As expected, Hurricane Laura overnight exploded into a powerful storm and was still rapidly intensifying as it heads toward the Texas and Louisiana border late tonight.
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| Visible satellite image of Hurricane Laura in the Gulf of Mexico this morning. This satellite presentation is classic for very strong, growing and intensifying hurricanes |
The warnings are dire for the area around Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas and Lake Charles, Louisiana. Sustained winds could be near 130 mph at the time of landfall. But that's not the biggest problem.
Laura is now expected to shove ashore a storm surge of up to 15 feet above normal water levels. This is very low and flat country, so the surge could travel as much as 30 miles inland. Storm surges are usually the deadliest and most destructive parts of powerful hurricanes.
Hurricane Laura has become a physically large storm, filling up much of the Gulf of Mexico. In general, the larger the storm, the worse the storm surge.
Not surprisingly, the cities I mentioned above are emptying out as people get out of the way ahead of Laura. There's been a lot of strongly worded warnings to get out of the way. Many people have heeded that advice, but worryingly, many people have not.
The area Laura is hitting is a major oil producing part of the nation. I expect gas prices to rise after this. The refineries are already shut down due to evacuations, and these plants are sure to suffer damage that will take time to repair after the storm.
As The Weather Channel reports, some estimates say perhaps 60 percent of Beaumont, Texas's 118,000 people aren't leaving. Perhaps they think they can ride it out. Or more likely understandably worried about Covid-19 if they go to potentially crowded evacuation centers. This really is kind of a no-win situation.
Covid-19 could actually kill a bunch of people who aren't actually infected with the virus because these fears are keeping people in the hurricane's path.
Hurricane Laura will probably cause a lot of problems well inland, too. Like virtually all hurricanes, Laura will likely weaken rapidly once inland. But its forward speed has it moving right along, so hurricane force winds will push well north into west central Louisiana.
The only slight glimmer of good news is that Hurricane Laura won't score a direct hit on the Houston metro area after all. Some indications early yesterday suggested a more westward track that would take Laura over the nation's fourth largest city.
Now it appears that Houston will suffer some effects from Hurricane Laura, but it won't be a devastating blow like it will further up the coast toward Louisiana.
This will be a major disaster on top of all the major disasters and calamities we've had in 2020. This is not our year, is it?
SEVERE WEATHER UPDATE
Not to be outdone, a couple severe weather outbreaks are due in the Northeast Thursday and again on Saturday. While this outbreak will obviously be much less dire than Hurricane Laura, it still looks to be a nasty situation.
On Thursday, a sharp warm front will push into New York and New England. Along and just south of the warm front, it will become very, very humid. Worse, the wind will change direction and speed with height.
This is a recipe for very severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in the southern tier of New York, the Hudson Valley all the way down into the New York metro area, and in Connecticut and western Massachusetts.
It's a little tough right now to know exactly where the severe weather will focus, but all these areas are in play tomorrow.
Most if not all of Vermont will stay north of this warm front, so it will just be chilly, and likely rainy at times with no severe storms expected here at this time. If the warm front lifts a bit further north than expected, there could be a bit of severe weather trouble in far southern Vermont. We'll update this tomorrow morning
The rain will focus in Vermont mostly south and west of Interstate 89, but even further north, it looks like there could be a little light rain.
A similar situation to Thursday looks like it's setting up for Saturday in the Northeast. Early indications are most of Vermont will escape the severe weather, but we might get a soaking rain Saturday.
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