September 9, 2008
0745z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite (click title to entry for 12 hour loop)
Entering the Gulf of Mexico is the Cat 4 storm Ike. It will continue to cross that body of water, will skim along the Louisiana Coast causing flooding and storm surge and the 'eye wall' will make landfall over Port Arthur, Texas. That is what it is looking like for me right now. It is tough to say the velocity of Ike once it makes landfall, but, as a rule the velocity of these storms in the last couple of years doesn't exceed Cat 3 due to the continental shelf. But, as noted with Katrina, a Cat 3 at landfall, the storm surge is significantly higher due to the high velocity immediately before landfall. I estimate Ike will be a Cat 3 when coming in on Texas.
The Pacific storm is Tropical Storm Lowell. It probably won't make it to southern California, but, will bring some rain to the Baja of Mexico.
