"Isaac" Moving Slowly - Hurricane WARNING for the Gulf Coast including New Orleans to the W. Fl. Panhandle; "Kirk" Develops in the Central Atlantic; Strong Wave in E. Atlantic..........."Isaac": (handy storm "quick look" from NOAA - click here)
"Isaac" wobbled on & near the coast of Louisiana Tue. night with a so-called double landfall. The first was between 7 & 8pm EDT about 60 miles south of New Orleans then the storm jogged west taking it back over water. Slow movement will make this storm particularly troublesome & dangerous with a long period of storm surge & flooding rains. No doubt this amount of water will test the new New Orleans' levees. Isolated but potentially significant tornadoes will occur over a large area of the Gulf Coast with the threat penetrating more inland with time. The storm could eventually move all the way north into parts of the Mississippi Valley/Ohio Valley which could help at least temporarily relieve the severe drought to some degree.
Click here for SE La. surface reports from "Hurricane City".
Radar imagery below courtesy S. Fl. Water Management District (impressive southerly tropical fetch):
T.D. #11 was upgraded to tropical storm "Kirk" in the Central Atlantic but is a recurve as it turns north then northeast likely staying east of Bermuda.
Yet another strong wave is at a lower latitude than "Kirk" & rolling westward. At least some upper level ridging will rebuild across the Northern Atlantic during the next week, & the extent of this ridging (Bermuda high) will have a lot to do with how far west across the Atlantic this wave might -- or might not -- go. Some long range global forecast models do show what appears to be this wave moving into the Western Atlantic in about 8-10 days (Labor Day week). The tendency for an upper level trough over or near New England could be a key player in the eventual track of what could become "Leslie".
The satellite below shows a couple of more waves getting ready to come off the coast of Africa.
