Tracking Tropical Storm Francine

Tropical Storm Francine continues to surge just southeast of Texas growing in strength as the winds are now sustained at 60 mph. This storm is eventually predicted to travel northeast towards the coast of Louisiana.

This slow moving storm will continue to feed off of the warm Gulf Coast waters giving energy into the storm. According to the National Hurricane Center, Francine is supposed to strengthen to hurricane status before making landfall Wednesday across the southern coast of the U.S.

There will be possible life-threatening storm surges across portions of the Louisiana coast reaching potentially up to 12 feet in height.

After the storm reaches landfall, it will quickly weaken before heading north towards Missouri. The exact track of this system is not yet certain. Two favorable tracks show a placement of this storm closer to Central Missouri. If this case scenario happens, Mid-Missouri can expect to see increased rainfall totals closer to Friday.

The second possible track looks to pass closer towards Southeastern Missouri which would lead towards decreased rainfall totals across Central Missouri.

Current rainfall totals favor heavier bands of rainfall back to the southeast for the region near the I-44 corridor.