Gustav hit a low pressure of 941mb with maximum sustained winds of 150mph... Only 6mph short of a Category 5... Thankfully Cuba did hurt Gustav some and now the winds are down to 135mph with a pressure of 958mb... So again the good news is Gustav has weaken some, but the bad news is that Gustav has been shifting right and accelerating faster then the models showed... The acceleration north is what scares me the most... This tell me that the weakness is stronger than models thought and is probably going to keep Gustav more east... Unfortunately this is BAD NEWS for New Orleans... It's still impossible to say for sure where Gustav is going with 100% certainty...
This is very frustrating to me, but I will say that I'm doubting a eastern Texas landfall at this point... Because of the faster motion and also the fact that Gustav has missed almost every single NHC point east today I'm actually thinking Gustav will go more east than even the NHC has at this time... I really hate to change my thoughts but I have to say the evidence is mounting more and more for an eastern track at this time... I still think Gustav will reach a Cat-5 in the Gulf weakening some to a Cat-4 at landfall... The current intensity of 135mph should be very close to the landfall intensity!
Again I'm now really starting to think that Gustav goes a little east of the NHC's track... This is not good for New Orleans... The current track is still bad for surge but even the slightest shift eastward makes things so much worst for New Orleans... We'll know a lot more tomorrow morning and I hope this trend does not continue, but unfortunately the trend has been east today.... I was going to leave tonight but because of the eastward jog and the faster movement I'm going to wait until tomorrow... SE Louisiana is like the Ozarks for chasing tornadoes... It's very dangerous and extremely difficult if not impossible to find a safe place to view the storm... Tomorrow I'll decide whether to go to Slidell, LA if the eastward movement continues or whether to go to Lafayette, LA if the ridge builds back like it should... It's a tough call so I'll wait until tomorrow afternoon to decide...
Right now I just hope the eastward trend stops... Again not to wish it on ANYONE, but New Orleans and ESPECIALLY Mississippi have been through enough because of Katrina... All I know is those people don't deserve this! Maybe it's not even about who does and doesn't deserve something like a hurricane because the weather has NO memory/mercy... Personally though it would break my heart to see Mississippi get hit again! I'll have an update tomorrow... Sorry about not being able to pin point an area still at this time but this is very tough... A one mile eastward jog could equal 10 miles more east at landfall...
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