Marine Thunderstorm Wind — Lake Ponchartrain and Lake Maurepas, Gulf of Mexico

2024-08-17 · near Mid Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Ponchartrain and Lake Maurepas, Gulf of Mexico

Event narrative

The Weatherflow mesonet on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway XPTN measured a thunderstorm wind gust of 45 mph or 39 knots.

Wider weather episode

A fairly typical summertime upper level pattern was in place with strong high pressure centered well west of the local area. That put southern Louisiana on the eastern periphery of this ridge in a region of northwestern upper level flow. That setup is often conducive for strong to severe thunderstorm development and what took place on August 17th. Using WPC surface/satellite composite analysis, you can backtrack the convection from an MCS that developed in southeastern Wyoming on the early morning hours of August 16th. In short, it tracked across Nebraska and Kansas on the 16th, through Missouri to Mississippi on the 17th. Daytime heating on the 17th reinvigorated the residual MCS boundary as it moved into the coastal waters.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.1500, -90.1300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1213319. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.