IDA UPDATE

Written by: Bob Metcalfe

Ida is back to hurricane strength, albeit very weak. As you can see by the image above, she is still scheduled to head due east for the next day and a half through the Gulf of Mexico.

The water here is cooler, the airmass is cooler, and there is an increased amount of lower-level windshear in the atmosphere. All three of these characteristics work against strengthening and will actually break Ida down. As of now, the NHC expects her to barely even be tropical in nature by "landfall", slated for late Monday/early Tuesday morning. The landfall area is along the Alabama/Florida panhandle border right now.

As far as the effects on us, a low pressure system may "absorb" Ida's remnants, which could potentially mean rain along our southern edges by mid-week. This will be something we monitor over the next few days, but right now we aren't expecting any major effects in the western New York area.