UPDATED: Louisiana impacts possible with Harvey

HEALTHY AND AFFORDABLE
August 24, 2017
Terrebonne handing out sandbags in advance of possible impacts from Harvey
August 24, 2017
HEALTHY AND AFFORDABLE
August 24, 2017
Terrebonne handing out sandbags in advance of possible impacts from Harvey
August 24, 2017

Update: 10:01 p.m. Thursday night

Hurricane Harvey is behaving itself in the Gulf of Mexico so far. That’s good news for the Houma-Thibodaux area.

Harvey has followed its both its forecast track and forward motion throughout the day Thursday and there has been little shift to the storm’s track throughout the day.

In the 10 p.m. advisory, the National Hurricane Center said Harvey’s maximum sustained winds were still at 85 mph (where they have been throughout the day).

The storm is moving northwest at 10 mph and the storm is expected to make landfall in the early morning hours on Saturday.

What happens after that is what’s still up in the air. 

Harvey cannot continue moving northwest for long upon landfall because of an area of high pressure currently in the northwest that is dipping south. 

It also can’t immediately turn east because of a frontal boundary sitting over the Gulf South.

Most computer models agree that Harvey will stall over Texas after landfall, then dart to the northeast after the frontal boundary weakens, which could put Louisiana in the storm’s cross hairs early next week.

Stay tunes for further updates.

There’s a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Harvey has rapidly strengthened overnight and forecasters now expect he will become a major storm before landfall.

At 1 p.m. on Thursday, Harvey sat at 24.4 degrees North, 93.6 degrees West, about 300 miles off the coast of Corpus Christi, Texas.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph and was moving north-northwest at 10 miles per hour.

Computer models agree that Harvey will continue on a northwesterly track and will make landfall somewhere between Corpus Christi and Houston on Friday. 

What he does after that is a mystery.

Harvey is supposed to stall over Texas for most of the weekend, causing great uncertainty in what the storm will do once it regains motion.

Some models drift the storm southwest toward Mexico before fizzling out. Others take it easterly toward Louisiana – some even dipping it back into the Gulf of Mexico and regaining strength before a second landfall early next week.

The Times is tracking the storm and will provide updates as necessary.

As of now, there are no local watches or warnings. 

Hurricane Harvey