The Latest Tropical Weather--Gustav and Hanna

GUSTAV

Gustav is expected to become a hurricane as it tracks from southern Jamaica through the northwest Carribbean. The forecast track takes the storm near the western tip of Cuba Saturday evening and then into the Gulf of Mexico. The latest computer model suite continues to focus attention on a potential landfall along the Louisiana coast early next week. It's important to realize that a U.S. landfall is still many days away and computer projections could easily change. However, it would appear the the Louisiana and Texas coasts have the best shot at seeing a landfall. In terms of intensity, most of the models bring the storm to at least category 2 hurricane status, with several making Gustav a dangerous category 3 before landfall. With the very warm waters of the Gulf, significant intensification is a possibly and the storm will be monitored very closely by those along the Gulf Coast through the holiday weekend.

LATEST NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER FORECAST TRACK FOR GUSTAV

HANNA

Meanwhile, Hanna is out in the Atlantic, about 260 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands as of very late Thursday night. The storm is expected to intensify and possibly be a hurricane by Saturday. Hanna is expected to remain over the open waters for several days, moving generally west-northwest, but a southward component could enter the picture later in the weekend. This would be due to strong northerly winds in the mid and upper levels behind a trough swinging off the East Coast, indicated by virtually all of our computer models.

LATEST NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER FORECAST TRACK FOR HANNA