It looks like Louisiana may be spared the brunt of Hurricane Rafael’s wrath.
The National Hurricane Center now says Rafael will head towards the Texas-Mexico coast after striking Cuba later today, potentially as a major hurricane.
“Once it gets over the gulf, it’s going to encounter some windshear (and) some slightly cooler temperatures, and conditions are not going to be all that favorable,” says Barry Keim, LSU public health climatologist. “So it’s go on kind of a very slow decline.”
The original forecast track had Rafael turning north and heading straight towards Louisiana.
That has now changed.
“We have a mid-level ridge that’s building into the eastern Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic. So this is basically coming from the east and moving westward,” says Keim. “And basically that’s going to nudge this storm more onto a westerly track rather than a northwesterly track.”
That’s good news for Louisiana, because that keeps the storm further south of Louisiana, where its reach really is not going to have much impact on the state.”
On the new current track, the storm will remain considerably south of Louisiana, possibly eliminating any potential impacts. Keim says as such, it likely will not impact Saturday’s LSU game.
“By the time we get through Saturday, the storm’s expected to stall south of Lafayette or Lake Charles, probably about 250 miles off shore, maybe 300 miles off shore,” Keim says. “And where it goes from there early next week is kind of anybody’s guess.”
Comments