Buccaneers Hurricane Irma Update
September 4th, 2017
Koetter talks storm
Joe will spare you a time-wasting, long Hurricane Irma story.
Yes, the Atlantic hurricane will threaten the Bahamas and Florida late this week. But hurricanes are unpredictable when they’re several days away.
It’s Monday, and the Bucs game at Miami is on Sunday. That’s a lifetime in the world of hurricane forecasting. But Dirk Koetter made it clear today that the game could be in jeopardy and the NFL has multiple alternative plans in place, if necessary.
Koetter pretty much cut off a barrage of questions there because it’s out of his control, he said, and not something he can waste time on. And Koetter said he’s asked Bucs players to take the same approach right now.
September 4th, 2017 at 1:27 pm
If Irma hits Florida hard I am ditching Tx to go to Florida for the football season.
September 4th, 2017 at 1:32 pm
Move it to Tampa or change to Monday night, or play in Orlando – the thought of first game of the yr being played in torrential rain is a bummer and would make for some extremely low quality football. Spare me the “football is made to be played in the elements crap too. In the snow and extreme cold, it can still be played optimally. But the rain, and wind is a diff story. It’s a slog, unwatchable
September 4th, 2017 at 1:33 pm
The models keep pushing it further to the west. Might get the game in than its game on with the storm. Not looking like something that is going to go away…
SO EVERYONE PLEASE PLEASE GET PREPARED FOR THIS STORM…. AND MAKE SURE EVERYONE YOU KNOW IS AWARE OF IT AS WELL 🙁
September 4th, 2017 at 1:49 pm
@JAB83: if it goes further west, that means Miami will get whacked with more winds and rains since the worst area of a hurricane is to the north east. A northward deflection would be best. A couple of models predict that path.
While days away, based on past history, I don’t see how Miami will not be affected by Irma.
Monday Night sounds good…:D
September 4th, 2017 at 2:13 pm
@Cobraboy:
You are always a plethora of useful information! Keep up the good work.
September 4th, 2017 at 2:24 pm
The soonest you can make any reasonable prediction on where it’s going to hit the US, assuming it doesn’t turn back to sea, that would be probably Friday. Until the storm is past Puerto Rico at the very least they have no idea where it’s going and the computer models have been shifting dramatically day to day at this point. So talk about the storm is 100% pure speculation and I’ll say that in general the safest place you can be for a hurricane is in the center of the track 5 days out, because that’s where you can be assured it isn’t going to hit. 3 days out however, they’ve gotten very very good at forecasting in the last decade and the computer models have advanced a lot, they can generally come fairly close 3 days out.
September 4th, 2017 at 2:26 pm
Monday night would be awesome, but I would think they would move it to Saturday night. The storm might still be affecting the area Monday night. Monday night in Tampa would be awesome!
September 4th, 2017 at 2:45 pm
BuccaneEric75 – Currently the track would put the hurricane very close to Tampa by Monday night with it missing Miami completely, then sweeping around the keys and up the state, very much like Hurricane Donna did, which is the last hurricane to directly impact this area, but even then it was only a glancing blow.
The current track of this storm and the forecast track of Donna are eerily similar thus far…
https://icons.wxug.com/data/dhc_archive_charts/at_1960_charts/at196005.gif
But seriously we’re close to a week away from it hitting the US if it does at all, it could go anywhere, including just turning back to sea. If it took the path of Donna it would actually cause little direct damage to this area as the west side of a hurricane is the weakest and you wouldn’t get any flooding from the gulf. Worse case for Tampa would be something coming up and hitting around Tarpon Springs or so, if it was a cat 3-4 hurricane that would flood Pinellas with a storm surge, it would also flood downtown Tampa with a storm surge that could put buildings 12-15 feet underwater because it would push water out of the gulf into Tampa Bay and then keep stacking the water up with no place to escape.
Also fun fact – outside of New York City, the place in America where a direct major hurricane would hit that would do the most damage? That’s right, good ole Tampa Bay. People need to remember it’s been over 100 years since the last hit in this area and Pinellas county in particular is completely unprepared for a major hurricane and there is nothing they can do about it either. A big hurricane hitting north of Pinellas would cause massive storm surge, cut Pinellas county in half (the actual waters from the gulf and Tampa Bay would meet somewhere in Pinellas Park) and all those old poorly made houses and trailers from the 60s and 70s would be leveled, it would be a massive massive disaster. Miami and New Orleans they’ve had hurricanes fairly regularly – we have not, in fact I doubt there is a single person alive in this area that was even alive the last time a hurricane hit here. So just keep that in mind – the lesson being that it’s very very very unlikely a storm would impact us, but if it does, it’s going to be carrying a big f’n stick.
September 4th, 2017 at 2:59 pm
Also saw a story where they might move it to Thursday night . We shall see. Everyone stay safe and be prepared. Go Bucs !
September 4th, 2017 at 3:13 pm
Try listening to the National Weather Service. Quit listening to all the garbage from everybody on the net. To much false information flying around.
September 4th, 2017 at 3:29 pm
Looks to me like a Katrina repeat.From what I recall being here in La,it skirted miami and the rest is history
September 4th, 2017 at 3:42 pm
Reelbuc, that is real.
Hope to God it turns last minute and goes to sea. However its not looking good for the US…
Go figure another one is right behind it and look like it might dance around do a 360 and head right back at us. 🙁
God Is Good ALWAYS no Matter what…
September 4th, 2017 at 3:54 pm
Carlos
Lol. U realize if it hits miami it will pretty much hit tampa and orlando right? Of course not directly but maybe. Its the fear of the storm that causes most problems. Someone mentioned hurricane earlier n i had same thoughts as Joe. Its a week away. Could hit miami could hit new york. Seen this movie before. Im glad they already have plans in place tho. Definitely dont want this one anytime after sunday. Go Bucs
September 4th, 2017 at 3:56 pm
Guys…..I have been chasing storms as a GC since Andrew in ’92. I REALLY believe that this one is gonna hit Fla! I am not happy about it since my Entire family and extended family live there but it is what it is. Something about this Year spooks me for storms!
September 4th, 2017 at 4:07 pm
All I know is Irma is going to sideswipe here in the Dominican Republic on Thursday.
If we lose innerweb—always a possibility in the third world—I won’t be able to dog tmax or stpeteganjafan for a few days…;)
September 4th, 2017 at 4:12 pm
Reports say it’s to be either the second game on Thursday, or it’s on Primetime game on Friday.
September 4th, 2017 at 4:13 pm
*own Primetime game
September 4th, 2017 at 4:47 pm
I’m going with Thursday night, maybe Friday 😀🏈
September 4th, 2017 at 4:59 pm
Wonder what the deal will be with refunds if they move the game…I have 4 tickets amdmwill be coming from Tampa…not driving down there and back in the threat of a hurricane if they move it to Thursday night…my guess based on the NFL and the way they do things, I am out $700 minus whatever I can get on the secondary market.
September 4th, 2017 at 5:23 pm
I could see them playing it in Jacksonville as scheduled, as JAX is on the road. They tickets would be “free” as they have done in the past. I cannot see them playing it in Tampa as that gives the Bucs an unfair (home) advantage. Like a few years back when the Metrodome caved in, they played the Vikings game in Detroit.
September 4th, 2017 at 5:26 pm
Greg, I believe if they move the day/time you are hosed, as that is pretty much printed on the ticket unless I’m mistaken. If they move the city where it’s played, I’d bet they would give you your money back, provided you bought the tickets from the team and they not re-sells.
September 4th, 2017 at 6:04 pm
Very unlikely the game is moved and still played on Sunday. Remember, these guys have families down there too. Gear up for Friday night!
September 4th, 2017 at 10:01 pm
DBS – The National Hurricane Center are the ones that said Tampa was going to take a direct hit from Charley and caused massive panic which meant people fleeing to Orlando… meanwhile Tampa got nothing and those people in Orlando ended up getting hit by a hurricane. The NHC LOVES drama, I’ve been following these people since I was a kid and since the late 90s when you started getting access to all the models you could see how they love putting hurricanes into metro areas – they believe in the “better be safe than sorry”. The downside to that is what they did in New Orleans, after repeated false alarms and forced evacuations that never resulted in anything people ignored them with Katrina, they just said we’ve been through this again and again with these j/o’s the storm isn’t coming here.
Growing up here in the Tampa area we used to have a lot more forced evacuations, the worst by far being Hurricane Elena, again a storm that didn’t do anything. Now to be fair in the mid-80s they didn’t have all the tech we do today, but they did have most of that in 2004 and the NHC was extremely slow to change it’s forecast on Charley despite ALL the computers showing them about 12 hours out their forecast was wrong.
Finally to give the NHC credit I do believe they’ve changed their ways a bit in the last decade, they won’t admit it but I think they realize they played a huge role in what happened in New Orleans and in the following years they seemed to scale back on their panic routine and tend to follow closer to the computer models – but at the same time the computer models have gotten better.