Getting stronger and bigger now...145 MPH sustained winds with the field of strong winds growing as the pressure drops...

"FLASH: Could be unprecedented event for Jamaica; direct hit with 150 MPH sustained winds [topping Hurricane Gilbert's 135 MPH winds [Sept. 1988] and Charlie's 100 MPH winds in 1951]... Population of Jamaica is nearly 3 million people; and is 49th most densely-populated country in world... "

Pretty neat hurricane. You aren't going to see Houstonians leaving their city for this though.

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Sep. 22 2005 -
Thousands Fleeing Rita Jam Roads From Coast
Evacuation Is Ordered as Hurricane Veers Eastward

"GALVESTON, Tex., Sept. 22 -- As they joined a vast, traffic-snarled exodus from Houston and the upper Texas Gulf Coast, hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Hurricane Rita were stuck in their cars throughout much of Thursday, with many running out of gas and sweltering on roadsides in 100-degree heat as they waited for authorities to bring them gasoline.

But even as the mayor issued the warning that helped turn many of the freeways in and around the nation's fourth-largest city into a parking lot, the projected trajectory of Hurricane Rita shifted course, with its center moving eastward away from Houston."
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Yeah, I live in Austin, and people were literally stuck on the interstates for 2 days or more, in a gigantic traffic jam. It was really good for businesses in Austin however, because tons of people DID get here from Houston and bought a bunch of stuff. Suckas.

Jesus, this is gonna be bad for my city. We get floods and deaths with only small rains.

If I knew how to do it, I would post some videos of it.

Just curious, TheSource - what are your favorite models showing now (monday).

Mexico is going to get bitch slapped by Dean - twice - first on the Yucatan Peninsula (probably as a cat 4/cat 5 - winds ~140 mph to 165 mph - sustained - closer to 200 mph in gusts), then Dean should hit near Tampico, Mexico after crossing the Yucatan Peninsula.

The second landfall looks like it will be as a strong category 2/category 3 (winds ~100 mph to 125 mph sustained), although it depends exactly how long Dean spends over the Yucatan and then over open waters (these are some of the warmest waters in the world - 86 degrees thousands of feet below the surface) in the Bay of Campache.

Dean is ~ 400 miles in diameter, and will get larger but weaker after each landfall, meaning that south Texas will get ridiculous amounts of rain in a very short period of time, and some wind (maybe 25-50 mph sustained).

Eventually, the moisture of Dean will be ripped apart from the storm itself and enhance Monsoon weather/floods/thunderstorms in West Texas, southern New Mexico, the Mountains of Old Mexico, and Southeastern Arizona.  If the track shifted to due West, Dean might actually have enough 'oomph' to cross the entirety of Mexico and emerge in the Pacific, where it would have a brief chance to restrengthen (although it would be a weak tropical storm by that point).

I wonder why it isn't doing the usual hurricane behavior - curving to the north and east....

Maybe its gonna be a La Nina year...

Only two hurricanes in the Altantic basin were stronger than Dean at landfall - a 1935 hurricane that hit the Florida Keys, and Hurricane Gilbert.

Expect oil, corn, and sugar prices to go up in the wake of the destruction of crops and the damage/shutdown of Mexican oil refineries.

We've survived hurricanes before, we'll be ok. Yes, we will be price gouged for a couple weeks but then as the word "hurricane" fades from people's minds we'll be ok.

Well, being that Dean has gone down to a category 1, it shouldn't be as devastating to the basin of the gulf where the oil rigs are set up at and should cause minimal damage if any at all. Of course, the Yucatan area was hit very very hard, will have to see exactly how bad the damage is once I get home and can look at news reports on it.