PLAN AND PREPARE

The disturbance far out in the Atlantic has been upgraded to Tropical Storm Sam. The system is in a corridor that appears prime for strengthening, which the National Hurricane Center predicts will happen over at least the next five days.

At 500 PM AST (2100 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Sam was located near latitude 11.1 North, longitude 39.7 West. Sam is moving toward the west near 16 mph (26 km/h) and a general west to...

Bryan and Luke talk with David Bernard, Chief Meteorologist at WVUE-TV in New Orleans, about his and his TV station’s experiences during Hurricane Ida. What did they know before Ida hit? Was it a surprise? What was it like in the city during the storm? How has the recovery gone in the city and it the hardest hit areas? How could communications have been better? And much more.

The Tropical Disturbance in the far eastern Atlantic has a circulation, but it’s broad and the center is not well defined. Fairly soon, it is likely to pull itself together and become at least a tropical depression.

The tropical disturbance just off the coast of Africa has the potential to develop into a strong storm. Currently, the steering currents are weak, so it’s going to take a long time for this system to move across the Atlantic. We’ll be watching it through next week, at least.

Tropical Storm Peter is heading for the waters north of Puerto Rico, which would normally concern us in Florida. That’s the alley that some epic hurricanes that have hit the state have taken.

Tropical Storm Peter has formed out the disturbance we’ve been following across the tropical Atlantic. It finally has an organized circulation that meets the standard, and top winds are estimated to have reached 40 mph.

Tropical Storm Odette finally formed off the Mid-Atlantic coast yesterday.

Tropical Disturbance #1 has a decently defined broad circulation, but the bad weather is in a big comma shape to the east and north of the center of circulation. So it doesn’t have enough organization yet to rate being called a tropical depression or tropical storm.

The disturbance we have been watching east of the Bahamas is getting slightly more organized. Tropical Disturbance #1 has a decent chance to eventually become a named storm, but it’s in a competition with Tropical Disturbance #2 on the other side of the Atlantic to see which one gets named first.

The winds are winding down in Tropical Depression Nicholas, but the rain continues to fall. While the center of Nicholas’s circulation is crawling across southwestern Louisiana, the heavy rain on the east side of the storm has expanded all the way to the Florida Panhandle.

Nicholas just reached hurricane strength, but thankfully could not get itself well organized before it made landfall on the Texas coast south of Houston last night. Still, it brought along a boatload of tropical moisture, which it’s now dumping all along the northern Gulf coast.

Tropical Storm Nicholas has weakened to a tropical depression as it slowed to a crawl over southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana as its heavy rains continued to drench the area, maintaining a flood threat.

Tropical Storm Nicholas is drifting to the north in the extreme western Gulf of Mexico. Because it’s moving parallel to the coast, forecasting the landfall point is very tricky. A wobble to the left and the system runs into the Mexico or South Texas coast pretty soon.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Nicholas has strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane ahead of its expected landfall in Texas.

Tropical Disturbance #1 is trying to consolidate in the extreme southern Gulf of Mexico. The