Tropical Storm Francine will likely become a Category 1 hurricane before it reaches the Louisiana coast on Wednesday.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said a tropical storm over the Gulf of Mexico is expected to intensify into a hurricane, threatening the southern United States, including coastal areas of Texas and Louisiana.
Tropical Storm Francine is expected to pass over warm waters, which will fuel it to strengthen, before it makes landfall on Wednesday as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 90 mph (145 km/h).
The storm is expected to remain near the coast of northeastern Mexico on Tuesday as it moves northeast toward the United States.
People living in coastal areas were being warned about storm surges as high as 10 feet (three meters) in some locations, as well as possible tornadoes and dangerous winds, weather forecasters said. Residents were encouraged to evacuate some low-lying areas.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Tropical Storm Francine was about 380 miles (610 km) southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, about 85 miles (136 km) west of New Orleans. With maximum sustained wind speeds of 65 mph (105 km/h), it is 9 mph (14.5 km/h) short of hurricane status.
7 a.m. CDT September 10 Tropical Storm Update #Francine,
The coastal hurricane warning has been extended eastward to Grand Isle, La. A tropical storm warning is now in effect for the mouth of the Pearl River, including metropolitan New Orleans.
latest update: pic.twitter.com/JCoUgQ3U3o
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 10, 2024
School closed
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry urged residents to “not panic, but be prepared” and heed evacuation warnings. As a precaution, some schools and colleges in the state will be closed from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Long queues of people started forming in Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, to fill petrol tanks and buy groceries.
The Louisiana coast is still recovering from hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2020 and Hurricane Ida a year later. The state recently marked the 19th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a major Category 5 storm that killed 1,392 people and caused nearly $200 billion in damage.
U.S. oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico, including ExxonMobil and Shell, evacuated workers and in some cases halted drilling to prepare for the storm.
Warm sea
Francine is the sixth storm to be named in 2024. Its arrival comes at a time when meteorologists are grappling with the lull that occurs in August and early September, usually the peak of the annual hurricane season, which typically lasts from June to November.
Experts had predicted a more active season than normal this year due to a number of factors, including warmer-than-normal seas.
The water temperature where Francine is located is about 31 degrees Celsius (87 degrees Fahrenheit), said Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Sciences.
“The average amount of ocean heat across the Gulf is the highest on record,” McNoldy wrote on his blog.
Forecasters are also keeping an eye on two other weather systems in the mid-Atlantic that have the potential to become major hurricanes.
