Central Gulf Coast Jackals, be ready. Hurricane Delta has undergone a tremendous amount of rapid intensification over the past thirty hours. As of the 11:00AM ET update, the National Hurricane Center has upgraded the storm to a powerful Category 4 storm. Current track projections of the course of the storm has the central track going through central Louisiana and either directly over New Orleans or just a smidge to the west. It is projected to make US landfall late Friday.
1120 AM EDT UPDATE: NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft report that Hurricane #Delta has rapidly strengthened into a dangerous category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph. More info: https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/3vxNAOAN0l
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 6, 2020
If you are in the cone, the time to make plans and preparations is now as the window will close very quickly.
Open Thread!
chopper
well, that escalated quickly.
LongHairedWeirdo
I saw an article at fivethirtyeight.com discussing hatred in American politics, and it’s interesting. There’s no mention of politicizing torture, no mention of having the entire federal government try to intervene in a private family matter, just so Republicans could ask “why do liberals want an innocent, helpless, woman to die?” and no mention of how, e.g., a President could clearly abuse his office, break the law, and prove to all the nations of the world that you can’t trust the US in foreign relations, and the result would be the Senate issuing the equivalent of a proclamation “suck it, libtards!”
The blindness of the news media is a big part of what’s killing this country.
Mai Naem mobile
Can we hope for Sen John ‘Hee Haw’ Kennedy be at the WH with Orange Lump when he signs the Disaster Declaration for LA? Maskless ofcourse because the virus isn’t that lethal after all.
Soprano2
Man, I hate to think this way, but it’s so dry here my first thought was maybe we’ll get some rain from it!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I want to pass along a couple of websites to the jackal-tariat.
wagingnonviolence.org/ and the article “10 things you need to know to stop a coup”
choosedemocracy.us/
These are connected with George Lakey, who has been a nonviolent activist and teacher of nonviolence activism for decades. I attended a remarkable lecture by Lakey last night, that was basically on the subject of getting ready, just in case, for a coup (meaning a Republican party not accepting the election). This is not fire-breathing conspiracy theory, just cold hard examining of the facts and discussing in the most calm and practical terms how to fight it with nonviolence.
randy khan
And don’t forget it’s heading for the Yucatan Peninsula first, and if the forecasts are correct, it will be a major hurricane there, weakening as it travels north in the Gulf towards the U.S. Not that any hurricane isn’t pretty bad, but the Yucatan really could get slammed, much worse than Louisiana. (Although Louisiana has gotten hit repeatedly already this year.)
Benw
Seek shelter as Delta pelts delta
Betty Cracker
My husband is putting together a patio set — two chairs and a small table. Unexpectedly, there are BALL BEARINGS involved. This could get ugly.
Sab
@Betty Cracker: Nothing like a vote of confidence. //
catclub
@Benw: or as the sorority girls say dailtah, dailtah, dailtah
three syllables, too, also.
Kent
There is a LOT of lingering hot water in the Gulf of Mexico between the Yucatan and the Gulf Coast that will be like adding gasoline to the fire when it passes the Yucatan and heads north.
Mai Naem mobile
Are these names already picked out by NOAA or whoever or are they trying to virtue signal with the name Delta = Change before the election? Or as the fundies would have it it’s a sign from god?
Calouste
@Mai Naem mobile: They got to Delta because they already ran out of the 23 names they assign in the Latin alphabet (no Q, Y, and Z), and Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Yes, this is storm 27.
chopper
@Mai Naem mobile:
it’s “delta” cause we ran out of alphabetic names and are in the greek alphabet as a backup. only ever happened in 2005.
Jon
@Calouste: 21 names for Atlantic storms by default; no Q, U, X, Y or Z. Pacific storms have 24, just no Q or U if memory serves.
randy khan
@Calouste:
Never mind – Jon beat me to it.
randy khan
@Kent:
For whatever it’s worth, the projections show Delta weakening at it goes north, and if I read things correctly, it will be a pretty weak hurricane by the time it hits the coast because it is projected to drop to a depression within 12 hours of landfall.
lol chikinburd
What happens when a hurricane season exhausts the Greek alphabet, and how soon will we have to find out? 2026, maybe?
lol chikinburd
I know: they can sell sponsorships. Hurricane Pfizer. Hurricane Home Depot. The Hurricane of the Depends Undergarment, after David Foster Wallace.
craigie
If you are in the cone, a simple application of a Sharpie can save your life.
Ken
@chopper: The National Hurricane Center got a little frazzled at the end of the 2005 season. That one got up to Zeta and took to December 30 to get there. We’re well on course to break the record. Yippee?
Raven
We are outside the cone but keeping our eyes peeled her on the gulf. We were leaving Friday but we are taking Bohdi to the vet this afternoon to see if they can help him. We may skeedaddle early.
PaulWartenberg
This is, what, the THIRD major storm to hit Louisiana in three months???
And we’re still looking at big storms up into mid-November at this rate.
Another Scott
@chopper: Indeed.
Some information seen elsewhere:
October 5 – 6 AM – 30 knots sustained winds
October 5 – 12 PM – 35 knots
October 5 – 6 PM – 50 knots
October 6 – 12 AM – 65 knots
October 6 – 6 AM – 80 knots
October 6 – 12 PM – 95 knots
October 5 – 6 PM – 120 knots
“These are exceptional numbers…”
Stay safe, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@lol chikinburd: Maybe they switch to the Norse runic alphabet? Or Egyptian hieroglyphs?
catatonia
It’s intensification over the past 24 hours has been almost Wilma like. From a tropical storm yesterday afternoon to a cat 4 now. Once it clears Yucatán (which looks to get nailed where Delta landfalls; the center of circulation with this one is pretty small, as these things go), Delta is supposed to encounter some SW shear in the mid-Gulf and the Heat content of the shelf waters along the GOM coast isn’t anything like it was with Laura (and for that matter, Michael, a cat 5 October storm from 2018). So that would argue in favor of Delta weakening, perhaps significantly. Still it could have a monumental surge with it if it spends a good bit of time as a Cat4/5. Surge doesn’t attenuate in lockstep with winds; saw that with Katrina.
Obviously, pay most attention to NHC. They have been stellar with their location forecasts, even while the models have performed pretty poorly overall this season. Now as long as shit-for-brains doesn’t decide to visit the NHC,s offices in Miami…
Michael
I’m sorry but I don’t care about New Orleans and yes I have been there and not at Mardi Gras time. I also don’t care about the Rockaways in NYC (I live in Brooklyn) or the Jersey barrier islands. None of them should have been invested in after major hurricane damage. Or the lower parts of New Orleans should have been landfilled and turned into parks. None of them should have ever been built on, plus in the case of Louisiana other activities both upriver and coastal and right in New Orleans have been done or allowed, some with even more federal dollars, that make the situation far worse.
We are paying trillions of dollars to fix and maintain these places. How many US cities have had the amount of money spent on them for infrastructure as New Orleans? The most expensive bit of oceanside sand in the country is in the Rockaways.
Global warming and ocean level rise will make these places unsustainable in a few decades anyway. At least in the Northeast we don’t tend to vote against agencies and taxes that support this stuff.
Jon
@Michael: Well, thanks for shitting on my home!
Mai Naem mobile
@Calouste: I had no idea. You learn something new every day. I am also going to assume the Greek gods are trying to send us a message.
Mai Naem mobile
Whatever happened to the money Orange Dbag moved from FEMA to his wall or unemployment package or whatever the hell he moved it to? Is there money left over?
J R in WV
We very much enjoyed multiple trips to NOLA, starting for me back in 1971 and 72 when my ship made courtesy visits to the widow of the Medal of Honor for whom my ship was named back in 1944. Great liberty, we visited during Mardi Gras.
Then wife and I went there later in 1972 while my ship was in the yard for overhaul in Pascagoula. Driving west on the ocean front highway we saw ships in the woods north of the roadway where they landed during Hurricane Camille.
Much later on I was invited to environmental data tracking workshops held in NOLA and hosted by the enviro shops in MS and LA as well as EPA. The second trip my co-worker and I took our wives along. Music in NOLA is amazing, all types. Food is well beyond pretty good as well.
It is true that the current location of NOLA is probably not sustainable, along with many other cities on the coasts. How should we deal with that problem, one of many the changing climate brings us? I dunno. I think we can’t just tell folks to get the hell out with no support from anyone.
There go two miscreants
Eventually, a big enough storm will come along to cause the Old River Control Structure to fail, and the Mississippi River will divert into the Atchafalaya. It has been a close call on several occasions already (not this year though, I think).
zeecube
Just after I spent all day Saturday putting out my menagerie of Halloween decorations. Now it looks like I’ll have to drag them back to the garage (along with the usual outdoor furniture and plants). Dagnabit!