***TROPICAL ALERT*** TROPICAL STORM ETA (Late season tropical outlook discussion)
Well,this didnt age well. Zeta is 1mph short of a Cat 3.
I’ll admit it, but I’m still shocked and surprised at how fast and rapidly this MFer juiced up right before making landfall. There was still a large amount of dry air and enough sheer to keep this storm at around 90 mph or 95 mph while making landfall. Several WC forecasters even alluded this morning that the storm’s strength had peaked and the cooler water temps in northern Gulf supposedly would cool it off.
Either way, I hate when TS or minimal Hurricanes do these “ surprise” last second bullshirt routines of gaining a lot of strength 3-4 hours before landfall, like little, conniving bastages forking with people’s lives, homes, property and overall peace of minds. When a system does this shtick with New Orleans, the odds, implications, and the stakes become a lot more stark and graver due to New Orleans unique geography, precarious position when faced with hurricanes in general. A lot more serious ramifications are at play here then if a similar-typed storm were to hit Corpus Christi or Brownsville, TX. And no offense to posters on here from both these cities, but neither one of your cities are 20 feet below zero and your city’s topography isn’t shaped resembling an inverted fish bowl.