Starlink 6-13 - L-1 Day

Major Hurricane Idalia made landfall earlier this morning in the Big Bend region along Florida’s Gulf coast. It will continue to move quickly off to the northeast into South Georgia and the coastal Carolinas over the next 24 hours. The Spaceport will continue to see squally weather through the remainder of today, with conditions gradually improving into this evening. Conditions will ease overnight as Idalia pulls away, dragging a trailing trough behind it into the Central Peninsula into Thursday. This feature will provide the focus for activity going into the day on Thursday, especially as Idalia merges with a frontal boundary across the southeastern US and shoves it into the vicinity of the Spaceport late in the day. Though showers and storms will be possible at any point, more daytime heating will bring a maximum of activity in the late afternoon, with west-southwest flow focusing any ongoing activity towards the coast into the evening hours. Where exactly the boundary sets up along with any other trailing bands behind the storm will determine exactly how long showers and storms may be ongoing late Thursday evening and into the primary launch window. A decrease in activity is expected, but the possibility of a combination of showers/debris clouds/anvil lingering through much of the window can’t be ruled out. Idalia is expected to curve off the Carolina coast very slowly on Friday, with disagreement on how quickly this maneuver can pull the front through and bring drier air. For now, the forecast calls for the trailing front to linger, with another round of afternoon and evening storms into the backup window Friday afternoon and evening. However, with drier air on the doorstep and less upper level support, it is expected that activity will wane much more quickly than on Thursday.