Camille: 5 p.m. CDT August 16, 1969

THIS IS HISTORICAL INFORMATION…PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR CURRENT TROPICAL INFORMATION.

By this time, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center knew that they had an incredible hurricane on their hands. It was the second most powerful storm of record behind the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, and not by much.

They referred to the “phenomenal deepening.” They did say in their discussion that their belief was that the intensity could hardly be maintained. The official forecast called for 150 mph at landfall.

An approaching shortwave over the Central U.S. was still the wildcard. It was expected to pull the hurricane northeast toward the Florida Panhandle. But the barotropic model output showed a northwestward motion for 36 hours. The forecaster warned that if the storm stalled for 6-8 hours, it would miss the trough and a more westward course would occur.

Here was the text of the tropical cyclone discussion:

The public advisory highlighted the increase in intensity, but was very non specific about the track. It would be a sleepless night for many along the Gulf Coast.

Meanwhile in New Orleans, famed hurricane forecaster Nash Roberts was warning his clients in Southeast Louisiana that the northward turn was not looking likely, and urged them to take action Saturday night. Roberts, an icon in Louisiana. All through the night, Roberts would be stressing the more westward turn, while the Hurricane Center continued to publicly call for a landfall in Northwest Florida.

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