Hurricane watches have been issued, a state of emergency has been declared in Louisiana and mandatory evacuations have been ordered in some places as Tropical Storm Barry formed over the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday morning.
The National Hurricane Center declared Barry the second named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season with maximum sustained winds 40 mph and moving west at 5 mph.
Barry is forecast to make landfall along the Louisiana coast Friday night or Saturday.
“There is a fairly high chance that Tropical Storm Barry will become a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale before making landfall,” according to AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski.
If so, Barry will become the first hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic season.
In terms of impact, AccuWeather is initially designating this a level 2 storm on its RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes. The scale ranges from a 0 to a 5 with 5 having the most severe impact.
“Our greatest concern is for torrential rain that would result in life-threatening flooding,” Kottlowski said.
“Heavy, flooding rainfall is expected over a large area especially over much of eastern Louisiana into parts of southern and central Mississippi and parts of southeastern Arkansas.”
Rainfall totals will average 10-18 inches with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 24 inches.
About AccuWeather
The AccuWeather app for Android phone and tablet users is free at the Google Play store. The AccuWeather iOS app is free at www.AppStore.com. Visit accuweather.com for additional information.
By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
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