MyFoxHurricane.com blog

Extratropical Ida still causing heavy rain

Posted by Andy Johnson under Daily updates

Ida made landfall at 6:40 AM EST on Dauphin Island, AL and then moved across Mobile Bay to a second  landfall near Mobile as a tropical storm. She then underwent extratropical transformation and continues as a non-tropical low this evening. At 4:00 PM EST, November 10,  the remains of Ida was centered near 30.7 N, 86.8W or 145 west of Tallahassee, FL. As she moved ashore the maximum sustained winds were at tropical storm force (40 MPH) on Dauphin Island where they had gusts to 50 MPH.  All the other coastal recording gauges had sustained winds below tropical storm force.

The main problem now will be the heavy rains associated with the remains of Ida. As of 4PM EST, November 10 in Alabama, Foley had 6.61″, Summerdale 6.13″, Orange Beach 5.04″ and Mobile 4.49″ of rain. In Florida, Port St. Joe measured 6.32″, Pensacola 4.40″ and Crestview 4.44″ of rain.

Ida will continue to weaken in the near term but could regain strength as a gale center in the Atlantic east of the Carolinas by Thursday. The image below shows the position of the remains of Ida, the low near South Carolina and Invest 98L further out in the Atlantic.

Drier air shown in red in the water vapor image below was entrained into the circulation of Ida beginning last night and was partly responsible for her transition to an extratropical low. Notice the comma shaped cloud area with the extratropical system compared with the more circular appearance yesterday.

 As we say goodbye to Ida another non-tropical low is gaining strength in the central Atlantic.  It does not appear that invest 98L will be able to acquire tropical characteristics before eventually being absorbed by the remains of Ida. The image below shows the model forecast output.

Wind shear will be fairly low once the remains of Ida gets into the Atlantic and it will be relatively low over Invest 98L.