More rain today, Elsa nearing Florida landfall

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Grab an umbrella on your way out the door with showers and thunderstorms across the area again today. Much like recent days, a few showers will impact the area through mid-morning, with increasing coverage during the late morning, giving way to fairly widespread showers and thunderstorms by afternoon. Clouds and rains should keep highs several degrees below normal for most of us today, with temperatures topping out in the mid to upper 80s.

Rain chances will remain above normal through the end of the week, but rain coverage will trend slightly lower than recent days for Thursday and Friday. Thursday’s rain chances are posted at 60% and I’ve got them at 50% for Friday. The trend of generally manageable rainfall totals, with isolated hot spots of much heavier totals will continue.

There is some uncertainty in the forecast by the time we get to the weekend. Model guidance had been suggesting that high pressure would build in from the east and at least provide a modest reduction in rain chances. But more recent guidance has trended toward a weaker ridge of high pressure, meaning that scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms may persist into the weekend. For now, I’ve got rain chances at 40% to 50%, but those may have to be nudged higher, especially on Sunday.

In the tropics, Elsa will make landfall in Florida today. After a brief period of intensification that brought the storm to hurricane intensity on Tuesday, some weakening occurred overnight, with maximum winds listed at 65 mph as of the 4 a.m.

Wednesday advisory. After landfall, Elsa will track across parts of the southeastern U.S. before eventually emerging back over the western Atlantic.

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