Saturday, August 09, 2008

Hurricane on August 23?

For the past few days the Global Forecasting System has been showing little or no chance of tropical storms and hurricanes for the next couple of weeks. That changed today. All four GFS runs today show a tropical storm or hurricane forming in the eastern Atlantic on 2008 August 13 and striking the US on August 23. Here are the places where this storm (perhaps Fay, if no other storm forms) would strike:

00Z Hitting St. Augustine, Florida, crossing the peninsula, emerging in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and then hitting Fort Walton Beach.
06Z Within 100 miles or so of the Outer Banks, grazing them and then going out to sea to the NE.
12Z Crossing the middle of peninsular Florida, then crossing the GOM, over many oil rigs, and striking New Orleans.
18Z Approaching the Atlantic coast and coming close on the 23rd, but not as much so as with the 06Z run.

This is way out in the future, and the GFS is notably unreliable this far out. But it does indicate something could happen around August 23 or so. If it strikes the GOM, it could increase gasoline and oil prices considerably. The storm is not visible now; it will form about August 13 and should be visible on maps then.

Further, GFS says another one is coming right behind this storm. It looks like the hurricane season is heating up.

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