Well, the good news, I suppose, is there won't be two simultaneous hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico after all, and southern Louisiana might not get two tropical storms.
 |
| In this dawn photo of the Gulf of Mexico Tropical Storm Marco is actually centered in the clear air southwest of the blob of storms near the Florida Panhandle. Tropical Storm Laura can be seen in the lower right of the photo |
This news sounds terrific, but it's not all that great for people along parts of the Gulf Coast.
Here's today's update on the tropical storms, and of course, things will keep changing.
Tropical Storm Marco briefly achieved hurricane status Sunday afternoon in the central Gulf of Mexico. That turned out to be its heyday. Strong upper level winds are tearing Marco apart, and even if it does make it to shore as a tropical storm, it won't exactly be a powerhouse.
Marco is now expected to fall completely apart within a couple of days, but will still dump some heavy rains on those areas.
The problem, though, is Marco's brief stint as a hurricane stirred up a push of water which is heading toward low, swampy southern Louisiana.
Then there's Laura. It's certainly a resilient little bugger. It went over Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and is new around Cuba. Being over land so much would have killed many tropical storms. But not Laura. She has pulled every trick up her sleeve to keep some of her circulation over water, or just rejigger itself so that the center kept shifting back toward water.
The result this morning was a Tropical Storm Laura with highest sustained winds of 65 mph. The center of this storm will skirt the southern coast of Cuba today as it heads toward the Gulf of Mexico, so Laura should maintain its strength for now.
Once it gets into the southern Gulf of Mexico tomorrow, look out! The very warm waters of the Gulf plus the fact this thing will finally be moving away from land will give it an opportunity to blossom into a full blown hurricane.
The question now is, how big and bad of a hurricane? The signals are still mixed. On the one hand, we'e seen other resilient tropical storms go full bore monsters in the Gulf, with devastating results. On the other hand, upper level winds or dry air could temper the power of this storm.
It seems like we should lean toward a nasty, stronger Laura, because upper level winds, at least on Tuesday and Wednesday won't be gusty enough to interfere with development, and that hot water will certainly contribute.
Of course, the big issue is where will Laura go? Unfortunately, all bets are that it will make a United States landfall. Early guesses suggest it would hit somewhere near the Louisiana-Texas border. But anyone between the central Texas coast and Alabama should watch closely. This could easily be the nation's worst hurricane so far this year.
SEVERE STORMS HERE
Once again yesterday, there were a couple reports of severe storms in Vermont, as expected. Most of the rough weather, though hit southern New Hampshire and parts of Massachusetts.
Still, there were reports of numerous trees and power lines down in Springfield, Vermont, and penny sized hail in Benson.
Some showers skirted the northern border areas of Vermont overnight. Here in St. Albans, I got 0.3 inches of rain. Not a huge amount, but welcome nonetheless. Rainfall in August has been OK, but it will take a lot to get over the dry conditions from the spring and earlier summer. When I dig into the soil around my house, I hit dry, dusty earth just an inch or two below the wetter surface.
There will be some more chances of rain, though no earth-shattering amounts over the next few days. It looked like another band of showers with a couple embedded lightning strikes was approaching my area in far northwestern Vermont as of 8:15 this morning, but it remains to be seen whether they will hold together.
(UPDATE: Yes, the showers held together and we got some more rain in St. Albans).
Once again, some of the storms that develop this afternoon and evening could be strong to severe in a handful of locations. As has been the case, very few of them will be damaging, but one or two spots could see trouble. It's hard to say who would get nailed, as these really are hit and miss, by definition.
A strong cold front will come through tomorrow morning or early afternoon at the latest. The timing - in the morning - would limit the amount of severe weather with this front. Thunderstorms usually peak in intensity in the late afternoon or evening.
Still, the cold front could bring a few strong to severe storms to us as it passes through, so watch for that.
The coldest air since spring is set to come in behind the front, with highs Wednesday for many of us only reaching the 60s. That's not super cold for late August, but it is somewhat chilly, as we haven't seen anything like this in a long time.
The last time the high temperature in Burlington failed to get above 70 degree was June 14.
No comments:
Post a Comment