Category 2 Hurricane “Delta” makes landfall in Louisiana, U.S.
Featured image: Hurricane "Delta" making landfall in Louisiana at 23:00 UTC on October 9, 2020. Credit: NOAA/GOES-16, RAMMB/CIRA
Hurricane "Delta" made landfall near Creole, Louisiana at 23:00 UTC on October 9, 2020, with maximum sustained winds of 155 km/h (100 mph), making it a Category 2 hurricane.
The storm had a minimum central pressure of 970 hPa at the time of landfall and was moving NNE at 22 km/h (14 mph).
This is the second hurricane to hit the same region of Louisiana in 43 days, after Laura on August 27. Delta landed just 22 km (14 miles) east of Cameron, where Laura made landfall.
Two devastating hurricanes, just 43 days apart.
A brutal & heartbreaking time in Louisiana. pic.twitter.com/3ifMs76AYE
— Dakota Smith (@weatherdak) October 9, 2020
While storm surge inundated coastal areas, powerful winds downed trees and powerlines, leaving more than 641 000 customers in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi are without power, as of 06:30 UTC on October 10.
At least 5 Louisiana Parishes issued mandatory evacuation ahead of landfall, including Calcasieu and Cameron.
As of 03:00 UTC on October 10, Delta was moving toward the NNE near 15 mph (24 km/h), and this motion is expected to continue through Saturday morning, followed by NE motion through Sunday night.
On the forecast track, the center of Delta should move across central and northeastern Louisiana tonight and Saturday morning. After that time, the system is forecast to move across northern Mississippi and into the Tennessee Valley.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 55 km (35 miles) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 260 km (160 miles).
Hurricane "Delta" making landfall in Louisiana at 23:00 UTC on October 9, 2020. Credit: NOAA/GOES-16, RAMMB/CIRA
Delta weakened into a tropical storm at 06:00 UTC. At the time, its center was located about 25 km (15 miles) ESE of Alexandria, Louisiana.
Delta is the first Category 2+ hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana in October since Category 2 Hurricane "Hilda" in 1964.
It is the 10th named storm to make landfall in the continental U.S. (CONUS) this year – the most in a single Atlantic hurricane season on record. Prior to 2020, the most named storms to make landfall in the continental U.S. was 9 — set in 1916, Dr. Philip Klotzbach noted.
The 9 previous landfalling storms in 2020 are Bertha, Cristobal, Fay, Hanna, Isaias, Laura, Marco, Sally, Beta.
Delta is the 5th hurricane to make landfall in CONUS this year, along with Hanna, Isaias, Laura, and Sally.
This is the most CONUS hurricane landfalls in a single Atlantic hurricane season since 2005.
Delta is also the 2nd hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana this season, after Laura. 2020 is now is the first year with multiple hurricane landfalls in Louisiana since 2005. Cindy, Katrina and Rita made landfall that year.
Louisiana has now had four named storm landfalls in 2020 (Cristobal, Laura, Marco and Delta), tying 2020 with 2002 for the most Louisiana named storm landfalls in a single season on record. In 2002, Bertha, Hanna, Isidore and Lili made landfall in Louisiana, Klotzbach noted.
Map showing the landfall location for all 10 continental US landfalling named storms of 2020 to date. #Delta and #Laura made landfall extremely close to each other. pic.twitter.com/XdTFbl8G5Q
— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) October 9, 2020
#Delta has made landfall in Louisiana. This marks a record 10th named storm landfall on the U.S. mainland, and the fifth hurricane (second-most). Prior to Delta's landfall, 2020 U.S. tropical cyclones had caused at least $26B in direct economic loss or damage (subject to change). pic.twitter.com/cQGTRfCaTg
— Steve Bowen (@SteveBowenWx) October 9, 2020
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
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