Tracking Bertha | 4 p.m. update on tropical storm

[00:00:00]You know what else I love? That we can talk about these light-hearted stories on a tropical storm day because it is that little of a deal.

[00:00:06]>> Yes.

[00:00:07]>> That's great.

[00:00:07]>> I was at the grocery store today before I came to work and someone said, "At least it's cloudy today. At least it's windy. At least it's not as hot because of this tropical storm that has moved inland in St. Bernard Parish. It has officially made landfall at 2:00 this afternoon."

[00:00:20]So, St. Bernard Parish saw the 2:00 p.m.

[00:00:23]landfall a couple hours ago. We had sustained winds at landfall at 45 mph and we still have 45 mph winds sustained. And Tropical Storm Bertha is expected to continue to move westward in the coming days and continue pushing towards Texas through the end of the week. Right now, we've got gusts around 60 mph in Tropical Storm Bertha. And as we get into the next 2 days, it's expected to maintain its strength as a tropical storm as it moves along the west coast of Louisiana and could finally weaken going into tomorrow afternoon as it approaches Texas. So, the center of the storm is still moving through St. Bernard Parish. It's moving basically due west at this point around 7 mph. So, winds are certainly gusty across the area. It has been very windy all day today. We've had seen minor impacts from Bertha, but no big issues.

[00:01:13]But, it has been windy. We've had some passing rain and we've had some minor coastal flooding. And we're going to continue to see minor impacts through the rest of tonight through early tomorrow. Right now, most of the rain actually actually all of the rain all of the bad heavy rain has been pushed and sheared way to the south. Extremely heavy rain is falling in the Gulf.

[00:01:32]Thankfully, that rain did not set up over our area. It was pushed several several miles to the south several hundred miles to the south. And luckily, that is why we don't have to deal with any big impacts because of the strong wind shear and the dry air that worked on this system pushed all the huge impacts way to our south out in the open Gulf. But, we are dealing with a little bit of passing rain right now. We have some heavier showers right offshore just south of Port Fourchon. But, we have some steady rain from Galliano to Port Fourchon, some showers from Houma to Thibodaux, even some spotty rain on the Northshore into South Mississippi. But, the rain is going to be off and on the rest of tonight. So, we'll have some more passing showers into the rest of Wednesday, maybe even into early tomorrow. We have strong winds. Right now, they're coming mostly from the north and northeast as the storm pushes west through our area. We've got a gust at 48 mph at the lakefront, near 40 mph in Kenner. So, it is going to be very windy the rest of tonight, especially along the coast. We'll continue to see passing showers into tonight, and even during the overnight some off and on showers are possible, even through tomorrow morning. But, we're not going to see any big rainfall totals from this. I don't think we're going to have to deal with any flooding concerns. So, no concerns when it comes to flooding rains, but I think we'll continue to deal with some minor coastal flooding into tonight into tomorrow morning.

[00:02:45]Rainfall totals pretty insignificant, maybe a quarter to a half of an inch if we're lucky. So, not much rain, just some passing showers into tonight through tomorrow. But, winds are going to be howling through the rest of tonight. We'll have gusts around 20 to 40 mph in the metro area on the Southshore. And along the coast, we could have gusts around 40 to 50 mph tonight. So, very windy along the coast into tonight and overnight. Northshore, South Mississippi will see 20 to 30 mph gusts. So, not as windy north of the lake, but very strong winds on the Southshore. May be seeing 50 to 55 mph gusts along our coastal areas into tonight and the overnight. And then the Southshore, anywhere from 30 to 40 mph gusts. Northshore, 20 to 30 mph, and that extends into Southwest Mississippi into South Mississippi as well. We're also watching for that minor coastal flooding of 1 to 3 ft above normal dry ground, especially as we go to high tide tomorrow morning. Luckily, tonight we're go we're getting into low tide tonight, so that helps to limit these problems.

[00:03:42]But, we could still see some minor inconveniences with that coastal flooding into tonight through tomorrow morning, especially for St. Bernard Parish, parts of coastal Mississippi in Hancock County, Eastern St. Tammany Parish, even a little bit of water pushed onto our roadways along Lake Pontchartrain above maybe 1 ft above dry ground there. And then along the coast in lower Terrebonne Parish, lower Plaquemines, anywhere from 1 to 3 ft.

[00:04:06]Also lower Lafourche Parish, we could see some minor coastal flooding into tonight through tomorrow morning. So make sure you drive carefully. We're going to have some inconveniences when it comes to traveling in those spots, but the conditions are going to be pretty the impacts are going to be pretty minor. So we will take this storm. Luckily we got off pretty easy with this one and as we head into the weekend it's going to be dry, it's going to be hot, it's going to be sunny. Those temperatures are going to be back in the mid to upper 90s.