NavarreDon Posted October 29, 2020 Lightning in the eyewall this late in the game....wow!!!. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dan11295 Posted October 29, 2020 The overall core structure is holding together very well, baro forcing at work for sure. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CheeselandSkies Posted October 29, 2020 4 hours ago, hlcater said: Most north moving gulf storms have weak/non-existent south sides. I remember when people thought Michael was remarkable because it was the exception to the rule. Not only that, take a look at environment/synoptics and a half-a-cane absolutely makes sense. The interesting thing about Zeta and also Sally from earlier this year was that the "half-a-cane" structure was really only apparent on radar. The IR and visible presentations looked quite vigorous all the way around, in contrast to storms like Katrina and Irma (for its Marco Island landfall) where the back sides became noticeably degraded on satellite in the last hours before landfall. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NYGiantsFan99 Posted October 29, 2020 sorry to be the bearer of bad news (especially after that one guy said hey atleast no levees have failed) but it appears that, according to multiple sources, that the Grand Isle Levee has been breached in 3 separate locations Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jm1220 Posted October 29, 2020 1 minute ago, NYGiantsFan99 said: sorry to be the bearer of bad news (especially after that one guy said hey atleast no levees have failed) but it appears that, according to multiple sources, that the Grand Isle Levee has been breached in 3 separate locations Not terribly shocking unfortunately. The levees in New Orleans were reinforced but not sure if the same work was done on all the other SE LA levees. The “land” in much of that area is alligator-laden swamp. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rjay Posted October 29, 2020 1 hour ago, LibertyBell said: the 125-136 measurements for gusts are similar to what was reported for Laura out in SW Louisiana. Reminds me of the Iowa derecho 2 5 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gymengineer Posted October 29, 2020 Mobile Regional Airport: another 90+ gust, now well east of the center. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mob1 Posted October 29, 2020 Mobile Regional Airport with a gust to 91 mph just now , pretty impressive considering how far inland Zeta is. Edit; gymengineer types faster than me. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NavarreDon Posted October 29, 2020 Getting a decent blow in Navarre now, gusting to the mid 50’s.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jojo762 Posted October 29, 2020 Given all these highly impressive sustained winds/gusts, this will almost certainly be upgraded in post-storm analysis. 136mph?? That’s pretty top-tier, as anything higher (and usually a lot of gusts lower than that) destroys anemometers. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andyhb Posted October 29, 2020 That is one heck of a wind field on KMOB, lots of >100 kt outbounds not too far off the deck. Going to be an impressive inland wind event for MS/AL. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shaggy Posted October 29, 2020 Not too shabby 5 hours post landfall 3 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tiger_deF Posted October 29, 2020 Is it just me or is Zeta clearing out an eye over land? 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jm1220 Posted October 29, 2020 1 minute ago, shaggy said: Not too shabby 5 hours post landfall It is curious to me how the cloud tops are so cold south of the eye but there's no rain. 1 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SnowGoose69 Posted October 29, 2020 The 20Z HRRR got that 02-03Z MOB forecast very close. Had 90kts at 925mb with 76kts mixing to the surface 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SnowLover22 Posted October 29, 2020 The structure still looks amazing. Wow! Radar velocities still around 110-125mph. only 1,800 feet up in the atmosphere. 3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shaggy Posted October 29, 2020 6 minutes ago, SnowGoose69 said: The 20Z HRRR got that 02-03Z MOB forecast very close. Had 90kts at 925mb with 76kts mixing to the surface Hrrr has shifted highest winds eastward in NC and now gets me right at 60mph gusts when earlier today it had me low to mid 40s. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andyhb Posted October 29, 2020 That is nuts. Seems to be wave-like features propagating outward from the eye/eyewall region as well. 3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Moderately Unstable Posted October 29, 2020 24 minutes ago, jm1220 said: It is curious to me how the cloud tops are so cold south of the eye but there's no rain. I think that's due to low level dry air that worked in. You won't see it necessarily on the sat. Sat shows cloud temps, e.g., tops. Not the base or depth. Looking through the vil values at KMOB, it looks like those clouds don't have much low level moisture. This happens with winter storms too...snow starts falling, air is dry, takes time to saturate the air and get that precip to reach the surface. The clouds on the backside of this storm are definitely convective--they aren't just a cold artifact, so, they still pack some likely potent and poorly resolved winds. One of the local nws sites tweeted out something about dry air entrainment a couple hours ago when prognosticating a high gust factor so I think that's what's being seen there. May also explain some of the wave patterns. To a similar degree--although the storm is over land, two things can help maintain strength in addition to the upper level divergence. First a portion of inflow has remained over the gulf the last several hours and is visible on satellite feeding into the storm's core. Second, the low levels of the atmosphere if sufficiently humid can near the coast act in a manner similar to shallow water regions and result in a longer term maintenance of strength. The third thing at play here continues to be baroclinic influence. This is a warm core system being aided by what are basically cold core dynamics. Unusual, but not unprecedented. MU 1 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amped Posted October 29, 2020 The IR appearance is finally starting to degrade. Amazing because radar has been showing only a few whisker bands in the SW half of the storm since landfall Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Moderately Unstable Posted October 29, 2020 Yes, agree sat presentation is now finally degrading. Like the rest of this storm it has taken its time in doing so. Short range guidance did well on that. Then again, you can always find models in any situation that did well and didn't. Statistical intensity guidance in this case was crap, dynamic was solid. Probably better modeled the baroclinic factors than the statistical. Very interesting storm to watch. The signal the last several days of yet another tropical system in a couple weeks in the Caribbean is just adding insult to injury at this point. Wayyyy too far out to talk track or intensity or what have you but the models have clearly locked onto a potent tropical wave that tries to do something in the second week of November. Very long range but good model agreement on that possibility. I hope we make it to theta. I really want to be able to make horrible jokes that none of my friends understand about the theta in theta. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roger Smith Posted October 29, 2020 I want to see Mu and Nu doing the Fujiwara. 5 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jojo762 Posted October 29, 2020 Still plenty of 100-120mph bins showing up on KMBX at ~3KFT. Impressive given that Zeta has been on land for nearly 300 miles now. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
purduewx80 Posted October 29, 2020 The New Orleans NWS office was able to launch their 00Z sounding within the eye. It recorded their warmest 500mb temperature in its history (back to 1948). 16 1 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BombsAway1288 Posted October 29, 2020 2 hours ago, purduewx80 said: The New Orleans NWS office was able to launch their 00Z sounding within the eye. It recorded their warmest 500mb temperature in its history (back to 1948). That is absolutely wild and awesome at the same time 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Calderon Posted October 29, 2020 So far 2 fatalities. 1 in New Orleans due to a downed powerline and 1 in Biloxi due to probable drowning on the waterfront. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dan11295 Posted October 29, 2020 1.5M Customers without power now from Louisiana to Georgia. EDIT: now 1.8M outages rising rapidly in N Georgia, although cant find any ASOS gusts over 45-50 last hour in GA. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NavarreDon Posted October 29, 2020 This may be one of the strangest disco's I've ever seen (MOB).....2020 I guess. .NEAR TERM UPDATE /Now Through Friday/...Hurricane Zeta was moving rapidly northeast at ~30 mph over the interior of southeast MS/southwest AL. Along the path, Zeta has been responsible for downing widespread trees which have taken out power lines and have contributed to structural damage. Life threatening/dangerous storm surge will continue over the coast. Zeta will continue to accelerate northeast through the night and is progged to lift out of the forecast area shortly after midnight. As the center of Zeta lifts out and weakens, strong winds will begin to taper as well as the tornado threat. Rain bands will also gradually move from west to east. A vigorous southern stream mid-level trof ejects eastward over the Lower MS River Valley Thursday and makes steady eastward progress over the southeast US Thursday night. This feature supports the passage of a strong cold front Thursday, which brings drier and cooler air to the local area in its wake. Coolest highs will be over the western zones with numbers in the mid 60s. Mid 70s along I-65 and 77 to 82 east of I-65 southward to the FL Panhandle. Overnight lows dip down into the mid to upper 40s north of the coast Thursday night. 1 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dan11295 Posted October 29, 2020 Appears most of New Orleans metro avoid the strongest winds thankfully with strongest winds east of the center. Am guessing you may see more damage from parts of MS Gulf coast than N.O. proper. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites