Tropical Storm Barry continues to gather strength and is expected to become a hurricane by landfall Saturday morning, bringing a dangerous storm surge, heavy rains and strong wind across the north-central Gulf Coast. Newest data shows it making landfall south of Morgan City, Louisiana and heading northwest over Lafayette with forecast winds at 75 mph and gusts to 90 mph before weakening as it travels over land. This storm will bring 10-20 inches of rain over south-central and southeast Louisiana which will lead to dangerous, life threatening flooding over portions of the central Gulf Coast into the lower Mississippi valley. Total rain accumulations of 4 to 8 inches are expected across the remainder of the lower Mississippi Valley and into western portions of the Tennessee valley.
In the Coastal Bend, we'll see occasional high clouds moving in on the backside of this system but we won't get much, if any, rain. It's possible we could see a stray coastal shower this weekend but overall it looks dry with above average temperatures. Swells from Barry could reach our coast this weekend with an increasing rip current risk and possibly water coming up higher on the beaches.
