Tropical Storm Sally to Intensify Into a Hurricane; Serious Threat of Storm Surge, Flooding Rain Headed For Gulf Coast

Tropical Storm Sally is expected to intensify into a hurricane as it tracks into the northern Gulf Coast, where it will bring an extremely dangerous storm surge, flooding rainfall and damaging winds early this week. Sally will also pose a threat of flooding rainfall farther inland across parts of the Southeast. A hurricane warning has been issued for portions of southeastern Louisiana east of Morgan City, Louisiana eastward to the Mississippi/Alabama border, including Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas and metropolitan New Orleans. Hurricane conditions (winds 74 mph or greater) are expected in some parts of this area by late Monday and Tuesday. A storm surge warning is also in effect from Port Fourchon, Louisiana, to the border between Alabama and Florida, including Mobile Bay, Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas and Lake Borgne.

Sally is centered over 100 miles east-southeast of southeast Louisiana. The system will arrive on the northern Gulf Coast beginning late Monday and Tuesday and could be a Category 1 hurricane as it nears landfall, according to the latest National Hurricane Center forecast. The highest storm surge of 7 to 11 feet is expected from the mouth of the Mississippi River to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, including Lake Borgne. The latest rainfall forecast from the NHC shows 8 to 16 inches with locally up to 24 inches on the Gulf Coast from the western Florida Panhandle to southern Alabama, southern Mississippi and far southeast Louisiana into the middle of the week. There will be an increasing chance of isolated tornadoes from Sally later Monday, from southeast Louisiana to southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle.