Saturday's Gustav Update

Gustav is now considered a major hurricane because the winds have reached 120 miles per hour which puts his intensity at a category 3. Once over the open waters last night, Gustav gained all the strength he needed to get a burst of energy. The storm has also grown much larger in size since yesterday. It could possibly reach category 4 status once it moves into the warm waters of the gulf. Computer models are still showing a late Monday night/Tuesday morning landfall along south central Louisiana.

Notice the "spaghetti plots" stick close together through Cuba's landfall and gulf entry. Two models have an area of high pressure forming off the coast of Texas which would loop the storm back to the west. Most of the models have Gustav making a Lousiana landfall then continuing northwest. It is expected Gustav will slow just a bit before reaching land which could make the storm lose some intensity before it makes landfall. It is also expect that upon making landfall, the storm will slow over land which could be a heavy rain event for Louisiana and Mississippi.

Take a look at the expected winds on Tuesday with this graphic:

As you can tell, central Mississippi will receive winds in upwards of 50 miles per hour while south and southwest Mississippi could experience winds of 60-70 miles per hour. Again, this is assuming Gustav's track stays the same, and we all know hurricanes don't travel in a straight line.

Everyone has their own Katrina memory as we all experienced different things. It is my personal opinion that it will not get any worse than what we went through with Katrina and has the possibility of not getting as bad. However, the further south, southwest and west you live in the state of Mississippi, the greater the chances are that you will see the worst weather.