No Rest for the Weary - Tropics Brewing Up More Trouble

Just a week ago, the East Coast was gearing up for Hurricane Irene which proved to be quite the foe for many from the Carolinas through New England. Now, we’re faced with another tropical threat, however, this time we have not 1, but 2 tropical systems to worry about. See their Tracks HERE

Tropical Depression 13, possibly becoming Tropical Storm Lee later today, will be the first to make a run at the U.S. mainland. Currently, TD #13 is meandering about the Gulf of Mexico, south of Louisiana. Parts of the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to just near the western tip of the Florida Panhandle are starting to see the bands of showers and thunderstorms. Flooding will be the biggest threat from this system as the storm slowly makes landfall over the Labor Day weekend somewhere along the central Louisiana coast and then very slowly chugs through the state on a northeasterly track. By the middle of next week, the storm is only expected to have made it as far as the Mississippi/Alabama border after which it will dissipate into a low pressure system, losing its tropical characteristics. Current projections are for 10-20” of rain along parts of the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, LA; Biloxi, MS; Mobile, AL; and Pensacola, FL. Given the slow-moving nature of this storm, widespread flooding will be expected as the storm will continuously dump large amounts of rain over the same areas. On the bright side, the heavy rain will help to eradicate the drought in parts of the Gulf Coast, unfortunately, the parched state of Texas will see very little rain from this storm. Wet vacuums, plastic sheeting, tarps, and clean-up supplies will experience a jump in demand along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Panhandle of Florida.

While this weekend will be spent focusing on TD #13 close to home, another threat far out in the Atlantic will bear watching over the next week. Hurricane Katia, currently several hundreds of miles east of the Leeward Islands, will eye-up the East Coast of the U.S. as she churns west-northwestward across the Atlantic over the next several days. She is still about 6 to 10 days from any real threat to the U.S. and there are many factors that could alter her track, so the forecast path has a lot of time to change over the coming days. The most current forecasting models take Katia unsettlingly close to the Carolina coastline as she makes a turn to the northeast along the Eastern Seaboard. We will continue to monitor her progress and will issue updates as needed.

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Weather Trends International (WTI) is the global leader of actionable year-ahead business weather guidance for retailers, manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, agricultural firms, financial analysts and consumers worldwide.  The company’s business-to-business clients include some of the world’s most respected and successful companies such as Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Target, AutoZone, Anheuser-Busch, Johnson & Johnson, Clorox, Energizer, 3M, JP Morgan and Hershey’s. Its business-centric weather solutions and understanding of how consumers respond to the weather is used throughout organizations to help "manage the weather risk.”  Utilizing technology first developed in the early 1990s, WTI’s unique, statistical, math-based forecasting methodology projects temperature, precipitation and snowfall trends up to a year ahead for 6.4 million locations in all 195 countries with industry-leading 80%+ accuracy (as verified in an independent audit by Forecast Watch).  The company has received 12 business and technology awards and in 2009 was listed #5 on Forbes’ list of America’s Most Promising Companies. WTI is headquartered in Bethlehem, PA with offices in Bentonville, AR.  For more information, visit www.wxtrends.com or www.wt360.com.