Tracking Hurricane Francine: Storm continues edging toward Louisiana coast

We are definitely seeing those conditions and once again, uh across uh the area hurricane Francine advisory at one pm, 90 mile an hour winds, lots of heavy rain currently falling all across Louisiana. Even New Orleans dealing with some torrential rain as the storm really is not that much closer as we head into the next few hours. Still a category one hurricane as we look at the latest. So right now, that's I currently 100 and 73 miles away from Galveston, kind of gives you an indication of how close this storm is even though it's not heading towards Houston or Galveston. So as we look at closer, look of even portions of I 10, even New Orleans dealing with heavy rain at the current moment, and they're also gonna start seeing those winds pick up too as we head into the next few hours. One thing to note is that there is an upper level disturbance, a trough that's currently over Texas. You have a lot of dry air that's currently over Texas as we head into the next few hours, that dry air is coming into contact with Francine and it's gonna keep it as a category one strength as it makes its way closer towards land. Of course, when it makes that landfall, it's gonna lose that fuel going in the coming days. But looking at the winds right now, you're able to see the buoys that are currently over the Gulf of Mexico seeing 60 mile an hour winds. That ship show 241 even 62 mile an hour winds just on the southwest side of that eye as it makes its way closer towards the Louisiana coast. So as we look at the latest track of this, we are expecting a landfall later on this afternoon by 7 p.m. as a category one hurricane. And it's gonna continue its track up north crossing I 10 New Orleans likely to get some impact from this storm as we go into the coming hours. So definitely expecting this to continue its track towards the Louisiana coast, uh going into the next few hours. So looking at the future track, as you see the center of that circulation, it's about to make landfall expected around 56. The clock is when we're gonna see that uh landfall and then closer. As we get. Looking at the future check wind gusts, we could very well see those 100 mile an hour winds up along the coastal areas and in turn as the storm approaches and moves closer, we're gonna see that storm surge effect for the Louisiana coast. So expect between 3 to 5 ft of water inundation across our coastal, the coastal areas, even 5 to 10 areas where you see the uh just a south of New Orleans. So folks off to the east of us definitely in for Francine, as we go into the coming hours, we are seeing little impacts with this here across southeast Texas. Uh Most of the tropical storm warnings are well to the south east of us and we're gonna see just a little bit of rough waters especially out in Galveston. So if you are along our coastal areas, just keep in mind that we are gonna see those uh very little impacts as the storm is moving off towards Louise. Uh with those hurricane watches and warnings still in effect, there is a lot of other disturbances out in the Atlantic Basin. These have a low chance of one just off the east coast of the US, 10% chance just off the coast of uh South America about a 30% chance. But the National Hurricane Center has now established tropical depression seven, that's just off the coast of Africa. So that is really gonna remain over open water. We're not expecting any threat from that in the coming days, but just keep in mind that the that coastal flood watch will be in effect until 4 p.m. on Wednesday as we go into the next couple of days. So we are expecting those conditions to remain mostly a bit calmer for us here across southeast Texas. But that's not the case for folks that are just down the street uh down the road on the highway rather uh in Louisiana as uh they're gonna see the impacts from this storm as hurricane Francine, still a category one storm still expected to remain category one as it nears uh the coastal Louisiana there look moving northeast at 16 miles an hour. This is of as of the 1 p.m. advisory. Uh Not much change really. We've seen with the forecast in the coming within the past few hours. It's remained relatively the same. Uh But one thing to note that uh for folks that are along I 10 in Louisiana, Lafayette Baton Rouge, even New Orleans, they're still, they're dealing with that torrential rain at the current moment and those winds and conditions are gonna be deteriorating at least in the coming hours, especially as this says that eye wall moves closer inland. So might even see some possible uh tropical storm force winds even maybe category one strength winds off uh in, in New Orleans as that. Uh the eye is currently moving off towards the coastal areas. We're dealing with mostly uh few showers here across the Houston area. But uh just keep in mind that as we go into looking at the next uh few hours that we are expecting a landfall uh in the coming hours at least. So maybe between five and 6 p.m. as uh it will remain a tropical storm strength as it moves into southern Mississippi. So they could still see some torrential rain and uh possible flooding along I 55 from New Orleans to Jackson. So looking at that uh future track showing that moving off towards New Orleans torrential rain expected more likely that they're gonna get some really direct impacts from that storm as it moves into New Orleans, as well as those uh to that torrential rain in terms of that there. So looking at the future track wind, once again, hurricane strength winds expected for Grand Isle even South Pass and then going into New Orleans by Wednesday night tonight, we are expecting that to continue into southern Mississippi. So, um very di direct, indirect impacts here across Southeast Texas. Something to keep an eye on as we are in the peak of hurricane season. There's several other disturbances out in the Atlantic Basin. So, uh always stay up to date with hurricanes in terms of the rest of this month and into the month of October. And we're giving you the latest of Francine even though it's not affecting us here in Southeast Texas. But we are seeing uh this uh giving not, not really too far away from us as we see that center of that eye but around 100 and 70 miles from the Galveston uh coastal areas as it's just whizzing by us there. Look. So, uh of course, you can always stay up to date with the latest weather forecast on khou.com and on the Khou 11 app.