Thursday 7 PM Tropical Update: Hurricane Delta gaining strength, remains...

Hurricane Warnings have been issued west of Grand Isle. East of Morgan City to the Mouth of the Pearl River is under a Tropical Storm Warning this includes the City of New Orleans and lakes. East of the Pearl River to Bay St. Louis is under a Tropical Storm Watch.

Storm Surge Warning is in effect from Sabina Pass east to Ocean Springs, MS including Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas and Lake Borgne.

Hurricane Delta remains a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 115 mph. The pressure is falling and that is a sign Delta is getting stronger. The wind field will be expanding today as Delta moves to the NW across the warm Gulf waters.

It will make a turn to a more northerly direction later today as a trough of low pressure over Texas pulls the storm. A few rain bands will move across SE Louisiana and some of them could have tornadoes starting tonight. The trough will then pull Delta north toward SW Louisiana on Friday. Delta will move over some slightly cooler waters and this will help to weaken the storm, but possibly still as a 3 at landfall Friday afternoon/evening along the southwest Louisiana coast.

The track remains roughly the same, over SW Louisiana. The hurricane is likely to be a big storm and moving quickly. It will not be able to weaken a lot over the cooler waters, so the impacts will still be a problem for all of the Louisiana coast.