In addition to catastrophic storm surge, damaging winds, and heavy rain, Laura will also likely produce several tornadoes and waterspouts.
“Hurricanes and tropical storms that …
In addition to catastrophic storm surge, damaging winds, and heavy rain, Laura will also likely produce several tornadoes and waterspouts. “Hurricanes and tropical storms that make landfall in the Gulf of Mexico are more likely to produce tornadoes compared to storms in the Atlantic,” explains Brandon Miller, CNN meteorologist. However, not all coastlines on the Gulf of Mexico are equally threatened. “Note that this is less true for Texas landfalls in the Gulf—since the coastline angles more south to north like the Atlantic East Coast, rather than east to west like in the northern Gulf of Mexico coastline of LA/MS/AL/FL Panhandle,” Miller clarified. In other words, a tropical system that landfalls in Louisiana, which looks likely for Laura, could produce a few more tornadoes than a landfall in say, Galveston, Texas. Take Hurricane Katrina for instance, when the storm first made landfall in Florida on August 25, 2005, there was only one tornado report—in the Florida Keys.
