Wednesday 11AM Tropical Update: Hurricane Francine's center 205 miles from New Orleans

So with that, I mentioned a couple minutes ago that the National Weather Service or the National Hurricane Center is beginning to give those hourly updates on the storm. Wanna bring in meteorologist Peyton Malone to talk more about that. Hey Peyton. Hey y'all. Um, I'm looking at some current radar trends here and some of our buoys that are being uh, in oil platforms, one just gusted to 100 miles an hour off the coast. I don't know if we can take my weather source full here and, um, I wanna show exactly where the strongest part of the storm is at the moment and we're seeing some intense lightning in it as well. So, what we're looking at here, this is a live view over New Orleans. We're gonna get the radar up for you here in just a second. But, uh, the center of circulation is currently sitting about 200 miles southwest of New Orleans. So we still have a while before it does get to us. You can see here and if we can pop, let me on the screen as well, that'd be great. Uh, but you can see East Cameron that 3021 a that sustained wind to 85 miles an hour with a gust of 100 miles an hour. The latest update that is in the western eye wall right now and that's an intense eye wall. I threw on the lightning too. And any time you have a lightning in an eye wall, that's a sign that the storm is fairly healthy. So I think what's happening here is it's starting to interact with that trough of low pressure that's coming in that's causing sheer, but it's helping actually give this a little kick right now. And that's why we've got this big burst of lightning and also winds gusting to 100 miles an hour on the west side, on the east side, you can see we have winds gusting to 64 here, 56 here sustained at 15 to 36 and this is what's gonna be approaching our coastline very very soon. So overall, the center is here, it's moving inland. There's the Louisiana coast here in the next several hours. We will really start to see things go downhill and then that landfall will likely be later this afternoon. So this is moving northeast at about 13 MPH. And, um, it's currently situated at least the center off of our shore here where we think it's gonna make landfall. It's currently about 90 miles offshore. So, so we still have several, several hours or so before this actually does move inland. But right now, we are still seeing a very fairly powerful storm. It's a category one winds are sustained at 90. We are seeing those gusts occasionally over 100 MPH and it'll probably look like a similar intensity as it moves into our area. So this is why we do think we could see some coastal areas see wind gusts closer to maybe 80 or 90 miles an hour. And then here in the metro area, some models have been showing 60 to 80 mile per hours even in the metro areas. This is certainly something we will wanna watch because these types of winds would cause uh significant power outages across our region. So that's what we're gonna be watching here. Uh Just looking at, you know, if it's moving at 13 miles an hour and it's 90 miles off coast, that's still about 6 to 7 hours from moving inland, which is, that's on par with what we were saying. We were saying anywhere from 5 to 7 o'clock. So if it maintains that 13 mile per hour speed limit, the actual center probably won't move on shore until the 5 to 7 pm time frame. But remember the worst of the hurricane is before the actual center of the eye gets to. So all of this will be moving on shore here probably within the next uh 3 to 4 hours. And that's when I think things really get rough down here on the coast is after two o'clock in the afternoon. So tropical storm conditions are already gonna start to move into our coastal areas. And then as we get into the afternoon and evening hours at center will cross, that's where we'll have the worst winds. And what's interesting is sometimes if the environment is just right, you have your worst winds on the west side of a storm, oftentimes you think these sides the worst time. Well, whenever there's wind shear and a trough involved in dry air, you can often get a very powerful western side or western Iwa. That's exactly what we're seeing right now as those winds gusted to about 100 miles an hour and there is still quite a bit of lightning in that eye wall. And studies have shown whenever there is lightning in an eye wall and whenever there is lightning in the core of a hurricane, that is a sign that it is still fairly healthy. Now, we aren't seeing it really intensified, but it's still a powerful storm producing those strong winds you can see in New Orleans, we're gusting to 28 here at MS Y and uh just offshore there by about, let's measure it for you just south of Port Fusion by about 45 miles. We do have wind gusts to 64. Now keep in mind a lot of these are elevated platforms. So the winds are higher up on these platforms and what they'll be off the surface, but it just shows you that those tropical storm conditions, they're about to impact the coast here and they will be on the coast within the next hour. It looks like maybe even sooner. So let's uh show you that you yellow reaching our coast by around 12 o'clock to 1230. So in the next hour, we do expect 40 mile per hour sustained winds to start to impact the coast and you will likely have higher gusts. You will have gusts starting to get up to 50 to even 60 then so forth. And they'll continue to increase as the core of that hurricane moves inland right now. We do have that core of the hurricane moving very, very close to Saint Mary in Terrebonne Parish. You could see those hurricane force winds there. It is making landfall 6 to 7 o'clock this evening. Those hurricane force winds right in there near Morgan City near Houma, back through Terrebonne Parish. All of this is storm surge getting pulled up into the storm that water rushing on shore and then watch that red dot there. That's the hurricane force winds as it gets closer to the metro. We could potentially see hurricane force winds in the bayou uh in river parishes. Notice this brings it up right through the heart of the river parishes into tonight. That's at 10 o'clock right there and that has the worst winds in the river parishes at 10 o'clock. With some significant wind gusts possible in New Orleans. Now, we'll say this is the track. So if you move the track and some models say it's still coming in closer to Terre Bum, if you shift this over a little bit, or if the storm wobbles a little bit as it moves inland, sometimes they do that. We could see it wobble closer to New Orleans. You could see what wobble closer to Baton Rouge, but that could put those stronger winds in parts of the metro. Uh, that happened with Ida and we're not expecting Ida winds here. It's not that type of situation. But remember Ida came in and it was going straight to Baton Rouge and then it wobbled, it slowed down and it wobbled and it got close to the city and that's why we saw the damage increased so dramatically out in Jefferson Parish as opposed to Orleans. And we know Orleans had damage, but that's why you saw it increase so quickly. It's because that I all skirted Orleans Parish and that could happen here. The winds are not gonna be as strong, but we could still see some wind gusts 50 to 80 miles an hour across a big chunk of the area. And unfortunately, it's gonna be later on tonight for many, this will be after sunset that the winds are really cranking and then let's fast forward. Even at 2 a.m. There's a chance that we still have a minor or small area of hurricane force winds somewhere in Tang Beho Parish, hurricane center. Sure seems to think so. So we're talking about maybe even some damage, wind damage up into tangy and getting close to Macomb late tonight. And then once we get into the early morning hours tomorrow, this is at 7 a.m. The tropical storm is up here near Brookhaven, riding up the interstate heading to the north of Mississippi, but we still have some gusty winds wrapping around that circulation. And so guys, we've been talking about the past couple of days that you know, to get prepared for this. A lot of people did not evacuate. Not every storm calls for evacuation unless you live in one of those storm surge areas. And we hope you did evacuate in those areas. If you do live in a mobile home, if you live in a fema trailer, if you live in anything that is not a uh a house that has a foundation tied to the ground, especially in the river parishes, especially in the Bayou parish and really anywhere you do not want to ride out this hurricane in a trailer, you simply don't an 80 mile per hour wind gust can do significant damage to a trailer. And so, uh if you still got a little bit of time to maybe call a friend, go hang out there, maybe go to the church, maybe go to the shelter. I'm sure there's options for you if you're in, uh, one of those vulnerable homes there, but you don't wanna ride out, uh, the hurricane in something that is not a foundation home that is tied to the ground here. We're talking campers. I mean, we're talking anything that could roll here. Uh, that is certainly not something that you want to be, uh involved in or in as this hurricane blows inland as we go throughout the day. So overall, the message is, this is still a very powerful storm. It's a category one, but we have seen wind gusting 90 to 100 miles an hour out in the Gulf. And uh it's very possible, we see winds gusting to that high around the coastal areas. Now, once we get inland, they'll be a little bit less, but certainly some wind dam, it is expected and power outages will be expected at this point as we go into the afternoon and evening. So guys, you know what you should be doing right now, take your cell phone, your ipad, whatever plug it in, keep it plugged in, keep it on a full charge because if the power goes out or if you have a dish and you watch us that way, you know, that's gonna go out middle of a storm more than likely. So you can watch us on your app, you can download the app, you can watch us on our Wwl. Plus there's many ways to stream us uh during events like this. And luckily, uh, there's many ways to get messages, uh, from meteorologists during events like this. So, just keep that in mind doing those last minute preps right now before things really start to go downhill here in the next, well, several hours along the coast guys. So, with that Peyton, you're saying you're gonna go plug your phone in? Yeah.