Gustav Set to Hit Monday - Hanna May Be a Bigger Georgia Threat
The twin threats of Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Hanna almost guarantee that tropical weather will be in the news for the next week to ten days. Gustav is just about to make landfall as a powerful category 4 hurricane over western Cuba, while Hanna is becoming slightly more organized as a tropical storm about 250 miles east of the Bahamas.
Gustav is expected to strengthen into a category 5 hurricane after it passes over Cuba, and all models have it making landfall somewhere on the Louisiana coast sometime Monday afternoon. The intensity is expected to drop to category 4 by the time he makes landfall, and the storm is likely to move northwest through Louisiana and Texas in the two or three days after landfall. After the devastation caused by Katrina three years ago, officials are taking no chances, but if the storm follows the NHC path, while New Orleans will get a lot of rain, there is less risk to the levees if the storm follows its current projected path. Evacuation efforts have begun, and FEMA is assembling materials needed should disaster strike.
In any case, Gustav isn’t likely to have too much effect on Atlanta or North Georgia’s weather if it follows its expected path–certainly nothing like we saw with Fay. Hanna, however may well turn out to be a different story. Although initial projections had Hanna petering out somewhere north of Cuba, models are now telling a different story, with more of a northwest movement after a few days that could lead to landfall anywhere between northern Florida and South Carolina.
High pressure over the mid-Atlantic is currently helping to steer both Gustav and Hanna, and by midweek, the ridge is expected to weaken. While Gustav will have already made landfall by that point, Hanna will react, and will likely make landfall somewhere in an area that will affect our weather by late week. Meanwhile, the Hurricane Center is taking a long look at a tropical wave coming off of the African coast that could turn into a third Atlantic storm before you’re done with your Labor Day picnic.
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August 30th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
[...] decide where to go. Now, however, it seems that she’ll make a turn to the northwest and head in our direction. It’s certainly not a sure thing that she’ll bring us rain, but Gustav is almost [...]