PORT FOURCHON, La. — It's not the history we want to see. Hurricane Ida made landfall Sunday at 12:55 p.m. near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, with winds of 150 mph. That makes Ida one of only three hurricanes with wind that strong at landfall in Louisiana... joining Laura (2020) and the Last Island Hurricane (1856).
Ida and Laura make Louisiana the only state in the U.S. to have 150+ mph hurricanes in back-to-back years. Any way you slice it, Ida is a historic storm and its catastrophic impact is just getting started. The northeast quadrant, which has the strongest wind, lashed Grand Isle and Golden Meadow... and won't be too far from downtown New Orleans.
In addition, storm surge flooding and flooding from very heavy rainfall will also be catastrophic in some locations. Tornadoes will be likely in thunderstorms bands on the eastern side of the storms' center. Sadly, there will be some areas that may go weeks without power due to extensive outages.
Ida will continue to be a threat for flash flooding in the days to come. At this time it appears central Indiana will miss the main rainfall swath from Ida... as its center eventually turns more east-northeast and alludes the majority of the viewing area.
With that said, we expect scattered to numerous downpours and thunderstorms Monday and Tuesday as tropical moisture interacts with an approaching cool front. This front is what will help steer Ida and also deliver a refreshing air mass for mid to late week. We'll have a string of mainly sunny days, a comfortable Muggy Meter, and highs in the 70s to near 80° until highs warm back into the 80s Labor Day weekend.