Sally has developed into a Hurricane ahead of schedule after rapidly strengthening this morning. Sunday afternoon and Monday morning models anticipated it would not hit hurricane strength until late Monday, and more likely Tuesday.
National Weather Service forecaster Christopher Bannon said Sally got a bit of good luck that helped it pick up steam and grow to 85 mile per hour winds.
“The shear that we had been seeing the past couple of days really weakened overnight and then once what we call the convection, showers and thunderstorms really fired over the center of the circulation this morning it intensified significantly,” said Bannon.
Bannon said Sally is now likely to be a category two hurricane before landfall, but the good news is it still seems unlikely to become a major hurricane.
“From a standpoint of the intensification it is supposed to slow down at some point so that it may allow it to stall a little bit on the intensification part later tonight and tomorrow,” said Bannon.
Forecasts continue to push the anticipated landfall more eastward, now appearing more likely to land somewhere along the Mississippi coast, but Bannon says the strengthening means the eastern edges of the state’s most southeastern parishes will get some bad weather.
“With the storm strengthening the wind field is actually growing in size,” said Bannon.
The cone of uncertainty still covers the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Alabama-Florida line.
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