Hurricane Delta Makes Landfall…and History

Hurricane Delta made landfall over the southwest Louisiana coast Friday evening putting it in the record books for a multitude of reasons.

At approximately 6:00 PM CDT on Friday, the then category 2 Hurricane Delta made landfall near Creole, Louisiana, about 30 miles south of Lake Charles, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 100 mph. However, torrential rainfall and tropical storm force winds had battered the area several hours prior to landfall. The storm has since been downgraded to a category 1 storm with maximum sustained wind speeds of 75 mph as of 10:00 PM CDT. It is forecast to weaken into a tropical storm around midnight Friday night. The storm is expected to bring as much as a foot of rainfall to parts of Louisiana and up to 11 or more feet of storm surge along the central and west-central Louisiana coast.

Delta made landfall just 43 days after Hurricane Laura closed in on Cameron, LA, just 12 miles west of Creole, on August 27^th as a category 4 hurricane claiming 77 lives and inflicting over $14.1 billion in damage. Hurricane Delta is the first hurricane named for a Greek letter to ever make landfall. It is also the strongest hurricane ever named after a Greek letter. In addition, Delta is the 10^th tropical storm or hurricane to make landfall in the continental U.S. this season surpassing the previous record of 9 set back in 1916. The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season has now seen 25 named storms. This is second only to 2005 which saw 27 named storms. However, 2005 did not see its 25^th named storm until November 22^nd, 55 days later than when Delta was given its name on October 5^th. The 2020 and 2005 Atlantic hurricane seasons are the only two to ever utilize Greek letters for naming storms. Should Delta’s name need retiring, it will be known as “Delta 2020” leaving the name Delta open for use in the future.