"Isaac" Moving Slowly; "Kirk" in the Central Atlantic; Strong Wave in E. Atlantic..........."Isaac": (handy storm "quick look" from NOAA - click here)
"Isaac" has only slowly moved west/northwest to northwest & held together amazingly well with an eye still evident into Wed. evening despite 12+ hours over land -- an indication of just how favorable atmospheric conditions became as the storm rolled into Louisiana (+ proximity to warm water near the coast). Slow movement will make this storm particularly troublesome & dangerous with a long period of storm surge & flooding rains. No doubt this amount of water will test the new New Orleans' levees. Isolated but potentially significant tornadoes will occur over a large area of the Gulf Coast with the threat penetrating more inland with time. The storm will eventually move all the way north into parts of the Mississippi Valley/Ohio Valley which could help at least temporarily relieve the severe drought to some degree.
Click here for SE La. surface reports from "Hurricane City".
Radar imagery below courtesy S. Fl. Water Management District (impressive southerly tropical fetch):
Tropical storm "Kirk" in the Central Atlantic is strengthening but will be a recurve as it turns north then northeast likely staying east of Bermuda.
Yet another strong wave is at a lower latitude than "Kirk" & rolling westward. At least some upper level ridging will rebuild across the Northern Atlantic during the next week, & the extent of this ridging (Bermuda high) will have a lot to do with how far west across the Atlantic this wave might -- or might not -- go. Some long range global forecast models do show what appears to be this wave moving into the Western Atlantic next week but trending toward a recurve before reaching the Caribbean or Eastern U.S. The Bermuda High does appear to contract for awhile which would help the recurvature process as -- at the same time -- an upper level trough moves into the Northeast U.S. Such a set-up could bode well for the U.S. but is far from a "done deal". The satellite below shows another wave off the coast of Africa marching west.
