Hurricane Ida takes form and aims at U.S. Gulf Coast with projections to become major storm
ORLANDO, Fla. — Ida grew into a Category 1 hurricane Friday afternoon as it made landfall along Cuba’s Isle of Youth, the National Hurricane Center said. It is expected to become a major hurricane by Sunday night before hitting the U.S. Gulf Coast.
For now, projections have Ida making landfall in Louisiana, the NHC said.
If that forecast holds true, Ida would hit 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina landed as a Category 3 storm with 125 mph winds near the riverside community of Buras in Plaquemines Parish, just down the Mississippi from New Orleans, according to The Associated Press.
A U.S. Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft identified Ida’s maximum sustained winds had intensified from 45 mph to 75 mph Friday, said the National Hurricane Center. Ida is moving northwest at 15 mph and has tropicalstorm-force winds reaching up to 90 miles from the center.
The ninth named storm of the season formed into a tropical storm Thursday evening as is about 30 miles east-southeast of the Isle of Youth, where the Cuban government has issued a hurricane warning, as well as the Pinar del Rio and Artemisa provinces, according to the NHC’s 2 p.m. Eastern time update.
Ida’s formation is atypical and early as the ninth storm of the year on average doesn’t form before Oct. 4, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records. The early formation does seem to fall in line with the NOAA’s preseason hurricane prediction of experiencing an above-average production of storms.
Ida is expected to keep strengthening before its center is over west Cuba later Friday. After, Ida is on track to draw even more power thanks to warm seasurface temperatures between 83 and 84 degrees — the right warmth for tropical growth.
Models show Ida developing into a major hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph before hitting the Gulf Coast on Sunday. Among the factors making this possible is the bathtub like conditions of the Gulf of Mexico. A large pocket of water just south of the Gulf Coast is displaying sea-surface temperatures of 86 degrees.
Projections show Ida making landfall along Louisiana’s coast, but forecasters believe Ida could bring a dangerous storm surge to the Pelican State as well as Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle Sunday and Monday.
Many concerned with Louisiana’s coast have begun sounding alarm bells for coastal residents as the potential for a major hurricane threat lingers closer, said Eric Blake, a hurricane scientist out of Colorado State University.
“You can’t ask for a worse recipe for a destructive hurricane,” Blake said on Twitter. “Not much shear, and a track right up the deepest, very warm water (using ocean heat content). There is extremely serious high-end hurricane potential here!”
Other groups are also urging caution such as the Cajun Navy Ground Force, which gained national attention in 2017 after Hurricane Harvey brought deep flood waters to parts of Texas and Louisiana.