Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall late yesterday afternoon near Grand Isle with maximum sustained winds at 50 miles per hour. State Climatologist Barry Keim says Cristobal produced a storm surge of six feet in St. Bernard Parish.
“I think surge is probably the biggest issue with this storm, but it did produce a couple of tornadoes in Florida and a waterspout in Alabama, so the reach of this storm was great, especially on the right-hand side,” said Keim.
Keim says Crisotbal still made a little history as its the second earliest named storm to make landfall in Louisiana.
“The earliest landfalling tropical storm on record in Louisiana was Tropical Storm Arelene which made landfall on May 30, 1959. In fact it made landfall right near the Atchafalaya Basin,” said Keim.
Keim says sea surface temperatures were warm enough to produce a hurricane, but dry air from the west helped create a lopsided tropical storm that didn’t produce a huge impact in Louisiana.
“There was a little bit of windshear in addition to that and the storm just never really pulled itself together, which is why it made landfall as a fairly ragged storm with most of the rainfall on the east and northern sides,” said Keim.
Comments