Over the weekend Hurricane Ida blew into the Gulf and grew to a category two hurricane in the warm mid 80 degree water of the loop current. The loop current is an ocean current that circulates counter clockwise in the Gulf of Mexico. It helps to transport warm water into a pool off the Yucatan peninsula. This is the same location where Hurricane Katrina and Rita became supersized into category five hurricanes. Once it drifted far enough North of this warm body of water the hurricane quickly started to loose much of its wind energy with winds droping off from 105mph to less than 70mph by Monday November 9th. Ida promises to be a real rain maker for the Eastern Gulf coast states. If Tropical Storm Ida slows down over the interior of Florida the rain will fall in buckets. Isolated rainfall totals could be three to six inches in some locations. As the hurricane season comes to an end, Ida proves that its never to late for a gulf coast storm.
