The center of the storm is 55 miles (85 kilometers) east of the mouth of the Mississippi as of 11 a.m. EDT, slowly moving
toward the northwest at near 2 mph (4 kph). The National Hurricane Center expects a turn Tuesday afternoon that will take it north toward the Mississippi-Alabama state line.
Maximum sustained winds are near 85 mph (140 kph) with higher gusts, making the storm a Vategory 1 Hurricane. Although little change in strength is forecast until landfall occurs, Sally is still expected to be a dangerous hurricane when it moves onshore along the north-central Gulf coast.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 miles (75 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 125 miles (205 km). Sally’s minimum central pressure is 983 mb (29.03 inches).
There have been a few changes with this advisory. The Hurricane Warning from the Mouth of the Pearl River to Bay St. Louis Mississippi has been changed to a Tropical Storm Warning. The Tropical Storm Warning for Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas, and metropolitan New Orleans has been discontinued.
Water is quickly rising in Orange Beach, AL from storm surge ahead of Hurricane #Sally.
: Zack Orrell pic.twitter.com/JacVpQq2uK— Jennifer Lambers ⛈ (@jnlamberswx) September 15, 2020
A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for the Mouth of the Mississippi River to the Okaloosa/Walton County Line in Florida and Mobile Bay. Storm surge is expected to be as high as 4 to 7 feet in some warning areas.
Sally is forecast to produce 10 to 20 inches of rainfall with isolated amounts of 30 inches along and just inland of the central Gulf Coast from the western Florida Panhandle to far southeastern Mississippi. Historic flooding is likely with extreme life-threatening flash flooding likely through Wednesday. In addition, this rainfall will lead to widespread moderate to major
flooding on area rivers.
Focus on this map. It will be the calling card of #Sally 6-10” of rain into southern Appalachia is a hell of a lot of rain. pic.twitter.com/6lu9H1ryPe
— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) September 15, 2020
Samantha Frederickson, who recently moved to Gulf Shores, Alabama, hit the beach early Tuesday to catch a view of the storm surf. “At the moment, we’re riding it out,” she said amid light rains and winds. “When it gets to the point we don’t feel comfortable, we’ll take off.
There are close to 11,000 homes at risk for storm surge in coastal cities in Alabama and Mississippi, according to estimates from property data and analytics firm CoreLogic. The governors of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana called for evacuations of low-lying areas and President Donald Trump made emergency declarations for all three states.
