Hurricane Laura About To Leave Louisiana...

The center of Laura is about to enter Arkansas with wind gusts still topping hurricane force.  The impacts won't be as great as over SW LA., but there's likely to be widespread power outages all the way into Tennessee.

We still have some feeder bands with blinding rainfall coming across SE LA, but so far the amounts have not been excessive.  There is a Tornado Watch in effect until 4 PM.  Wave heights and wind speeds continue to slowly decrease , but the persistent southerly winds will prevent any rapid drop in water levels.

Laura still has a large cloud shield, but the bright colors (higher,colder cloud tops) that we saw earlier this morning around the eye have diminished.

The best thing about Laura is she has been a fast mover.  Her impacts will be felt all the way to the East Coast as she races out to sea.  Now it's time to get back to tracking the tropics.

Laura dominates the surface map as she makes the turn around the Bermuda High.  Another plus from Laura is she's making many places less hot, although it's very humid.

The rest of the tropics are quiet except for a weak wave over the western Caribbean and several more waves out in the Atlantic.  We still have plenty of time to see more storms develop, but for now the next couple of days should give us a breather.  AT noon, NHC just downgraded Hurricane Laura to a Tropical Storm.   For us, if you don't have to run errands this afternoon, best to stay at home until we get rid of these outer bands from Laura.  Next update after 4 pm.  Stay tuned!