Gustav - 12 hours to landfall

Gustav is finally behaving like a major hurricane just in the last few hours. Very intense convection has now wrapped around the eye (which has been obscured by clouds all day) and Gustav is starting to look a bit like it did just before the Cuba landfalls when it almost attained category 5 strength. While I'm still forecasting a Category 3 landfall between Morgan City and Houma, Gustav might have a bit more intensification left before landfall in about 12-15 hours - and a Category 4 at landfall is still very, very possible.

It seems like this storm has gone out of its way throughout its life to be as difficult as possible. Good luck and godspeed to all those hunkering down in Louisiana tonight.


Gustav at sunset Sunday night