Dangerous Hurricane Ida Makes Landfall, No Direct Impact to Western North Carolina Expected

The Gulf Coast Region is once again feeling the impacts of a Major Hurricane as Ida has made landfall near Port Fourchon Louisiana just prior to 1 pm Eastern Time, winds were 150 mph at landfall which is on the high end of a Category Four on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Our prayers go out to the people in Southern Louisiana as this will be a catastrophic hit.

Click on the video box for a look at Ida making landfall…

The steering currents have been pretty straight-forward the whole time with Ida. A decaying area of high pressure over the Carolinas held together long enough to prevent Ida from making a quick turn north, instead it directed the storm toward the Central Gulf Coast Region. Meanwhile the westerlies are far to the north at this time.

Ida will slowly move north through the State of Louisiana tonight and then will turn to the northeast on Monday across Southern Mississippi. By Tuesday the remains of Ida will be across the Tennessee Valley bringing a focus of heavy rainfall and strong winds to that region. As Ida continues northeast, a brief slug of tropical moisture will advect east toward the Carolinas bringing scattered showers and some thunderstorms on Tuesday Night through the first half of Wednesday.

Click on the video box for an animation of the track of Ida through Wednesday…

Here’s a look at the WPC precipitation forecast through Wednesday, amounts should be less than 1 inch across the Piedmont with locally higher amounts close to the Blue Ridge.