Skip to footer

Tropical storm Karen: Weather bloggers say 'humdrum' not hurricane

Tropical storm Karen: Wind shear and dry air have taken the punch out of Tropical Storm Karen, which now carries no risk of turning into a hurricane. But it will dump lots of rain on the Southeast before breaking up.

|
John Fitzhugh/Sun Herald/AP
Justin Bosarge, left, and Greg Olin fill sandbags at the Harrison County Work Center in Gulfport, Miss., in preparation for Tropical Storm Karen. The storm is beginning to disperse as a significant threat as it moves northward through the Gulf toward the US mainland.

| Atlanta

UPDATE: 4 p.m Saturday.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Saturday afternoon that Karen has stalled. Winds had fallen to about 40 m.p.h, but the tropical storm is expected to move toward the northeast this evening, and speed up Sunday night and Monday. The center of the storm will move over southeaster Louisiana tonight and early Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center computer models. Karen is likely to pass near the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday.

With its barely discernible eye far off to the west of its main body, Tropical Storm Karen is beginning to disperse as a significant threat as it moves northward through the Gulf toward the US mainland.

Forecasters began downgrading Tropical Storm Karen’s potential on Friday night. Charlotte, N.C., meteorologist Brad Panovich summed it up in a Tweet: “#Karen is toast.”

“Here at Weather Nerd … we don’t stand on ceremony, so I am hereby treating this storm as basically ‘dead until proven alive,’” agreed weather blogger Brendan Loy on PJ Media, signing off on his coverage late Friday night.

Originally forecast to potentially come ashore as a weak hurricane, Karen has been decimated by a bank of dry air and strong wind shear that has taken most of the oomph out of it. With its rotation separated from its main wall of moisture, the storm now stands no chance of beefing back up, meaning it will become more a major rain event as it lumbers ashore near Mobile, Ala., and pushes northeast through Georgia and the Carolinas.

But forecasters reminded Americans living in Karen’s path to not let their guard down.

Limited chance of tornadoes and a more robust chance of flash flooding still exist in several key zones as the storm could drop in excess of 3 inches of rain in the course of a day. Tropical storm warnings remain in effect for Morgan City, La., all the way to the mouth of the Pearl River on the Mississippi line, and a tropical storm watch is in effect from downtown New Orleans to Indian Pass, Fla.

Moreover, state of emergencies remained in place in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency recalled workers furloughed by the partial government shutdown.

By many accounts, coastal residents continued to prepare for the worst. Officials in Plaquemines Parish, inundated last year by hurricane Isaac, ordered evacuations, as did frequently storm-struck Grand Isle.

For Americans watching Karen’s approach, forecasters said the strongest rains and winds will remain on the storm’s eastern shoulder, with weather to the West of the storm remaining fair. An onrushing cold front will mean Karen will “zoom away really quickly” from the coast, thus reducing flooding risks, National Weather Service meteorologist Shawn O’Neil told the Times Picayune in New Orleans.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Tropical storm Karen: Weather bloggers say 'humdrum' not hurricane
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/1005/Tropical-storm-Karen-Weather-bloggers-say-humdrum-not-hurricane
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe