Weather Channel/ Balleteri

Hurricane Rita's rapid intensification cycle that began Tuesday afternoon continues. Top winds are up to 165 mph, now a category 5 hurricane. Rita's pressure has dramatically dropped to 898 millibars! Even as a large and extremely intense category 5 hurricane, further strengthening is possible as the atmosphere remains favorable for development over the next 24 hours.
Rita is forecast to continue on a westward track through the Gulf of Mexico over the next 24 hours. A gradual turn toward the northwest is anticipated Thursday night and Friday. If there is any good news at this point, it is the fact that it is very difficult for a hurricane to maintain category 5 status for an lengthy period of time. Near-perfect to perfect atmospheric conditions are necessary for a category 5 hurricane to exist and these "perfect" conditions are first - difficult to come by and second - do not remain in place for a long period of time. So although Rita is currently a category 5 hurricane, fluctuations in intensity is likely. That being said, it is almost a certainty that Rita will make landfall as a large, intense, major hurricane with impacts extending well away from the center. Hurricane force winds extend 70 miles away from the center and tropical storm force winds extend 175 miles from the center. Landfall is possible late Friday or early Saturday along the Texas coast. Residents and tourists in locations such as Corpus Christi, Aransas Pass, San Jose Island, Matagorda Island, Port Lavaca, Port O'Connor, Bay City, Lake Jackson, Freeport, Galveston, Texas City, Houston, and Port Author should ALL prepare for a very dangerous landfalling major hurricane.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Basin, Philippe has weakened to a tropical storm with sustained winds of 45 mph. It is centered about 420 miles NE of the Leeward Islands. Philippe is being sheared by westerly winds and that should keep the system on a weakening cycle as it plods off to the north away from any land.
In the central and eastern Pacific, Hurricane Jova (115 mph), Tropical Storm Kenneth (50 mph) and Tropical Storm Max (50 mph) are all swirling toward the west or northwest. None of these storms pose a threat to any land at this time.