“Hurricane” Nate (right), hurricane Matthew (left)
I first heard about Nate on Friday morning, as it was just a group of clouds near the Yucatan Peninsula. Forecasters had it hitting New Orleans as a category 3 storm on Saturday. I said to myself, there is no way that storm is going to make its way across the gulf and hit New Orleans in 24 hours. Sure enough, “Hurricane Nate sets record as fastest moving storm in Gulf of Mexico.”
The storm hit near New Orleans, but as more of a whimper than a hurricane. We had about an hour of dark clouds and rain, well before the storm hit, then it dissipated into nothing and the entire city had sunny, clear skies and pantries full of canned tuna and red beans.
Most people in New Orleans joke about the “fake” hurricane Nate. If you watch the animated Gif below (from http://weather.cod.edu) you will see very little rotation to the storm, and no discernible eye at all.
In fact, the above side-by-side comparison of a real, known hurricane shows you how different Nate looks from regular hurricanes, and we believe the entire thing was a huge deception.
