August 25, 2020
Tropical Storm Laura is now out in the open Gulf east of Cuba moving just north of west. With 70 mph winds it is just shy of hurricane strength. The forecast from the NHC calls for steady strengthening with Laura making landfall very early Thursday morning along the Texas/Louisiana border as a category 3 hurricane. As I have been mentioning the intensity forecast has been slowly ticking up and I think this trend will continue. Conditions aren't perfect for rapid intensification but they're pretty close and they will remain that way until landfall. A strong category 3 or category 4 hurricane is certainly possible. We may see the track shift just a little to the west as some of the track models have been consistent at taking the storm more to the south and west. So far the NHC has been pretty locked in on the TX/LA border so we'll see what happens. A landfall near the Houston metro area is still a possibility.
Today is the last day for preparations for people in the path of Laura. If you know anyone in that area you may want to get in touch with them and make sure they are taking action.
Through the weekend we'll need to start monitoring a tropical wave that will come off of Africa around Thursday. Some models are hinting that this may try to develop a little east of the Lesser Antilles early next week.
That's it for this morning, have a good day.
Chris
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