Eastern Gulf Coast of Unted States Could be Threatened by Ida Next Week
11/6/2009 5:19 AM
Tropical Depression Ida, which is threatening lives in Central America with torrential rain and
flooding, could pose a risk to residents of the Gulf Coast by the middle of nex
By Meghan
Evans
AccuWeather.com
Ida, which is threatening lives in
Central America with torrential rain and flooding, could pose a risk
to residents of the Gulf Coast by the middle of next week.
People who live along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Mexico in particular should keep checking back with AccuWeather.com for the latest on the
threat of Ida.
There are two main scenarios concerning Ida's future track that AccuWeather.com meteorologists are considering.
The first would bring Ida northward slowly into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. There, it could stall and spread out as 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 and strengthens to a Category 2 or 3 hurricane for a time over the northwest
Caribbean. This situation would allow Ida to strengthen more than the first scenario, because the system would spend less time being influenced by
land. Instead, it would spend more time churning over the open waters of the Caribbean.
In this stronger, faster scenario, Ida could plow into Florida's Gulf coast. On top of the threats of
heavy rainfall and flooding,
strong winds and storm surge could add to the dangers.
In both situations, some weakening is likely once Ida reaches the Gulf of Mexico, where it will experience stronger wind shear.
For now, Nicaragua and Honduras are being flooded by Ida's rainfall as the system moves northward along the Central American coast.
Ida should not be confused with a second area of concern in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.
That system, named or not in the coming days, could deliver disruptive tropical storm conditions that could interrupt oil production in the western
Gulf of Mexico before leading to flooding problems in the lower
Mississippi
Valley.
Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski contributed to the content of this story.
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