Avoyelles placed under tropical storm watch until further notice

The national weather service has placed much of Louisiana under a tropical storm watch.

Avoyelles parish is included in that watch.

That means tropical storm conditions are possible within the next 24 to 48 hours. With two tropical systems taking aim at Louisiana, the national weather service has posted the watch conditions are "until further notice."

The forecast as of now is:

Monday
Tropical storm conditions possible. A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91. Heat index values as high as 99.

Monday Night
Tropical storm conditions possible. A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 73.

Tuesday
Tropical storm conditions possible. A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 91.

Tuesday Night
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 75. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph after midnight.

Wednesday
Showers and thunderstorms likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 91. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Wednesday Night
A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 75. Windy, with a northeast wind 10 to 20 mph becoming northwest 25 to 35 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 45 mph.

From Roger Erickson of the local weather service:

Two hurricanes could hit Louisiana next week. Our local impacts of wind, rain, and storm surge will be based on what side of the storm we are on. If we stay west of these two systems, our weather will not be as bad if we were east of these two systems. Stay tuned for updates on these scenarios.

Tropical Storm Marco could become a hurricane soon. It is forecast to be in the southern Gulf of Mexico tonight, and threaten Louisiana Monday into Tuesday as a category one hurricane.

Tropical Storm Laura is moving across the larger islands of the Caribbean, so it isn’t expected to strengthen until it gets in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico late Monday. It will become a hurricane in the Gulf and threaten Louisiana by Wednesday.
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It is still too early to have any confidence on where the two storms will make landfall, so the following impact points are likely going to be changing over the next few days.

Winds: Hurricane force winds could occur from Intracoastal City, LA eastward along the coast, with tropical storm force winds extending inland. The timing would be in the Monday-Wednesday time frame.

Storm Surge: Water 2 to 4 ft above ground level is possible for the Louisiana coast, in the Monday-Wednesday time frame.

Rainfall: Depending on how fast the tropical systems are moving, and where they make landfall, rainfall totals could be in the 5 to 10 inch range.

Roger

Roger Erickson
Warning Coordination Meteorologist
National Weather Service
Lake Charles, LA