Position: 17.0N 82.7W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [300°] near 13 mph [20 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 65 mph [105 kph].
Wind Gusts: 75 mph [120 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 125 miles [205 km].
Minimum central pressure: 994 mb ↓.

Currently about 365 miles [ 585 km] East of Belize City.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the coast of the Yucatan from Chetumal northward to Punta Allen and the coast of Belize.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Honduras from the Honduras – Nicaragua border westward to Punta Sal, and the coast of the Yucatan from Punta Allen northward to Tulum.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the coast of Honduras from Punta Sal westward to the Honduras – Guatemala border and the coast of the Yucatan from Tulum northward to Cancun.

Ernesto may be a hurricane tomorrow, but a recon aircraft reports that he isn’t strengthening tonight. The models have come into agreement on the track which has the storm landing on the Yucatan as a hurricane and crossing into the Bay of Campeche.

This storm keeps doing strange things, so I’m not confident about much of anything related to it. It was making a run at intensifying today and then just quit. Something is being missed or misinterpreted, but I don’t see it in the data I’ve looked at [as an informed amateur]. The old rules and assumptions aren’t working like they should.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 16.4N 40.2W [10AM CDT 1500 UTC].
Movement: West [275°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1009 mb ↑.

Currently about 1515 miles [2440 km] East of the Leeward Islands.

The storm has degenerated into a remnant Low. This is the final NHC advisory.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Things Happen:

• 1538 – Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
• 1777 – Revolutionary War: Battle of Oriskany.
• 1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
• 1909 – Alice Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip.
• 1923 – Henry Sullivan swims the English Channel.
• 1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim across the English Channel.
• 1945 – World War II: Hiroshima is devastated when an atomic bomb, “Little Boy”, is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 90,000 people were killed instantly.
• 1960 – Cuban Revolution: In response to a United States embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
• 1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into United States law.
• 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web.
• 2001 – White House briefing entitled Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S. delivered to George W. Bush. This document foreshadowed the September 11, 2001 attacks.

People Are Born:

• 1809 – Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet (d. 1892)
• 1861 – Edith Roosevelt, American First Lady of the United States (d. 1948)
• 1881 – Leo Carrillo, American actor (d. 1961)
• 1881 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1955)
• 1881 – Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (d. 1972)
• 1891 – William Slim, British general (d. 1970)
• 1892 – Hoot Gibson, American actor (d. 1962)
• 1902 – Dutch Schultz, American bootlegger (d. 1935)
• 1908 – Will Lee, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1911 – Lucille Ball, American actress (d. 1989)
• 1917 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (d. 1997)
• 1928 – Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
• 1934 – Piers Anthony, English writer
• 1943 – Jon Postel, American computer scientist (d. 1998)

In Later Years Others Are Born:

• Steve Bates
• NTodd

They did it. The rover is safely on Mars and sent back some pictures.

Occasionally the US wins one.

Update: I added the xkcd cartoon, and I would point out that a lot of people and groups not in the US are involved in this effort, including the Canadian Space Agency.

This is basic research, science. This is meant to be shared with everyone to advance everyone’s understanding of what’s happening. The most important discoveries from this mission, as Dr. John Grunsfeld, a physicist and former astronaut, pointed out during the JPL feed this morning, may be something that no one was even looking for because we didn’t even have the information necessary to pose the question.