Where is this 160 mph everyone is talking about?
Weather prediction isn't perfect. FWIW, if the storm doesn't live up to its billing, I'd see that as cause for celebration, not a reason to kvetch.
for sure. however, both things will happen - celebration, and kvetching. and I think that both are legitimate.
Mississippi is going to get the worst of it.
Perhaps when this is all over you should re-read the tale of the boy who cried wolf.
Right on, Mewzilla. I do not consider any of the efforts to predict what this storm might do as "hyping".
The reason is that while the weather people can pretty reliably predict the direction that a storm will move, and where it might hit, they do not have the ability to predict the intensity at all. The storms are just too unpredictable.
The key, from what I read is the eyewall replacement cycle, and this particular storm was looking like an "annular" hurricane, rather than a tropical hurricane, so whether the eyewall would replace was uncertain.
I am hoping and praying that it falls apart at the moment. But we will not know for a few hours yet, I fear.
If the hurricane doesn't destroy the city of New Orleans, and make the city permanently unihabitable, then some people are going to be disappointed. We will see the finger-pointing and accusations of hype, even though everyone could see a massive and well-organized system barreling into the LA coast just to start to fall apart right before landfall.
Whether this is due to water temps and depths along the coast, or interference of the ground on rotation, or whatever, maybe it is part of the reason that there has not been a Big One hit the Big Easy in a long long time.
For those who are disappointed that they don't get to see mass destruction (the city of New Orleans could still flood), just remember that this storm could have killed hundreds maybe even thousands of fellow Americans, caused tens of billions in damage, and destroyed irreplaceable historical buildings and artifacts.
And with this in mind, we should rejoice in the fact that the worst of this might still be avoided.
When I went to bed last night, it looked worst-case, now it looks somewhat better. Prayers from Georgia that it continues to fall apart over land, and continues to move forward faster.