…DANGEROUS CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE IDA STRENGTHENS SOME MORE……LIFE-THREATENING STORM SURGE, POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC WIND DAMAGE, AND FLOODING RAINFALL WILL IMPACT PORTIONS OF THE NORTHERN GULF COAST BEGINNING LATER THIS MORNING..
Actions to protect life and property should be rushed to completion in the warning area.
A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for…
* East of Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge Louisiana to the Alabama/Florida state line
* Vermilion Bay, Lake Borgne, Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas, and Mobile BayA Hurricane Warning is in effect for…
* Intracoastal City Louisiana to the Mouth of the Pearl River
* Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas, and Metropolitan New OrleansA Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for…
* Cameron Louisiana to west of Intracoastal City Louisiana
* Mouth of the Pearl River to the Alabama/Florida state line
Hurricane conditions are expected in the Hurricane Warning area along the Louisiana coast beginning by later this morning with tropical storm conditions expected to begin by early this morning.
These conditions will spread inland over portions of Louisiana and Mississippi tonight and Monday.
Tornadoes will be possible today into Monday from southeast Louisiana across southeast Mississippi and southwest Alabama to the western Florida Panhandle.
For storm information specific to your area in the United States, including possible inland watches and warnings, please monitor products issued by your local National Weather Service forecast office – www.weather.gov
At 4 a.m. CDT, the center of Hurricane Ida was located over the northern Gulf of Mexico about 75 miles (120 km) south of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 145 miles (230 km) southeast of Houma, Louisiana.
Ida is moving toward the northwest near 15 mph (24 km/h), and this general motion should continue through tonight and early Monday, followed by a slower northward motion on Monday afternoon.
A northeastward turn is forecast by Monday night.
On the forecast track, the center of Ida will continue moving across the north-central Gulf of Mexico this morning, and make landfall along the coast of southeastern Louisiana within the hurricane warning area this afternoon or evening.
Ida is then forecast to move well inland over portions of Louisiana and western Mississippi on Monday and Monday night.
Satellite and Doppler radar data indicate that maximum sustained winds have increased to near 140 mph (220 km/h) with higher gusts – a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 40 miles (65 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 140 miles (220 km).
The estimated minimum central pressure is 946 mb (27.94 inches).
Some additional strengthening is forecast, and Ida is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane when it makes landfall along the Louisiana coast this afternoon.
Rapid weakening is expected after landfall.
The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline.
The water could reach the following heights above ground somewhere in the indicated areas if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide:
– Port Fourchon, LA to Mouth of the Mississippi River
…12-16 ft- Morgan City, LA to Port Fourchon, LA
…8-12 ft- Mouth of the Mississippi River to Bay St. Louis, MS including Lake- Borgne
…8-12 ft- Burns Point, LA to Morgan City, LA…6-9 ft- Lake Pontchartrain
…5-8 ft- Bay St. Louis, MS to MS/AL state line
…4-7 ft- Intracoastal City, LA to Burns Point, LA including Vermilion Bay
…4-6 ft- Lake Maurepas
…4-6 ft- Pecan Island, LA to Intracoastal City, LA
…2-4 ft- MS/AL state line to AL/FL border including Mobile Bay
…3-5 ftSabine Pass to Pecan Island, LA
…1-3 ftAL/FL border to Okaloosa/Walton County Line including Pensacola Bay
…1-3 ft Overtopping of local levees outside of the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System is possible where local inundation values may be higher than those shown above.
Heavy rainfall from Ida will begin to impact the southeast Louisiana coast this morning, spreading northeast into the Lower Mississippi Valley later today into Monday.
Total rainfall accumulations of 10 to 18 inches with isolated maximum amounts of 24 inches are possible across southeast Louisiana into far southern Mississippi through Monday.
This is likely to result in life-threatening flash and urban flooding and significant riverine flooding impacts.
