Hurricane Francine Updates
Tropical Storm Francinehas upgraded to a category one hurricane this evening. Hurricane Francine continues to eye the southern coast of Louisiana as we head towards Wednesday mid-day. The center of low pressure continues to drop as the warm surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico fuel energy into the tropical storm. Winds currently have spiked above severe thunderstorm parameters at up to 75 mph.
Portions of Louisiana are already seeing heavier bands of rainfall tide to this system which only look to worsen any potential flooding impacts.
The storm surge threat continues to rise as Hurricane Francine is predicted to make landfall on Wednesday. Storm surges up to 12 feet are possible making for a potential life-threatening situation as mandatory evacuations are already in place across the Gulf Coast.
The arrival of Francine looks to make landfall late Wednesday morning into the early afternoon hours as the system will then look to slowly lose strength shortly after.
As Francine looks to weaken significantly following landfall Wednesday, it will push to the northeast eventually tracking into eastern portions of Missouri Thursday night/ Friday morning.
The exact timing and track of rainfall in Mid-Missouri remains decently uncertain. Current model trends are placing the track further to the east leading to lessened rainfall totals across Central Missouri. If the track pushes further to the west, Mid-Missouri can expect heavier totals possibly anywhere from 1"-2".
