Friday, August 24, 2012

Isaac: The Storm

Every time I see an update on TS Isaac, I think of "Isaac's Storm"*, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 that killed an estimated 6,000 to 12,000 people, (generally 8,000 officially accepted), the most of any hurricane to make landfall on the continental U.S. That hurricane, which occurred before the current system of naming hurricanes, made landfall on September 8th so we're not looking for any interesting coincidences.


File:1900 Galveston hurricane track.png

At the moment TS Isaac is following a similar path to the 1900 hurricane but is forecasted to turn north and possibly make landfall around the Florida panhandle instead of charging straight through the Gulf toward Texas.

 

I'll be keeping an eye on Isaac. If landfall is made too far to the east, we won't even get any rain out of it. Some of the people who really need the rain (i.e. Georgia) will get it, but others (the central states) probably won't be affected in the least. 

US Drought Monitor, August 21, 2012

*Named after the resident meteorologist, Isaac Cline. See the book of the same name.

No comments: