west plz

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

CNN has non stop Hurrican watch and Fox New is prophesizing ''The End of The World'' with this coming hurricane.

[ShaqFu]

It's nice being in Miami these days.

[Suicane75]

[ShaqFu]

145 mph. Will Dennis get stronger and become Cat. 5?

I did see one picture of a sign earlier that said Mr. Wilson isnt' home.

[Greyroofoo]

I was in Biloxi Mississippi for Ivan last year and now I'm in Montgomery Alabama this year.

God I love the military

[Ksyrup]

Yesterday was OK here in Tallahasee until about 9:30pm. We had a half-hour downpour around 1:30pm, then another one around 7:30pm, then the flood gates opened at 9:30. We're going to be far enough away from the center that we should only get a lot of rain and some wind, and as long as we don't lose power and get no tornadoes, this'll just be like an ordinary day inside. I've got the net, so I'm all right! We have been getting a number of little power surges, though. And my yard is basically a pool at this point, and the worst has probably not hit us yet.

Hopefully just a boring day stuck inside is all we'll have, with a nice show going on outside. We really haven't heard too many rumbles of thunder, even. It's just been driving rain and gusty wind.