Tropical Storm Katia Nearing Hurricane Strength will eventually strike the U.S

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

Perilous Times and Climate Change

Tropical Storm Katia  Nearing Hurricane Strength will eventually strike the U.S


By IBTimes Staff Reporter | August 31, 2011 2:47 PM EDT

It's too early for forecasters at the National Hurricane Center to tell if Tropical Storm Katia will eventually strike the U.S., but that possibility certainly exists, they say. Katia holds the potential for making a path similar to Irene's track.


Currently, Tropical Storm Katia poses no threat to land. The storm, expected to reach hurricane strength today before perhaps escalating into a major storm category, is located in the middle of the Atlantic, about 1,600 miles east of the island of Grenada on the eastern edge of the Carribbean Sea, and 3,400 miles from Bermuda.

The latest models show Katia moving northwest toard the northern Bahamas, but the storm isn't likely to make landfall on Bermuda or any of the Carribbean's eastern islands by Labor Day.

Current forecasts anticipate Katia reaching Category 1 hurricane strength on Wednesday, and possibly Category 3 strength by Sunday.


As for a U.S. strike, the forecast is uncertain. Storms following Katia's path have impacted the U.S. East Coast before, National Hurricane Center forecasters say, meaning the U.S. must keep a close eye on the developing storm. Katia could push toward the U.S., or it could turn to the north and eventually to the east before expiring over colder Atlantic waters.

But at the moment in the U.S., the remnants of Hurricane Irene remain the big story, since the threat of Katia comes just days after Irene battered the Caribbean and the U.S. It's too early to tell if Katia will also hit the U.S.

Katia is the 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Irene became the first to reach hurricane strength, before ravaging a path up the East Coast last week.

New York took a took hit from Irene at tropical storm strength but America's largest city was mostly spared considering what some forecasters had suggested. Other areas are still reeling from Irene's devastating impact, days after the storm departed. In Vermont, emergency airlift operations brought ready-to-eat meals and water to residents isolated and in need of rations after Irene.

Hundreds of roads and bridges are wiped out or severely damaged in Vermont after eight inches and more of rainfall fell in a short period of time. Irene caused massive flooding that has crippled the state. More than 2.5 million people remained without power along the East Coast, and New Jersey ordered new evacuations as the Passaic River in the northeastern part of the state crested, causing extensive flooding.

Rescues were necessary in Paterson, N.J., the state's third-largest city.

Gov. Chris Christie toured Wayne on Tuesday, near the Passaic, calling what he saw "extraordinary despair."

Gloria Moses told The Associated Press, as she gathered with others at the edge of what used to be a network of streets now overflowed with water. "Been in Paterson all my life, I'm 62 years old, and I've never seen anything like this."

The Connecticut River was 23 feet above flood stage on Tuesday, and rising.

While in Vermont, virtually crippled from Irene, officials were providing basic necessities to residents who have no power, telephone service or ways to leave their home. Food and water has become the basic form of rescue since there are too many to evacuate.

Some 11 Vermont towns remained Tuesday totally cut off from the outside world due to flooded and damaged roads and bridges, including Cavendish, Granville, Hancock, Killington, Mendon, Marlboro, Pittsfield, Plymouth, Stockbridge, Strafford and Wardsboro.

Hurricane forecasters have been following Katia since Saturday when it emerged then-unnamed as a large area of showers and thunderstorms off the west coast of Africa. The storm became better organized on Sunday and Monday, when it became a tropical depression.

"The long-term fate of Katia is unknown," Masters, a hurricane expert, said in a post on his blog.

He said that uncertainty is prominent in the storm's forecast. Models don't suggest that Florida is in the picture, but anything could happen from among many possible scenarios.

Katia's storm name replaces Katrina in the rotating storm roster because of the catastrophic damage from the 2005 storm which ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast, causing catastrophic flooding in New Orleans and virtually destroying the Mississippi coastline.