Residents along the Gulf Coast were monitoring the progress of Hurricane Audrey on the morning of June 26, 1957. A hurricane watch had been issued on the noon advisory the previous day along the Louisiana and Texas coasts. By the morning of the 26th, forecasters knew that the hurricane was growing in size as it moved slowly northward. On the early morning advisory, the center was estimated to be about 460 miles southwest of New Orleans, moving north at 7 mph. A slow turn to the north northeast was forecast for later in the day. Top winds were 100 mph.

At 10 a.m. CST, hurricane warning flags were hoisted along the entire Louisiana coast. By that time, the center of the hurricane was some 400 southwest of New Orleans, still with top winds of 100 mph. Expected to continue moving a little east of north at 7-10 mph, the advisory indicted that the center would reach the Louisiana coast by late on Thursday. That forecast would prove to have dire consequences. The advisory called for gale force winds to begin along the coast that night with tides reaching “5 to 8 feet along the Louisiana coast and over the Mississippi Sound by late Thursday. All persons in low exposed places should move to higher ground.”

The haunting message, repeated again in the 10 p.m. advisory, said “All persons in low exposed places should move to higher ground.” In Cameron, Louisiana, a tiny hamlet separated by only a few miles of marsh from the Gulf of Mexico, residents listened to the content of this advisory on TV and radio stations from Lake Charles, about 25 miles north of the low lying community. The broadcasts were primarily intended for Lake Charles residents, and said that “there was no need for alarm tonight,: and “you can rest well tonight.”

Unfortunately, Audrey was intensifying rapidly and was picking up speed as she churned northward through the Gulf, making a beeline for Cameron Parish, and the town of Cameron, Louisiana.

Scattered showers and a couple of thunderstorms have developed across Central and Northeast Alabama this evening. At 6:00 p.m., the showers and storms were scattered across an area bonded by Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Clanton and Eutaw. The heaviest activity was located from near Jemison in Chilton County to Wilton in southern Shelby County. The storms are moving WSW at 25 mph. They will be accompanied by brief heavy rains, gusty winds and dangerous lightning.

Other showers and a couple of storms are over Northeast Alabama across parts of Jackson and DeKalb Counties. This activity is also moving to the west southwest.

An area of rain, associated with an upper level disturbance over Georgia, will be moving into East Central Alabama around 7:30 p.m. This activity has been decreasing slowly in intensity and coverage and should continue to weaken as it moves further west into the state.

Additional showers will be possible during the overnight hours. Showers and storms should be more widespread in coverage on Sunday, due to the proximity of the disturbance and the warm, humid nature of the airmass over the state.

Back from central Florida this morning and trying to catch up on weather. I will resume the map discussion video updates Monday morning; there will not any map discussion videos today or tomorrow with Brian Peters up in Boston.

Looks like we have a tropical or sub-tropical system in the Atlantic; quite frankly it looks more like a mid-latitude system:

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/NWATL/VIS/20.jpg

We will find out more thanks to a hurricane hunter flight scheduled for this afternoon.

Here is the model output for the system:

http://www.sfwmd.gov/org/omd/ops/weather/plots/storm_94.gif

Interesting how the GFDL curves the thing into Georgia; but it is an outlier.

Really haven't had enough map study time this morning; Bill Murray will stay on forecast duty through the weekend and he will have more on his afternoon package over on the seven day discussion page....

Here is the morning advisory from the U.S. Weather Bureau back on this date in 1957 as tropical depression number one was over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The depression would intensify rapidly into Hurricane Audrey, which smashed into the Southwest Louisiana coast during the early morning hours of June 27, 1957. It is interesting to note that there was no single center issuing hurricane forecasts in 1957. In 1935, the hurricane warning service was revamped and hurricane forecast centers were established at Jacksonville, New Orleans, Boston and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

BULLETIN 4 AM CST JUNE 25 1957

THE TROPICAL DEPRESSION IN THE SOUTHWEST GULF OF MEXICO HAS REMAINED NEARLY STATIONARY DURING THE NIGHT. IT WAS ABOUT 350 MILES SOUTHEAST OF BROWNSVILLE TEXAS AT 4 AM CST. THERE ARE SOME INDICATIONS THAT IT IS BEGINNING TO INTENSIFY AND A SLOW NORTHWARD MOVEMENT IS EXPECTED LATER TODAY. HIGHEST WINDS ARE ESTIMATED AROUND 40 MPH IN SQUALLS NEAR THE CENTER.
SMALL CRAFT ALONG THE LOWER TEXAS COAST SHOULD NOT VENTURE INTO THE OPEN GULF.

THE NEXT RELEASE WILL BE AT 10 AM CST UNLESS DEVELOPMENTS WARRANT AN EARLIER RELEASE.
KRAFT WEATHER BUREAU NEW ORLEANS