USA Today's latest hurricane report says Hurricane Francine is moving northeast in the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters expect the latest storm in the Atlantic to reach hurricane status before making landfall on the Louisiana coast today (September 11).
Hurricane Francine is actively strengthening, with high water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico likely acting as "rocket fuel" for the storm to accelerate, according to AccuWeather hurricane forecaster Alex Dasilva.
Francine is picking up speed, moving at about 10 mph (16 km/h), with sustained winds of 65 mph (105 km/h), 10 mph (16 km/h) below hurricane strength, according to the latest hurricane bulletin from the US National Hurricane Center.
At 5:00 p.m. on September 10, local time, the center of storm No. 6 was nearly 220 km east of the Rio Grande River and nearly 600 km southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana.
The latest storm of the 2024 hurricane season is forecast to make landfall along the central Louisiana coast on the afternoon of September 11, between Lafayette and Houma. Francine is expected to move north, dumping heavy rain in Mississippi and then north into the Mississippi Valley as a tropical depression, moving toward Memphis by the night of September 12.
According to the latest hurricane report from the New York Times, Hurricane Francine may be fueled by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Francine is forecast to strengthen into a Category 2 hurricane or even stronger before making landfall.
As of the afternoon of September 9, the seawater temperature in the area of Hurricane Francine has reached the ideal level of warm water in a bathtub, enough to fuel, intensify and sustain a hurricane. As the ideal conditions continue to strengthen, hurricane forecasters are not ruling out the possibility that Francine will become a stronger storm, even a Category 3 or higher.
Brian McNoldy, an expert on hurricane formation and ocean temperatures at the University of Miami, said that if conditions were near perfect, Hurricane No. 6 would likely intensify unexpectedly quickly. Some computer models predicting hurricanes also found that Hurricane Francine could reach Category 3 or 4 strength.
Hurricane forecaster McNoldy said energy levels in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico could provide fuel for a storm that would continue to crush hurricane records from 2012.
The National Hurricane Center has also predicted the possibility of a rapid strengthening of the storm in its forecasts. A meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles said it is always best to be prepared for a stronger storm than the forecast.
Francine is the sixth storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season and the first hurricane since Hurricane Ernesto in mid-August.
Hurricane Francine is one of three systems being monitored by the U.S. Hurricane Center. A depression in the tropical Atlantic has a 40 percent chance of becoming a tropical storm in the next 48 hours. A depression farther east has a 70 percent chance of becoming a hurricane in the next week.
