Sunday, November 8, 2009

Hurricane Ida now 100mph...



Hurricane Ida continues to look better and better on satellite imagery and is now a Category-2 hurricane... Pressure is down to 978mb with maximum sustained winds of 100mph... Hurricane Ide did shift/wobble a little west overnight but the idea of it still going through the middle of the Yucatan Channel is occurring right now as you can see a nice CDO with an eye trying to form!!! Hurricane Ida is a little east of where the NHC has it right now as she wobbled back north the last few hours... Expect some further strengthening as Ida could make it to a weak Category-3 hurricane (115mph)...

I'm glad to see that the NHC finally has Hurricane Ida making landfall near the Alabama/Florida border... With the wobble west overnight and the forward speed picking up some I don't really have a problem with this current track... As far as the strength I still think it will be a weak hurricane at landfall... I know the NHC has it labeled extra-tropical at landfall but honestly again that doesn't matter... I've see them name things in MUCH WORSE conditions tropical (ie. Grace!!!) so I'm not buying this extra-tropical stuff unless it stalls off the coast (IT WON'T!!!)... Again though it doesn't matter to places like Mobile/Pensacola because 74 mph winds is 74 mph winds either way... One thing though to keep in mind with Ida is she will be a rapidly weakening hurricane at landfall... Because of this the winds aloft will have a VERY HARD time mixing down to the surface so you are not going to get the maximum wind potential from Ida... This is one factor that "may" keep me from chasing Ida...

I'll be back later today with more updates... Check out the visible satellite imagery if you want to see a nice hurricane! It will be really cool to see if the eye develops today! It really looks like it's trying!!!

No comments: