Tropical Storm Elsa makes landfall in Florida

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Elsa was blasted by wind shear and dry air Tuesday night. The center of the storm is moving into Florida as of Wednesday midday.

NEW ORLEANS — Tropical Storm Elsa is making landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on Wednesday at 10 a.m. 

Elsa weakened into a tropical storm Wednesday morning after briefly regaining hurricane strength late Tuesday. Dry air and westerly wind shear caused the storm to weaken as it approached Florida.

The storm will continue moving north over Florida and into Georgia on Wednesday, spreading heavy rain and tropical storm force winds.

It will weaken as it moves inland and will likely become a depression by Thursday as it moves over the Carolinas.

By Friday it will move back into the Atlantic where it could strengthen back into a tropical storm.

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

2021 Hurricane Season Outlook

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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