Katrina sets sights on New Orleans

Well my predition of Katrina moving further west of New Orleans is no longer valid. I can now see from the radar and satellite images that the ridge from the Texas area is pushing closer to Katrina and now we see a more northerly component to the track. In fact, depending on the forward speed overnight, we might see Katrina go a little east of New Orleans. Time will tell, and of course for overall safety reasons, all people from Louisana to the Florida Panhandle should realize that they will see dangerous, life threating conditions in their area. I am merly talking of position for chaser seeking "ground zero" aka the northeast eye and eyewall.

Katrina is expected to dimish a little, perhaps even as much as 30mph, down to a high Catagory 4. Most hurricanes can sustain their maximum conditions for more than a half-day. My personal suspision tell me that Katrina is going to be borderline Cat.5 about 155 mph at landfall. There will be some controversy likely because of the "official" landfall location due to the heavily varied coastline geography.

The rest of the Weathervine crew is in the Mississippi area. A good place to be in my opinion. A slight move to the west may be good, but they need to find a back-up shelter location should the need to travel back east. I will be talking to Jeff before midnight, and will update the blog after the call.