Humberto Has a Late Night Surprise

When I last checked Humberto was a 50 mph tropical storm that looked to drop a lot of rain in Texas and Louisiana, but overnight the storm wound up and became the first landfalling hurricane to hit the U.S. this season:

Hurricane Humberto claimed the life of an Orange County man as the storm blasted East Texas with winds up to to 85 miles an hour this morning, police said.

A man died when the carport at his northwest Bridge City home fell on him, Police Chief Steve Faircloth reported.

Faircloth declined to identify the man until his relatives are notified.

Authorities advised people to stay home as the storm, which maintained hurricane-force winds of more than 80 mph five hours after coming ashore, moved into southwest Louisiana after sunrise. Most area schools were closed as power company Entergy reported more than 110,000 customers without power.

Humberto made landfall in Southeast Texas at about 2 a.m. this morning.

By 7:00 a.m. the storm's center was already over southwest Louisiana but it still was packing hurricane-force winds .up to 80 mph, the National Weather Service reported. It was moving northeast at about 12 mph.

The storm went from being a tropical depression to a tropical storm to hurricane strength in a matter of hours Wednesday.

I've got a little experience with hurricanes that make big unexpected changes overnight.

In this season which was forecast to be a killer there have been two Cat 5 storms, but both of those preferred Mexico to the U.S., and so far the only storme to hit the mainland U.S. are three weak tropical storms and one category 1 hurricane. That could still all change as another system seems to be developing in the Atlantic, but so far the season hasn't shown the promise the global warming enthusiasts were hoping for.