Western Caribbean Disturbance Needs To Be Watched Closely This Weekend

A disturbance in the western Caribbean that we’ve been keeping an eye on the last few days is certainly looking better organized as we head into the weekend. A broad area of low pressure has formed near the Cayman Islands, and has been producing a large area of disorganized showers and storms. This is the hot spot for tropical development in October and needs to be watched closely as we go through the weekend.

A tropical depression seems likely to form over the next couple of days as this slowly drifts in a general northward direction. There has been decent model consensus the last few days with this moving over western Cuba before turning northeast toward South Florida and the Bahamas early next week, however some recent runs are hinting at the possibility of a further west track into the eastern Gulf – which would obviously lead to more widespread impacts across Florida.

For now, just remember that it’s still hurricane season and we’re not done yet. Stay prepared as always. Let’s see how things evolve over the next day or so, and go from there. When/if a storm actually forms, the track and any potential impacts will become more clear. We’ll keep you posted.

Hurricane Delta Closing In On Louisiana Coast

As of 10am CDT Friday, the center of Delta was located about 130 miles SSW of Cameron, Louisiana. Extrapolating out its current motion – N at 13 mph – landfall should be taking place along the SW Louisiana coast between 7-9pm CDT this evening. Sadly, Delta will be making landfall in nearly the exact same location as Hurricane Laura only 6 weeks ago, and much of this area has hardly begun the recovery from that storm.

Southwesterly shear has started to impact the storm a bit and slow weakening is likely leading up to landfall. That being said, this will still be a dangerous storm with wind and surge being the primary threats. Storm surge could be as high as 11 feet in spots.

This will be the tenth named storm to make landfall in the U.S. this season (a new record), the fourth named storm to hit Louisiana, and the first Greek alphabet-named storm on record to make landfall in the U.S. The 2020 season can’t end soon enough, but officially we still have a few more weeks to go. Hang in there!