The latest on Hurricane Florence and the rest of the tropics

4 PM Florence Update: Winds are down to 125 mph making it now a Category 3 storm. While the storm has weakened, there is still an opportunity for it to get a little stronger on Thursday as it moves over warm water with low wind shear. Then as it moves toward the North Carolina Coast on Friday Morning, it is expected to weaken more thanks to interaction to land, upwelling of cooler water and the size of the wind field getting larger. Forecast calls for the storm to then stall along the NC coast and move more to the south into SC. Then it would move inland over SC where it will continue to weaken.

The biggest threats are winds around 120 mph, a dangerous storm surge of 9-13 feet and incredible rain totals of 20-30 inches with a few places around 40 inches. This will all occur mainly along the coast as Florence is expected to stall there for a day or two. Rain totals of that amount will cause catastrophic flash flooding. This would be like what happened when Hurricane Harvey stalled over Texas last year.

Please let any family and friends know that time is running out to prepare for the storm. Those along the coast need to leave if asked to evacuate. This will likely be a catastrophic storm and no one needs to be around for it. If anyone is in a flood zone, be prepared for days of torrential rains that will cause water to rise quickly. Power could be out for days and the damage may prevent people from getting home for awhile too. The heavy rain will spread across parts of GA, SC, NC, VA, WV, TN, MD and PA.

Elsewhere in the tropics...well...there is A LOT going on. Currently there are 3 other named storms: Helene, Isaac and Joyce. The only other storm that will impact any land will be Tropical Storm Isaac. It is weakening as it moves west across the Lesser Antilles and into the Caribbean. It is expected to continue to weaken since it is battling strong wind shear, and I'm expecting it to weaken to a tropical wave early next week in the middle of the Caribbean.

Lastly, there is one other feature I've been watching in the Western Gulf of Mexico, Invest 95. This is a large area of low pressure that may try to develop into a tropical depression on Thursday or Friday as it moves west into Texas and Northern Mexico. Hurricane Hunters may investigate this tomorrow depending on if it can become better organized. It is not a threat to Louisiana, but parts of Texas and Mexico could pick up 2-4"+ rain this weekend with plenty of flash flooding.

Needless to say, the tropics are very active, and they usually are this time of year. The peak of the hurricane season is September 10th, so Mother Nature is right on cue. Stay tuned for updates here and on WWLTV. -Dave