Hurricane Nate makes landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi

By Scott Bachmeier • 7 October 2017

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm. left) and Infrared Window (10.3 µm, right) images, with hourly surface reports plotted in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute interval Mesoscale Sector GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above) showed the large central dense overcast (which exhibited cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures of -80ºC and colder, violet colors, and at times -90ºC and colder, yellow enhancement) and subsequent smaller convective bursts associated with Hurricane Nate on 07 October 2017.

After having moved north-northwestward at speeds up to 24 mph — quite possibly the fastest-moving tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico — Nate made its initial landfall (as a Category 1 storm) in Louisiana near the mouth of the Mississippi River at 00 UTC on 08 October 2017 [note: Nate’s second landfall was around 0530 UTC near Biloxi, Mississippi]. A few reports of damaging winds and tornadoes were noted ahead of and during Nate’s landfall; a listing of other wind gusts can be seen here.

Earlier in the day, DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) imagery was hinting at the development of a closed eye structure beneath the central dense overcast seen on GOES-13 Infrared Window (10.7 µm) imagery (below).

GOES-13 Infrared Window (10.7 µm) and DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) images around 1215 UTC [click to enlarge]

Sea Surface Temperature and Ocean Heat Content analyses from 06 October, with an overlay of the 07 October path of Hurricane Nate ending at 12 UTC [click to enlarge]

Categories: DMSP, GOES-13, GOES-16, Tropical cyclones