Oops
I made an error yesterday in discussing the area of storms off the coast of Central America, in that I did not research the direction of the storm center. I was assuming that the storm was moving to the west, but instead it was moving almost due north.
That single fact changes the entire picture of what will happen over the next week. Instead of becoming a Pacific storm, the storm may now menace the Louisiana coast in a week or so, and may do so as a tropical storm or worse.
The storm center has now gained enough strength to be declared not only a tropical storm but a hurricane, and is named Ida. Currently, Hurricane Ida is located at 12.8 north, 83.4 west, and is moving towards the northwest at seven miles an hour. Ida has winds of 75 MPH and a central pressure of 987 MB.
Ida is currently over Nicaragua and will be passing over Honduras, which will considerably weaken the storm. Ida is forecast to pass back over the Caribbean at 1 AM Saturday morning. If the storm survives all that time over land, then it will begin to gain strength again, pass east of the Yucatan Peninsula Monday afternoon, and then shoot up towards the Gulf coast of the United States.
And I was also wrong to call the season as being over. But I’ll bet this is the last storm…..