Elsa back to tropical storm, forecast to make landfall Wednesday morning

NEW ORLEANS — Elsa is back to a tropical storm as wind shear and dry air blasted the once hurricane. This choked off t-storms and allowed the winds to decrease to 65 mph as of 4 am. It is forecast to make landfall in the Big Bend of Florida Wednesday morning. The storm will then weaken and continue northeast through southern Georgia, and South/North Carolina Thursday. By Friday it will move back into the Atlantic where it the system could strengthen back into a tropical storm.

We’re not expecting any impacts along our part of the Gulf Coast.

The 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season is forecast to produce more storms than average. The reason for this is the lack of El Nino, which typically features more wind shear. We also expect warmer than average sea temperatures and an active West African Monsoon.

After a record-breaking 2020 hurricane season, we now know the Greek alphabet will no longer be used to name storms.

The World Meteorological Organization announced the Greek alphabet will not be used in the future because it “creates a distraction from the communication of hazard and storm warnings and is potentially confusing.”

There has been only one other season that used the extra set of names, and that was in 2005. The World Meteorological Organization released a new set of supplemental names that will be used if the season exhausts the standard list.

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