Nothing in nature is more fascianting and beautiful from space than watching hurricane activity. Helene is not an exception.
The previous page is a good guide, that Helene is nothing to mess with. A Cat 4 storm with 20 foot storm surge is a rare occurence hitting the U.S. We are getting the double wham, when you get this kind of configuration. As I said yesterday, there really isn't much to impede strengthening. The only tiny tid bit of good news, is that in the latest Sat vis run, I see some dry air trying to envelop the eastern side of the storm. This might be a short term event, but could still lessen the upward trojection.
I also see a few other unique or extraordinary traits with the storm right now.
1. Amazing defintion and demarcation of the trough/front that stretches from near NOLA to the Central Bay of Campeche. I have ony see this level of difference maybe once or twice. So how does that impact? Well... As Helene moves inland, that trough area (assuming to slowly move east) will interact with the storm, and create flooding. Right now, they are throwing numbers like 20 inches at the lower Appalachia/Smoky area. If we see additonal lift from that dry air.... watch for even larger numbers. The terrain with that kind of precipitation might make this a historic deadly flooding event. And this is 300-400 miles inland.
2. From CONUS met profile with this storm has created a unique bottling up of atm. moisture along the entire eastern 1/4 of the country. The uplift, from the trough has created what almost looks like feeder clouds all the way up and down the east coast. That's pretty rare too.
One other point is that the last hour of sat run, shows what might be an eye wall replacement or a decent wobble to the east. It's quite enough of a wobble that could impact the path. In a few hours, we'll see if the NHC adjusts it.
