Wednesday 1pm Tropical Update: Hurricane Francine a Cat 1, strong winds expected

So that we're tracking hurricane Francine. I wanna pull up whether to or switching over different. Uh, our max is here to pull up my max just to show you the, the local radar at this point showing you right now. We were talking about that tornado warning. It has expired for Lower Plains Parish. So that's good news. But like we've been talking about all day as these heavier bands of showers move on shore, they can produce those quick spin up tornadoes. So the tornado warning that was in effect for lower plains parish has expired. There are no tornado warnings now, but as we go throughout the course of today, as these bands move on shore, they can get that twisting motion and we can see some isolated quick spin up tornadoes. So a look at radar at this point showing the heavy showers starting to push in across the area. We have those embedded downpours that are pushing through. But overall the pretty moderate rain with some pockets of heavier downpours moving in across the New Orleans Metro and for our river parishes across the South Shore and across Lake Pontchartrain, North shore also seeing some steady showers moving in. So this is kind of that initial round, the initial bands moving in, we still have a few more hours to go before the eye moves inland. We're still expecting that landfall during the evening time frame. So around dinner time today is when we are expecting the landfall of hurricane Francine, still a strong category one storm. So if I turn on all the radars across the area, you can kind of better see the eye of Francine just offshore of Vermilion Bay. So we have a few more four hours before the eye of the storm moves into Vermillion Bay and that is what we're waiting on. We're just kind of riding this thing out. So make sure now is the time to just stay indoors. Let's ride this thing out. Let's wait it out. Let's get through the rest of the afternoon and through tonight. Make sure you stay off the roads because the roads are pretty slick. They're pretty wet. We've got these embedded, heavy downpours moving in across the area and it makes travel pretty tricky. So definitely stay off the road. Stay indoors, just kind of hunker down like we've been saying over and over again. Also to mention as these showers come on shore and they have that twisting effect. We do have a tornado watch in effect for the entire area because we can see these quick spin up tornadoes. It is a very low risk and isolated risk, but something to sort of keep in mind as we go throughout the course of today. Again, a closer look at our, uh, radar showing the showers kind of pushing on in the heavier downpours, mostly for Terrebonne Parish, home to Morgan City, seeing some heavy rain associated with, with Francine's outer bands, some heavier showers for the metro area and for, uh, parts of the South Shore, let's look at those wind speeds, wind speeds now coming in around 15 to 20 MPH, sustained winds at this point, not so bad, but gusting up to 31 MPH at the lakefront, 26 mile per hour. Gusts in Bell Chase 24 mile per hour, gusts in Kenner. So as we go throughout the course of today, the worst of the winds will be here during the later afternoon and evening time frame, those wind gusts can get up to maybe 50 to 60 MPH. But at the coast and near the core of the storm, that's where we can see maybe gusts up to 70 to 80 MPH. So make sure you, if you're on your phone, you're having, you're having it plugged in, you're charging that phone up, you're charging the devices up and you have what you need as we go throughout the day because I'm sure we'll see quite a bit of uh power outages as we go throughout the course of today with the strong wind gusts anticipated in the afternoon and evening. I'm sure we will lose power across much of the area. Unfortunately, it's just kind of the fact of the matter. I do wanna pull up another graphic just to show you the, the cone. Uh what we can see going into the rest of today so far. It looks like we're just seeing the initial kind of rounds of the tropical uh uh tropical downpours coming in and the gusty winds starting to work in across the area. So loading up our um cone map just so you can see kind of what we have through today. Like we've been mentioning as it makes landfall during the afternoon and evening will move out of here pretty quickly. And by tomorrow, by early Thursday, we'll start to see those improving conditions, but the worst of the weather is kind of still ahead of us. The worst of the weather will be happening throughout the late afternoon, evening and night time. That's when we have those strongest winds coming in. The tropical storm force winds, the hurricane force winds for our coastal spots and the hurricane force gusts that are possible across the New Orleans Metro. So I did wanna mention here we go. This is from the latest update at one o'clock. So now the National Hurricane Center is providing updates every hour since it is very near landfall uh winds now at 90 MPH, the gusts near the center of the storm, 100 and 15 MPH. It is moving to the northeast at around 16 MPH. It's now 100 and 50 miles southwest of New Orleans. So it is getting closer. And I did wanna put the cone into motion here to show you that landfall again. Sometime late afternoon, evening time frame still expected to make landfall as a category one storm. Like we've been mentioning the sheer and the dry air helping to keep the intensity down. So it is gonna be making landfall as a strong category one storm later this evening. Again, the worst of the impacts will be felt as we go into the late afternoon and nighttime hours tonight. So now is the time to kind of batten down the hatches, stay inside and just kind of wait this thing out.