Here's a bit more of the same, just did a look through varied blogs, everyone seems to be hunkered down for the night. Winds and rain in a desert bordered by mountains and ocean. Wild, hoping it goes easy for people there.
http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/topstories_story_156190936.htmlAP) MUSCAT, Oman Thousands of people fled low-lying areas as the strongest cyclone to threaten the Arabian Peninsula in 60 years blasted Oman's eastern coast early Wednesday with strong winds and waves, Civil Defense officials said. Southern Iran and the oil-rich Persian Gulf were next in its path.
Cyclone-force winds of Gonu, which had been churning northwest through the Indian Ocean, reached the Omani coastal towns of Sur and Ra's al-Hadd. Civil Defense said the storm was dropping heavy rains on the capital, Muscat, and other nearby towns, but it was not known if the storm was causing any damage. Cyclone Gonu had weakened somewhat during the day but was still packing winds of up to 106 mph and churning up ocean waves of several feet, the officials said.
Gonu was expected to skirt the region's biggest oil installations but could disrupt shipping in the Straits of Hormuz, causing a spike in prices, oil analysts said. Oil prices rose on Monday but retreated Tuesday, although the storm weighed heavily on the market.
"If the storm hits Iran, it's a much bigger story than Oman, given how much bigger an oil producer Iran is," said Antoine Haff of FIMAT USA, a brokerage unit of Societe Generale. "At a minimum, it's likely to affect tanker traffic and to shut down some Omani oil production as a precautionary measure."...
Current picture
http://wwwa.accuweather.com/news-blogs.asp?partner=schoolnotes&blog=andrewsGonu is now slower than had been earlier projected. The JTWC has relocated the storm track southwards (to where it had been earlier Monday). Thus, they are forecasting the storm core to hug the NE Oman coast through at least Muscat rather than veering away to the north. This would result in faster lessening of storm winds, but potentially higher winds and much higher rainfall along the NE coast, including Muscat. This latest slower timing has the storm center (weakened to a tropical storm) over Muscat late Wednesday evening, local time (rather than bearing down upon SE Iran). From here, it is 48 hours for the weakening tropical storm to reach the Straits of Hormuz.
The big question becomes that of rainfall and, especially, of heavy rainfall, westward to the Musandam Promontory and adjacent southern Iran. I shall have to wait until next shift (Wednesday) to shine more light on this.