Delta weakens to tropical depression, moves into Mississippi

Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Delta weakened to a tropical depression as it pushed into Mississippi on Saturday, forecasters said.

In its 10 a.m. CDT update, the National Hurricane Center said the hurricane had 35 mph maximum sustained winds. The eye was located 65 miles north-northwest of Jackson, Miss., and was moving northeast at 16 mph.

The eye of the storm was close to Mississippi's border with Louisiana and Arkansas.

"On the forecast track, the center of Delta should move across western and northern Mississippi today and into the Tennessee Valley tonight and Sunday," the NHC said in its advisory.

It's expected to remain a depression through Monday morning, when it'll be situated over Ohio.

Delta had previously been projected to make landfall somewhere between far eastern Texas and western Mississippi, a region that has been threatened twice this year by hurricanes -- Laura and Sally, both in September.

The track narrowed late Thursday and early Friday as Delta neared the U.S. Gulf Coast. The storm made landfall in Creole, La., around 6 p.m. Friday.

Delta exploded into a Category 4 hurricane on Monday before gradually weakening. On Tuesday, its intensification was the most extreme in 15 years for an October hurricane.

Delta also set a speed record for strengthening from a depression to a Category 4 hurricane, just over 36 hours, surpassing Keith from 2000 -- and strengthened into the second-most intense hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season on Tuesday. The only storm to become stronger this season was Hurricane Laura, which packed peak winds of 150 mph.