Tropical Storm Francine and impacts to SE Texas

meteorologist Anthony anas so what we can expect with tropical storm Fran scine latest update 65 mph winds uh moving North Northwest at 7 miles per hour so it's moving fairly slow but it is going to become a hurricane either late tonight or early tomorrow morning so here we are with 75 mph winds and there's now the possibility that it's a category 2 as we head toward early Wednesday morning which of course means when you have a forecast of a category 2 right around Lafayette uh that it can be also a three and so this is intensifying as it moves to Louisiana the closest I think it gets to us at least right now is right around Sabine Pass and so that would be the closest it' be a direct hit for us because this cone represents the uh where the center of circulation would make land and that would be off a little bit farther off to the right here and here's New Orleans and this is going to be making land it looks like about 1:00 in the afternoon on Wednesday with 100 mph winds not going to get stuck it's just going to continue to move up to the north and be a rain maker uh for the central United States our impacts first of all are mainly going to be Coastal and they could be rough so just a big heads up we've got storm surge watches and then we also have coastal flooding that's possible uh not much rain in Houston but there is going to be some rain that you need to be aware of as we move throughout Tuesday and Wednesday so first of all let's start with the tropical storm alerts uh tropical storm watches in effect along our coastal cities warnings off over the water we're going to see winds 20 to 30 knots all the way to gust to 35 and also the Seas 10 to 15 ft which of course with small boats knocks those over really easy so you have the tropical storm warnings and watches that are in effect and also we're going to see some Coastal flood uh uh flooding and so you got Highway 87 here in Boliver that area really floods easy when you get a tropical system easy so they're going to do a voluntary evacuation there but it's really a flooding of low-lying areas along our coastal cities and this is even without a direct hit so just want to make sure you aware we are going to see some coastal flooding and we also have storm surge uh of 1 to 3 ft so here's what it looks like as it moves in and makes Land a couple things I just wanted to make aware to you is that the heaviest rain is in Louisiana but you can see even on this clean side of the storm we are going to see some showers before this moves up to the north so now I want to zoom in and take a really indepth look of what we could see here in Houston I think we get the rain as early as overnight tonight into early tomorrow morning stays mainly along the coastline for the morning time but then we start to see a few isolated hit and miss showers as we head toward tomorrow afternoon most of the concentrated widespread rain is closer to Louisiana but we are going to have some cells and these can be heavy and so be aware tropical moisture always brings in a little extra heavier rain and so while it's more hit and miss compared to widespread we are going to see a few showers that stay with us throughout the day Tuesday things settle down as we move toward Wednesday morning and so when you look at what's happening with the uh rain totals you've got galvon and anaak about an inch but Connor do you see how it sticks out at 2 and2 in the reason is some of these individual cells can drop drop a short heavy amount of rain in a short amount of time so be aware that's why we do have some flooding threats Street flooding threats even though they're small for us in Houston and also if it tracks farther to the west and for example hits the bean pass these areas are going to be higher in rain but if it hits a little closer to Lafayette it's going to be a little different let's talk about the winds now haven't mentioned the winds and so what we're going to see from now through Tuesday evening the winds are going to be fairly light but they start to pick up speed as we head toward Tuesday night they start to really get strong as we head toward Wednesday morning you see these 30 plus mph consistent winds these aren't the wind gusts that stay with us all the way through uh the morning time and by the time we get to the evening as the storm's off here we get a little wraparound dry weaker Northerly wind the strongest winds I see right now Wednesday morning 9:00 47 mph gust 38 in anaak Lake Jackson at 25 there you see about 150 Mi 15 miles offshore is where we're seeing the center of Francine here's your storm surge that's 1 to 3 ft in uh Southeast Texas and then you can see the red 9 to 12 ft uh really from Lafayette that extends all the way just to the south of New Orleans and then as you head toward off to the east it goes to 6 to 9 feet and even 3 to 6 feet so we're at the lowest level but still we get coastal flooding at that uh Mount so just be aware that that is an impact for us I still have a little bit at least a chance of rain left over Wednesday we get a little break for uh Thursday all the way through the weekend and another chance of rain for Monday and Tuesday of next week