Hurricane Francine heading toward Louisiana landfall

Jennifer Lamers with an afternoon update on Hurricane Francine and so we are keeping a close eye on this system just want to make sure everything is working there in case you're just now joining us we are live streaming on our Gulf Stream apps that's going to be on Roku plus also our Fox 10 News app and also on Facebook live and YouTube live so in case you're joining us again we're keeping a close eye on Hurricane Francine as it continues to turn in the Gulf Waters approaching closer towards landfall in Louisiana heading on into this afternoon and this evening but let's check in on our local conditions here first here's a live view down in Orange Beach it is rough out there it is gray it is gloomy and still continuing to see more of those showers falling out there rough surf across the Gulf Coast here's the updated look at Hurricane Francine at 10:00 a.m. the National Hurricane Center began issuing these advisories every hour no major changes those sustained winds continue to stay at 90 mph if anything the changes that we've been noticing is the movement Northeast picking up even further speed 17 mph it's moving faster barreling towards that Coastline there of Louisiana and so looking at the updated path from the National Hurricane Center they still have Francine making landfall as a category 1 hurricane just a little bit heading into this afternoon and this evening now don't be fooled by that 700 p.m. time stamp it's not meaning that that landfall will be closer towards 700 p.m. looking in closer here we go let TR try and show you just a little bit there uh expecting landfall possibly even closer towards the dinnertime hour there um as that category 1 hurricane 90 mes hour once it approaches closer towards land and here locally let's talk more about our impacts we are on the right side of this system and so with that it means that we're going to start to notice more of those impacts here locally and so that is going to be including that tropical storm warning and so with that tropical storm warning we've actually noticed some areas that have been added to this and so that's going to be closer towards Green County Mississippi George County Mississippi mobile and Ballwin counties along with Mobile Bay and our offshore Waters that just means that we're going to be seeing more of those tropical storm conditions and those winds closer towards those areas now we do have a tornado watch in effect for some portions across the Gulf Coast and if you're in Jackson County Mississippi then you likely got this update but something to note here the areas that are included in this that National Weather Service office is located in sidel Louisiana our local National Weather Service Office in Mobile located at Mobile Regional Airport they've only put our offshore Waters in this tornado watch so far but they are in talks with SPC about including us in a watch later on this afternoon or this evening that will take us into the overnight hour so that's the reason why we're not included in this tornado watch even though we are expecting the potential for us to see some of those spin-up tornadoes later on today now I'm about to go through a lot of different different advisories and some warnings that we have in place our local National Weather Service office has been busy uh just issuing some of these so you might have gotten some of those notifications on your phone that first one is going to be that Coastal flood warning in effect heading into tonight into tomorrow afternoon that significant coastal flooding is expected we have storm surge mixed with that rain that we're going to be experiencing and once Francine continues to push further Inland closer towards Central to northern Mississippi it's going to be introducing this southerly flow so these winds out of the South and so if you've noticed sometimes how Mobile Bay is influenced by these winds whenever we have a Northerly wind then we notice that the Mobile Bay Area the water is pretty low whenever it's out of the South it's pretty high it's sucking up all of that moisture and that Bay water and this is what we're going to be experiencing so that southernly flow plus mixed with a high tide on Thursday morning at 6:30 and so we are really just creating the perfect condition for our Causeway to close on Thursday morning so do keep that in mind for all your Bayway commuters Thursday morning you will likely see those delays and impacts for the areas that are not included in that Coastal flood warning we do have that advisory closer towards the Florida Panhandle and our Coastal Waters and then we also have a high surf warning that just means that those wave heights they're high out there it is rough across the Gul Coast those waves are seeing about 6 to 10t height just offshore closer towards the shoreline we're seeing more of that 4 to 6t range just a reminder of local beaches the water's closed out there it's rough that rip car risk is high today tomorrow and Friday and it's only going to continue even in the wake of Francine please stay out of the water at our local beaches just a reminder some of our beaches aren't flying some of those flags out there but it's still closed please keep yourself and others safe by not getting into the water at this point I want to talk more about those winds that we're expecting later on for this afternoon and this evening and we're going to be starting to notice more of those tropical storm force winds wh I got to stop it here we got we're expecting more of those tropical storm force winds later on this evening so by 8 and 9:00 we start to see more of that pushing in closer towards Coastal Mississippi mobile Ballwin coun is beginning to see those wind gusts getting over 40 miles hour even look at that bayonet showing that 50 mph wind gust closer towards midnight only continuing into the evening time hours so the main takeaway from this is that it's going to be windy heading into tonight make sure you already have those precautions in place if you have any of that outdoor furniture go ahead and bring it inside if you have uh Flags out there umbrellas take them down fall Halloween decorations I've been seeing some of those cute Inflatables outside go ahead tol them make sure that you're not waking up tomorrow and you can't find them uh my trash day is tomorrow I will not be putting out my trash can tonight go ahead and save that for for tomorrow morning if you're able to just because you don't want to lose any of that those winds will continue heading into tomorrow morning even though we might start to see some of our rain activity subside to start off for your Thursday it's still going to be Breezy out there we won't notice those winds beginning to calm down until tomorrow afternoon now there is a wind advisory infect for many portions across the Gulf Coast but if you notice mobile Bowman County and our Mississippi counties are left out the reason for that is that tropical storm War morning we're expecting more of those tropical storm Forest winds however some areas mainly included to that wind advisory for those 40 mph wind gust some of those could even be higher so just make sure that regardless of where you are you're going ahead tying down things that are located Outdoors or bringing them inside let's time things out pretty quickly here on your future cast and so we start off for this afternoon we get closer towards this evening 4 and 5:00 we start to notice more of that heavy that moderate to heavy rainfall to push in and then we'll really begin to experience those rain bands closer towards 7 and 8:00 that have more of those tropical storm force winds within them the tornado threat that we're looking at will be more once we start to see some of these rain bands pushing in later on tonight after Sunset and so look towards midnight and 2 a.m. more of those rain bands begin to push in closer towards the Florida Panhandle and our Inland counties very heavy rainfall Gusty winds with that embedded tornado threat too if you caught it not too long ago I had mentioned that we could possibly see some drier conditions to start off for our Thursday one reason why Francine is possibly not reaching that category 2 hurricane strength anymore is because it's expected to interact with some dry air and that's what it looks like right there if it does start to interact with that dry air it's going to be leading us to be a bit more dry to start off with tomorrow morning even seeing some peaks of sunshine between the cloud cover to begin your Thursday still Breezy out there but we could possibly see less of that rain activity now just a reminder we do have that tornado risk heading into this evening and so just make sure that you stay weather aware have a way to get those alerts have a way to get those warnings in case any of those are issued always make sure that you download our FOX 10 weather app that way you can live stream our coverage and know if you're located in one of those warnings uh with this too double check to make sure that your devices are fully charged uh power outages are possible with any storm that we experience even those uh summertime ones it doesn't take much to knock off a triim onto a power line so double check that everything's charged heading into this evening especially with those Breezy conditions and closer towards the coastline we've already been experiencing some of that rain since this morning the soil is already pretty saturated so it won't take that much of a wind gust to help just knock over one of those trees if those roots are already slipping in the soil so do keep that in mind uh heading into this evening that's really going to be the biggest precautions have a way to get those alerts um make sure you bring in everything inside that that could easily be blown away and double check that your devices are charged even make it uh have some of those backup power Banks if you have any of them uh that are charged too my other takeaway um from all of this and um just heading into this evening just try and stay off the roadways if you're able to pick up your kids from school head home from work just try and pick up dinner cook something inside and then have a movie night have a game night inside just make sure you're staying alert with the forecast but just try not to be on the roadways if you don't have to late tonight just because the visibility is going to be low we're going to be experiencing some of those winds and also some of that heavy rain so if you're able to be off the roads please do so now we're going to continue to keep you updated I will have additional updates coming up not too long from now I'm going to leave you with this view of hurricane Francine um and that strength that we're tracking we will have additional updates we're gearing up right now for Fox 10 live beginning at 300 p.m. so I hope to see you guys there we actually changed things up today Foxton live is going to be a full hour instead of half an hour so we will be live with our Fox 10 coverage beginning at 3:00 through 6:00 with additional hourly updates coming up to you later on this evening until we get closer towards Foxton news at 9: as always you can send us any of those messages to our Foxton Facebook page if you have any questions for us unfortunately I wasn't really able to see some of your comments here um but in case you do have any of those questions for us please just feel free to drop them below there thank you everyone for sticking with Fox 10 heading into this afternoon and this evening we'll work hard to keep you updated just stay safe out there again we'll keep you updated with everything you need to know