We could always hope for a Bret '99 situation, where maybe it strikes a very sparsely populated region like Padre Island or something. But that would have to pin the needle on the thread just right.
Waking up this morning to more disturbing model trends. The GFS has now consistently shown run after run, 99L becoming a major hurricane landfall in the Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast region. The EURO also shows 99L becoming a significant storm, and shows another powerful Cape Verde hurricane approaching the Caribbean in about a week. The EURO has also shown this for a few runs now.
I'm reminded of when Harvey was nothing more than a wave in the Caribbean, yet models began consistently showing a major hurricane approaching the Texas coast. We could have a problem here.
I'm surprised the hype wasn't even more than it was, to be honest.
I think that Henri's biggest issue was the northerly shear being stronger than the models predicted from Friday night through most of Saturday. The way Henri looked Saturday morning on visible was reminiscent of Bob 1991 right when that storm cranked to 115 mph. Had Henri strengthened into a Cat 2 or even Cat 3, despite weakening, it would have been far worse. Thankfully that didn't occur.
I think we will see a few fish storms, but one or two may slide under the radar. Think 1998. We had several out to sea (Hurricanes Danielle, Ivan, Jeanne, Karl, Lisa) but Hurricane Georges slipped under the radar.
That 12ZEURO shows "Ida" becoming a hurricane out to sea, "Julian" becoming a major hurricane slamming the middle TX coast, and "Kate" as a hurricane spinning west towards the Lesser Antilles.
We shall see.