Updraft: August 28, 2008 Archive

Monitoring Gustav

Posted at 7:09 AM on August 28, 2008 by Craig Edwards

National Hurricane Center

On a serious note, there is a lurking potential for a dangerous hurricane to take aim at the Gulf Coast of the US early next week. Your assignment this weekend is to monitor the accuracy of NOAA forecasters as they track Hurricane Gustav from Jamaica into the Gulf of Mexico.

Just three years ago, Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans, weakening slightly as it came on shore. NOAA was very accurate in this forecast and local forecasters had warned of catastrophic conditions. Yet, surprisingly, it appeared that some government officials failed to envision the storm's severity. A validation that, perhaps, some apathy towards NWS/NOAA warnings still exists.

Recently on the jet streaming podcast we spoke with Marc Lloyd Levitan from Louisiana State University on how city of New Orleans might be better positioned to respond to the threat of another category three hurricane.

Listen to the August 20th edition of Jet Steaming

National Weather Service New Orleans
CE