Ida to Affect U.S. Coastal Waters
11/5/2009 9:59 AM
The tropics are destined to have the last laugh in what has been a benign Atlantic hurricane
season.
By Alex
Sosnowski
AccuWeather.com
The tropics are destined to have
the last laugh in what has been a benign Atlantic hurricane season.
Tropical Storm Ida, currently over
Central America will be a concern for the eastern Gulf of Mexico in
the days ahead.
There are two main scenarios
Joe Bastardi and other AccuWeather.com meteorologists are
pondering with the track of Ida.
The first would bring Ida northward slowly into the eastern Gulf of Mexico, where it could stall and transform into a large area of
heavy rain, rough seas and moderate winds next week.
A potentially more dangerous scenario is that Ida moves at a faster pace but strengthens to a Category 2 or 3 status for a time over the warm waters
of the northwest Caribbean and favorable atmospheric conditions.
In this stronger, faster scenario, Ida would plow into Florida's Gulf coast. In this case, the threat would not only be for
heavy rainfall and flooding, but potentially wind and storm surge damage.
In both situations, some weakening is likely once Ida reaches the Gulf of Mexico, where it will experience wind shear.
In the short term, Ida will crawl northward, paralleling the coast of
Central America bringing torrential rainfall and a flooding threat to
Nicaragua and Honduras.
Ida should not be confused with a second system brewing currently brewing in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.
That system, named or not in the coming days, will deliver disruptive tropical storm conditions to interests in the western Gulf of Mexico and could
lead to flooding problems in the lower
Mississippi Valley.
For more information on the flooding threat in Louisiana and surrounding states, consult the AccuWeather.com
Southwest Regional News story.
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