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Tracking Hurricane Marco and Tropical Storm Laura
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tropical Storm Laura and Hurricane Marco are both heading towards the Gulf of Mexico. They could both impact the Lousiana coats and New Orleans but not at the same time. Marco is about 48 hours ahead of Laura. The real questions arise is how strong will Marco be and will it affect the environment ahead of Laura?
The concern is the water temperatures ahead of each are very warm close to 90°. The only factor they may have to deal with is some wind shear, which can cause a storm to not get stronger.
With 2 storms so close to one another the forecast becomes much muddier. The real concern is somewhere on the Gulf coast could see back to back hurricanes or tropical storms and that could be devastating with storms surge and flooding from heavy rains.
What happens when tropical systems get close to one another?
This is rare but when it does happen it usually means weaker systems. The interaction of the 2 can do something unique called the Fujiwhara effect. Which doesn’t merge the storms or make them stronger but causes them to rotate around a central point. Here is a quick explainer of how that works.
Be sure to stay tuned to the forecast!