S L O W Moving Isaac AKA Water Torture With HOURS of WIND & RAIN

 Damage from Isaac's slow prolonged assault on the New Orleans and the Upper Gulf Coast.



More great visuals and discussion on Mike's Weather Page of SpaghettiModels.com fame..

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikes-Weather-Page/88134562366

Mike is also streaming TWC and other storm chaser links in real time... LIVE so check them out. The wonder of Mike's site is that it is visual, lots of tiles and you click on what you want to see. Many sites you have to scan through a lot of information, figure out which link to click on to get the info you want or read a long discussion on how to use their site.

Mike's site you just go to... click on what you want and you get the info and it is loaded with info..LOADED and he keeps adding things and making it better.

More of Mike's page at www.spaghettimodels.com

And, if you like Stephanie Abrams... she loves the site too:

http://www.spaghettimodels.com/images/stacyabrams1.jpg

Now, back to the problems with Isaac.

The main problem is his slow forward speed. It wouldn't make a difference much if he was 10 mph less or 10 mph stronger. It's the speed of an extremely moist, large tropical system that has been acquiring moisture since he left the coast of Africa. Only a wave that made it past the Saharan Dust barrier that has been set up all season (and killed most waves) could do the damage that Isaac is doing. And, again... it's those fighter, survivor waves that make it past the bad times that create the worst scenarios for destruction. Camille, Andrew, Betsy... all waves that barely pulled it together until they did...and then they never looked back. NOTE.... many hit Louisiana and the reason is simple... rather than curving out to sea as they cruise north at 75W barely sometimes clipping Nags Head on the Outer Banks... they move west, west, west and west as weak waves and by the time they pull it together they are in striking range of Florida and points west.... usually Louisiana.

Okay... back to properly punctuated sentences. That paragraph ramble above is akin to the late night letters my kids get from me, now you know what they have to deal with ... Mommy's letters.

I'd smile, but not much to smile about this morning as the realization dawns on most of America that Isaac will be sitting here for the next 12 hours. In fact, Isaac may sit around these parts for the next day or two and that slow forward motion will be the killer here...not the strength of Isaac.

Everyone needs to remember that Mitch did the damage he did in Central America not because he was a Cat 5 or a Cat 4 or even a Cat 3, but because he just hunkered down and rained for five days. The majority of the weather was after he was downgraded to a strong Tropical Storm well inland, training rainstorms over the same area for days. The earth gave way and then  mud slides washed away whole towns, villages and the lives of over 9,000 people. In fact, according to the official report from NOAA we will never know the actual total of how many people died. That was not because Mitch was a Major Hurricane, it was a BIG, HUGE storm and it just sat as a tropical storm raining itself out over Central America... before it picked up, reformed and moved north again.

Incredible, intense reading when you have time. Bookmark this link and PLEASE read it and let it soak in, the way rain soaks in and let it wash over you to understand and comprehend the immensity of Hurricane Mitch.



http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/mitch/mitch.html

AGAIN... NOTE.... this picture is BEFORE he moved inland the death toll and destruction was not from a Category 5 storm, but a slow moving TROPICAL STORM. Something important to remember far upstream from Isaac in cities and towns in it's path.

Note the SIZE and how similar... minus the well developed eye it is in SIZE to Isaac yesterday when areas in Carolina far from the center of the storm were getting severe weather and flooding.



This is an image of Isaac days ago when he was hauling, shlepping tropical moisture with him across the Atlantic:

at landfall:

Now look at him:

Note he has not moved much in 12 hours.

The point I am trying make here from a historical perspective is that... it is not the strength of some storms that get you... it's the FORWARD SPEED or lack of forward speed in this case.

And, the reason for that is in the crystal ball of the Water Vapor Loop:

See the high pressure going eastward almost horizontally now leaving Isaac spinning in the Gulf. He is capped from moving north or in any one direction which is why he is mostly just sitting there, barely moving though he is forecast to move faster than he actually is... At some point he will move, but you don't have to have a degree in meteorology to see that there isn't anything coming to grab him any time soon. Also, to see the reason this disaster is playing out on your TV live in real time...

S L O W L Y playing out....

Another example of this is how sea shells are eroded over time, slowly.

I picked these up at the Outer Banks at Kill Devil Hills yesterday... they are as smooth as polished ivory. They are pieces of shells, eroded from the nonstop, daily pounding of the strong waves always slamming into the Outer Banks beaches.

Isaac is currently doing the old water torture trick that storms do... 

hour after hour of a slow moving storm

creates miles and miles of misery

over a half a million people are currently without power

Jesse Shaffer is sitting on a roof in Plaquemines Parish

after rescuing a mother and her baby 

waiting to be rescued... 

Isaac NOW

barely moving

Isaac torturing the people along the Gulf coast... the damage reports will shock everyone and the dollar figure in the end could be more than Katrina even...

I'll be back all day with faster reports... this was a point I wanted to make while watching loops loop and being mesmerized by the coverage on TWC while I write this post.

Besos Bobbi
http://lacoast.gov/new/About/Basin_data/mr/Default.aspx