4 Years Ago a Monster Was Being Born

Written by: Brian Neudorff

On August 23rd & 24th a storm was developing in the Caribbean as tropical depression 12, the National Hurricane Center designated Katrina tropical depression 12 on August 23rd, 2005, this tropical depression would eventually be classified as tropical storm Katrina at 11am on August 24th 2005.

When Katrina became a tropical storm the NHC (National Hurricane Center) immediately issued a hurricane watch for the Florida coastline since the storm was forecasted to become a hurricane before making landfall.

By Wednesday evening of the 24th, Katrina's winds had increased to 50 mph and those watches were quickly upgraded to hurricane warnings from Vero Beach to Florida City, including Lake Okeechobee. Because Katrina was crossing along the southern tip of Florida there were a lot of questions of how much would this storm weaken and what would be fate of Katrina once it reached the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. There loomed the possibility for forecasters that Katrina would become a rapidly developing hurricane in the warm open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.