Tropical Storm Francine, September 10, 2024. GOES Image Viewer, NOAA.
A storm currently called Tropical Storm Francine, but which is likely to reach hurricane force before it hits land, is headed toward Louisiana and Texas and will likely hit Wednesday night. The Associated Press reports:
Tropical Storm Francine formed Monday off the coast of Mexico and was expected to drench the Texas coast with up to a foot of rain before coming ashore in Louisiana Wednesday night as a hurricane.
“We’re going to have a very dangerous situation developing by the time we get into Wednesday for portions of the north-central Gulf Coast, primarily along the coast of Louisiana, where we’re going to see the potential for life threatening storm surge inundation and hurricane force winds,” said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Francine is taking aim at a stretch of coastline that has yet to fully recover since hurricanes Laura and Delta decimated Lake Charles, Louisiana, four years ago.
The hurricane center said Francine is located about 245 miles southeast of the mouth of the Rio Grande, and about 480 miles south-southeast of Cameron, Louisiana. Francine’s top winds Monday morning were about 50 miles per hour. A tropical storm is defined by sustained winds between 39 mph and 73 mph.
Francine should be a hurricane as it approaches the northwestern Gulf Coast on Wednesday, pushing a storm surge of up to 10 feet, forecasters said.
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