With just a few weeks left in the Hurricane season, Ida continues to bear down on Nicaragua today, uprooting trees, causing power outages and forcing evacuations.
Officials downgraded Ida back to Tropical Storm status, as the landmass of Central America has caused a slight weakening in the tropical system.
The storm was at hurricane strength when it hit Nicaragua's Atlantic coast around sunrise, destroying several dozen homes and forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 people.
Could Ida end up becoming a threat to New Orleans this late in the season?
We checked with Dennis Filtgen, a storm tracker at the National Hurricane Center
"It's all a matter of timing, and it's far to early to know the exact weather patterns that will be shaping early next week, if Ida makes it into the southeastern Gulf," Filtgen said.
Listen to WWL's David Blake's interview with Filtgen:
Louisiana has never had a landfall in November but that doesn't mean there hasn't been activity, Filtgen says
"We have on record more than 60 named storms forming in the month of November and many of those were Hurricanes," according to Filtgen.
Filtgen says Ida is likely to be reduced to just a tropical depression after it passes over Central America, but he says the gulf waters are plenty warm enough for the storm to regain hurricane status.
He adds that the cold fronts we've been having do offer some protection, but it will be next week before we have a much better picture on what Ida is going to do.
Ida is clocking winds of 65 mph winds. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say it was centered about 75 miles north of Bluefields, Nicaragua, and had
moved little since making landfall.
No deaths or injuries have been reported because of the storm, which has forced the evacuation of more than 3,000 people.
For the very latest on ida, click the following link to go to the WWL Hurricane Central page:
www.wwlhurricanecentral.com/
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