Dry Tortugas At 81 mph, Models Go West

The Dry Tortugas weather station I told you about earlier started sending out observations again and is currently gusting up to 81 mph with pressure dipping below 29.00" Hg, a place on our barometers where most of us have never been. You can see a graph of the winds and pressure here, courtesy of the National Weather Service.

Models have continued to trend west with Katrina today and are now pointing towards New Orleans (see below). It's still early, of course, but westward likely means stronger (more warm water to strengthen over) and our own hurricane expert Joe Bastardi has issued a major update to his blog this afternoon for our AccuWeather.com Professional users, labeling Kat-rina as a potential Kat-astrophe.