Hurricane Gustav will make landfall in Louisiana tomorrow (Monday). I’ll say near Chauvin. This is bad news for Louisana and for New Orleans in particular. Thankfully, he weakened while crossing Cuba so it is unlikely that Gustav will be a Cat 4 storm when he comes ashore. However, his storm surge is likely to exceed Cat 3 standards on exactly the side that New Orleans will be in which case, the levees will fail. Sounds like a great Labor Day weekend.
Tropical Storm Hanna will annoy the Bahamas all week before becoming a Hurricane and heading for Savannah. But that is more than 5 days off an a lot can happen in the interim.
There is an area of disturbed weather that I believe is being referred to as 97L which is now West of the Cape Verde Islands. It has a high potential for developing into a storm of some kind. More as that develops.
Rock it! Tropical Storm Hanna is out in the Atlantic and she looks to become a Hurricane. For now she is no threat to anyone anytime soon. She isn’t forecast to come anywhere near land in the next five days. She does have an interesting western turn predicted by Tuesday but even then she will be days away from the US Coastline.
It seems that old Gustav has decided to skip the whole “tropical storm” thing and go straight for Hurricane status. He also has decided, it seems, not to visit key west. More importantly, Gustav is forecasted to become a major hurricane (read: category 3+). The water is warm and apparently there is very little shear. Right now, Gustav looks to be heading South of Cuba but that just means that he will end up in the middle of the gulf’s warm deep waters.
It may be too early to say it but Louisiana should start thinking about getting ready. Even though, historically, no hurricane in the month of August that was close to where Gustav is has ever hit Louisiana doesn’t mean that Gustav can’t do it now (but it is still an interesting fact and well worth keeping in mind). The GFDL, UKMET, and NAM all have Gustav heading toward that coast (the NOGAPS has him heading for the Yucatan). Still, it is a long way off; Gustav won’t threaten the US until next week.
A depression looks to turn into a tropical storm sometime in the next 24 hours. His name will be Gustav. And, right now he is expected to visit Haiti and then Cuba before sliding up Cuba’s northern coastline. 5 days hence is anyone’s guess but expect it to cruise through the Straights of Florida, threatening the Keys, and then into the warm water of the gulf where, unless conditions deteriorate, Gustav might very well become a hurricane.
The outer bands of Fay should be coming across Tampa in just over an hour. Usually I would be excited about this. A Tropical storm or, at best, a Cat One is just going to be a lot of rain and a great reason to have some drinks. However, I am supposed to be moving out of my apartment on Wednesday. So, I should, in theory be packing up my U-haul trailer on Tuesday right when the storm is passing Tampa. And, even if I get it loaded sans rain, I then have to drive North in that mess. Ugh.
The tracking models are not consistent yet but that is only in matters of degree. The storm is hitting Florida. But given its trajectory and the shape of Florida, a very minor change can mean the difference between hitting Naples and Hitting St. Pete. The official track track has it coming ashore in Ft Meyers but the probability cone stretches from the Everglades to Tallahassee. UKMet’s model is perhaps the most distressing, having it stay just off-shore as the storm cruises North wrecking havoc all the way up the coast. That one also takes the storm North to Atlanta, so I’m betting that’s how it will go since it will make my life the hardest.
I have to say though that I do think this is neat timing, a nice bookend to my life here in Florida. That is, there is a hurricane coming to exactly where I live on the very last days that I will be living here. That is pretty cool. Its like nature is giving me a going away present.
Roy, a good friend to Hud Stuff, over at Vindauga is having a show. Y’all should check it out. Continue reading ‘Check it out’
At least once a week I get annoyed at George Lucas and episodes 1-3 of what should have remained a trilogy. Continue reading ‘Picking at old wounds’
There are a couple of things that are making me slow on the uptake this season: 1) my dissertation, 2) le tour, and 3) its JULY!
Continue reading ‘Action!’
Over the past couple of weeks I have begun more and more enamored with taking a photograph that has one section totally blown out while another is lost in shadow. On Friday I went on a walk, shortly after a rain, in which this idea expanded and morphed. I thought it might be interesting to show the progression. I don’t think that any of these are earth shattering (though I do like a few a lot). Continue reading ‘Evolution of an idea’
I mentioned (in a comment) that I had some shots from Disney, which has a fabulous fireworks display. Here are the few that I have access to at the moment. Continue reading ‘More fireworks’