NEW ORLEANS – Chief Meteorologist Hank Allen caught up with the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore to talk about the 50 year anniversary of Hurricane Camille and the near miss of Hurricane Barry.
Cantore was in Gulfport, Mississippi, to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of Camille, one of only four recorded Category 5 hurricanes to ever strike the United States.
One of those Category 5 storms, Hurricane Michael, made landfall just last year, and Cantore said that should be a real wakeup call for everyone living along the Gulf Coast, especially this time of year.
“Once August to September rolls around, you get the waves coming off of Africa that are much more robust, the main development in the Atlantic is much more unstable, so these thunderstorms can contain themselves and sometimes become tropical entities,” Cantore said. “And it’s almost like somebody flips a switch. One day, we look on the website – nothing to worry about for the next five days. The next day – here’s three waves.”
And while he said he enjoyed his time in New Orleans during Barry, especially since the city was largely spared the storm’s impact, Cantore said he will wait until the end of Hurricane Season to come back for a visit.
“I’ll wait until December,” he said.