BALTIMORE — After nearly a month of no named storms in the Atlantic basin, the tropics are heating up and Francine has been named as of the 11 AM update on 9/19/24. Currently, as of the 10 AM update on 9/11/24, Francine continues to be a category one hurricane along the Gulf Coast moving slowly to the NE at 13 mph. This storm has maximum sustained winds of 90 mph.
This tropical disturbance will move over land in the coming days weakening the storm. Models are projecting the storm to maintain category-one status as it approaches Louisiana. Tropical storm and hurricane watches and warnings are still in place for Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
Yesterday was the official peak of hurricane season, so we hopefully will start to quiet down more.
There are also two areas of interest in the central Atlantic that have tabs kept on. Both of these "yellow x" areas have less than a 30% chance of development over the next two days. Additionally, the National Hurricane Center has named Tropical Depression Seven off of the coast of Africa. For now, none of these tropical waves looks to impact us here in Maryland.
