From the Spaceflight Meteorology Group:
[ BLUF ]
The National Hurricane Center is anticipating Tropical Storm Francine being upgraded to a hurricane later today (max winds 74-110 mph). Overnight, very little change to the intensity or organization of the storm occurred keeping the sustained winds around 65 mph with northerly movement (340 @ 6 mph). As of the early morning today, the mid-level trough has entered the Gulf and will begin shifting the movement of Francine to the northeast 020 @ 8 mph. Francine is still forecast to achieve category two (max winds 96-110 mph) before making landfall in Louisiana.
[ Guidance ]
Guidance continues to show the mid-level ridge/trough as the key steering features with good model agreement on the forecast track towards Louisiana. As it approaches the shallow waters near the Louisiana Coast, a slight bump in intensity will occur right before making landfall, although it should be modest increase due to the less encouraging atmospheric environment. Tropical Storm Watches have been issued for most of the Texas Coast south and west of the east-side of Galveston Bay (High Island). Tropical Storm Warnings issued east of Galveston Bay (High Island) to Cameron, La with Hurricane Warnings thru most of Louisiana. Peak storm surge expected for Galveston Bay 1-3 feet.
[ Houston/JSC Impacts ]
With the slight shift in the northeasterly movement and updates to the forecast track / strengthening of Francine current wind estimates put us around 20-40% chance (Lowered from 09Sep-PM) for 39 mph Tropical Storm Force winds and <5% chance (Lowered from 09Sep-PM) for 58 mph winds.
Winds have started to pick up out of the east at 10 mph/Gusting 20 mph. Will continue to see a steady increase until Wednesday afternoon with peak winds at 20 mph/Gusting 30 mph and then dying off by Wednesday evening and returning to normal by Friday.
Precipitation is localized to the Galveston Coastline currently from the shifts in the movement/track of Francine. Currently expect 1-2 inches (Lowered form 09Sep-PM) with a 5% chance of flash flooding (Lowered form 09Sep-PM). Expect light isolated showers IVO JSC (Especially Southeast) to start this afternoon and pick up overnight. Will persist into Wednesday peaking in the afternoon and dying off by Thursday morning.