In addition to the winds, the storm will unload extremely heavy rainfall, especially within about 75 miles of where the center tracks. As Hurricane Laura continues to move north along Louisiana’s western border and into Arkansas, its wind speeds will slow, but heavy rains and strong gusts still threaten to cause damage Thursday and Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Laura struck near high tide and is predicted to inundate coastal areas of western Louisiana to the Texas border in up to 15 to 20 feet of water, perhaps the largest storm surge in the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A wind gust of 128 mph was reported around 1:20 a.m. as the eye of the storm approached the city. It was later decided that eyewall winds merited their own special warning. Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, a leading international expert in weather and climate, was the 2013 President of American Meteorological Society (AMS) and is Director of the. The National Hurricane Center declared at 2 a.m. Eastern time (1 a.m. Central time) that Laura came ashore near Cameron, La., packing 150 mph maximum sustained winds. The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. EY & Citi On The Importance Of Resilience And Innovation, Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing For Change, Hurricane Laura made landfall early Thursday morning, Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach, the European model hinting at Hurricane Sandy, the European (”Euro”) model is better based, intensity forecast skill still lags track forecast skill. “Isolated totals of 7-9 [inches] and flash flooding, significant in places, is likely” through 5 a.m., the Weather Service wrote in a special bulletin. The National Hurricane Center urged residents to treat these extreme winds like a tornado. The storm’s most extreme winds should arrive just after 2 a.m. (1 a.m. local time). “They’re thinking Cameron parish is going to look like an extension of the Gulf of Mexico for a couple of days,” Edwards said Wednesday. You may opt-out by. Most residents heeded mandatory evacuation orders on Wednesday as Hurricane Laura approached, but local officials said at least 150 people remained. Be safe tonight.”. “Get under a table or other piece of sturdy furniture. Review our, signing up for national breaking news email alerts, rank among the top 10 among all hurricanes, the most on record by the end of the August, landfall near Charleston, S.C., on May 27, landfall in southeast Louisiana on June 7, landfall just north of Atlantic City on July 10, landfall on Padre Island, Tex., on July 25, landfall on Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., on Aug. 3. landfall in southeast Louisiana on Aug. 24. winds were sustained at 88 mph with gusts to 115 mph, Weather Service wrote in a special bulletin. It was on the fringe of Category 5 status. The NASA Earth Applied Sciences Disasters Program has activated in support of Hurricane Laura, and is working to determine what NASA resources and capabilities may be available to support response and recovery for this event. In fact, a 3-day track forecast today is about as good as a 1-day forecast in the 1970s. As of 5 a.m., a surge over nine feet had been observed in parts of coastal southwest Louisiana. The tide gauge at Calcasieu Pass, along the coast in southwest Louisiana, near Cameron, showed a storm surge of 8 feet and rising at 1 a.m. Thursday (midnight local time). This makes it a strong Category 4 hurricane. Despite mandatory evacuation orders, at least 150 people refused to leave their homes in Cameron Parish, La., where Hurricane Laura is expected to make landfall in the early morning hours of Thursday, officials said. At 1-day (24 hours), there is less than 50 nautical miles in forecast error. “If you do not get out of the way of this storm, there will be no ability for rescuers or aiders to get in and assist you in any way,” Abbott said. Greg Abbott (R) announced shelters and buses would be stocked with hand sanitizer and face masks and shelters would be spaced appropriately. Gov. Laura becomes the seventh storm to make landfall in the continental United States so far in 2020, the most on record by the end of the August. Hurricane Laura began as a tropical depression on August 21st near the U.S. Virgin Islands, and over the next several days rapidly intensified to a dangerous category 4 hurricane at it moved towards the U.S. Gulf Coast. Aug 25, 2020 at 9:27 AM. On Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. That data is overlaid on composite imagery of city lights from NASA’s Black Marble dataset. Because of its intensity and forward movement, it was still classified as a hurricane well inland at the time of writing. “If you do need to get to higher ground, you may want to consider tools in the event that you have to get in your attic, and you may have to cut your way out of there before we can get to you the next day.”. For a brief time, lightning discharges were detected by satellite and ground-based instruments along the entire periphery of the eyewall, which is the area of towering thunderstorms surrounding the eye. The historically powerful cyclone made landfall near Cameron, La., around 1 a.m. local time. Hurricane-force winds could extend well inland over western Louisiana and East Texas on Thursday morning. This certainly places the 0.61 mile number in perspective. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The heavy rainfall threat and flash and urban flooding potential will spread northeastward into the middle-Mississippi, lower Ohio, Tennessee Valley, and Mid-Atlantic States Friday and Saturday.”. The Louisiana National Guard suggested bringing tools, like an ax or sledgehammer, into the attic space where they may be trapped by flooding caused by the “unsurvivable” storm surge. A surface low accompanied by organizing banding featurescoalesced ab… “This is a time for all of us to be praying for the best, while we’re prepared for the worst. On Wednesday morning, its speed of strengthening was five to seven times as fast as what gets classified as “bombogenesis” in winter storms. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory. It hit capacity at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday and reopened as a rest area later in the morning. John Bel Edwards (D) announced that he has activated the entire Louisiana National Guard to help with hurricane response. But with limited space to social distance, capacity for shelter ran out in some areas. Hurricane Laura is dashing toward coastal Texas and Louisiana and forecast to make landfall overnight Wednesday into early Thursday. A third of the local residents who lost their homes in that storm decided not to rebuild, leaving the parish much smaller even a full decade later. The National Hurricane Center had predicted the surge could peak in some areas as high as 15 to 20 feet above normally dry land, which would cause “life-threatening” inundation. “Treat these imminent extreme winds as if a tornado was approaching and move immediately to the safe room in your shelter.”. “At the time of landfall, Laura was a ferocious looking hurricane with a clear circular eye, an intense eyewall, and tightly-coiled surrounding spiral bands,” the National Weather Service said in an update on the storm early Thursday. It’s too late for southwestern Louisiana to avoid what the National Hurricane Center warns will be a “catastrophic” 15-to-20-foot storm surge that may sweep water 40 miles inland, swelling the marshes, bayous and connected small waterways in the region, with water spilling into communities and onto roadways. Aircraft reconnaissance indicated the storm was continuing to intensify late Wednesday, with winds of 160 mph detected at 10,000 feet and barometric pressure plummeting at an unrelenting pace. The risk of coastal inundation and surge, as well as freshwater flooding, complicates the process of escaping extreme winds. The storm vaulted from a Category 1 to a Category 4 storm in just 24 hours. The National Weather Service reported sustained winds of 85 mph in Lake Charles around 1:20 a.m. Hurricane Laura remains a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph. The system produced disorganized convection over a broad area, and steadily consolidated. However, the “Euro vs GFS” thing is not of interest to me because it is overblown in my opinion. Especially vulnerable areas include Cameron, La., which will be at or near the landfall location when the eye of the storm comes ashore early Thursday, and Lake Charles, a city of about 78,000 that was placed under a mandatory evacuation on Wednesday. Laura is the strongest storm, by wind speed, to make landfall in Louisiana since 1856, Klotzbach tweeted. Hurricane Laura is the first Category 4 or 5 storm to make landfall in southwestern Louisiana during the period of record dating back to 1851, according to Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach. Hurricane-force winds are expected to continue for several hours in areas of southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana. Editor and writer covering weather and climate, Get major developments sent directly to your inbox by. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The information indicates that surface winds in the storm are steady, and no further intensification is likely. Hurricane Laura made landfall early Thursday morning near Cameron, Louisiana with maximum winds of 150 mph. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the NOAA-20 satellite acquired this image of Hurricane Laura at 2:50 a.m. CT on August 27, 2020, about two hours after the storm made landfall. within 1 mile over 3 days in advance with Hurricane Laura. More than 225,000 people live in Lake Charles and the surrounding metropolitan area, which also includes Jennings, La. Galveston also ran out of hotel vouchers for evacuees, according to the Texas Tribune. Klotzbach noted its minimum pressure of 938 millibars ranked as the fourth-lowest on record in the state of Louisiana. He also pointed out, “With the slight exception of two forecasts overnight Sunday into Monday that brought Laura into central LA, every subsequent forecast for landfall location had very small forecast error.”. The onset of extreme eyewall winds may occur abruptly, arriving in a matter of minutes. Get major developments sent directly to your inbox by signing up for national breaking news email alerts. He closed by noting, “There is some year-to-year variation, but the trend lines point toward steady improvement at all forecast time steps.” The forecasts on Sunday morning, as Laura crossed the Dominican Republic and Haiti, were the first to shift west to a landfall location near the Texas/Louisiana border according to Professor Cordeira. On August 16, 2020, a westward-moving tropical wave along the eastern end of a monsoon trough emerged off the west coast of Africa over the Atlantic Ocean. Laura made landfall as category 4 hurricane near Cameron, Louisiana shortly after midnight on August 27, 2020, bringing extreme rainfall, storm surge, and winds up to 150 mph. In case you are having trouble deciphering the graphic, let’s explore the yellow line at the endpoint (2019). The Hurricane Center said storm surge inundation could be “unsurvivable,” affecting areas up 40 miles inland from the coast in southwest Louisiana, and that floodwaters may not fully recede for several days after the storm. The narrowing of the cone of uncertainty over time. 0.01-degree longitude difference in the two lines at landfall.” If you don’t speak “metric,” 1 km is roughly 0.62137 miles.