00:00Back here, the meteorologist, Tony Laubach. Tony is live for us this morning in Port Arthur, Texas.
00:05That was a conversation we had yesterday. Bernie told you where to go, and that's where you went.
00:10Yeah, that's exactly where I went. When Bernie says go somewhere, Tony goes somewhere.
00:15And knowing me as the tornado guy, I typically am always looking for that.
00:20Where do you want me to sit here for tropical systems?
00:23And we're going to be right off US 96 here in Port Arthur, not very far from where this will
00:29likely come on shore here later this afternoon.
00:31Currently, as we're standing here right now, mainly just kind of a slow drizzle and maybe some winds in the
00:405 to 10 mile an hour range.
00:42Those have been more common, I would say, not necessarily stronger, but we've seen it more consistent here over the
00:49last couple hours.
00:50This morning when I got up, we were clear skies and you could see it was really kind of cool
00:54as you got up.
00:55You could see kind of the shield, the outer shield of the cloud deck starting to roll in here.
01:01And then once that kind of filled in, that was pretty much the end of the sunshine that we're going
01:06to see here along the coast today.
01:07So we're expecting conditions to deteriorate probably pretty slowly at first.
01:13I always kind of compare tropical systems to a slow burn.
01:15It takes a little while and then once you start to get closer to landfall, that's when things really ramp
01:20up and they do so in a big old hurry.
01:23But really, it's kind of a gradual buildup.
01:26We're going to be talking winds probably in that 5, 10 mile an hour range here and then they'll slowly.
01:32To the center of the storm, 15, 20, 25 miles per hour, it kind of creeps up.
01:37And then as we get closer to the center of that roving on shore, that is when things really start
01:41to take off, especially in the hour or so right up until landfall.
01:46And then on the backside of that, that's kind of the weird thing with some of these systems.
01:50It's you get the front side.
01:52That's kind of the anticipation.
01:53Then the center rolls in.
01:55Things kind of calm down a little bit.
01:57And then what's on the backside often is really the strongest part, at least in my experience with tropical systems
02:03over the last few years.
02:04It's the backside of the eye that really has the punch.
02:07And it kind of gets that lull into you because you've got that calming that comes in.
02:12So it's that gradual buildup to the front side.
02:14You get hit and then it calms down for a little bit in the center.
02:18And then boom, all of a sudden you're on the backside, which seems almost is ferocious in that case.
02:23As you guys have been talking about, one of the stories with this is going to be how small this
02:27system is.
02:28So it's not going to be a very long time in the center of this thing.
02:32And again, with how small it is, that is going to help with that intensification process.
02:36As you mentioned, we might be talking about a low in Cat 1 when this thing rolls on shore here
02:41later this afternoon.
02:42So really the plan is just going to be kind of to stick here in this area.
02:45There's not a lot of beaches necessarily in our neck of the woods.
02:49We've got a wildlife refuge where this thing will likely come on shore.
02:52We're probably between here and the town of Winnie that's just off to the west a little bit.
02:57So I'll be kind of hunkering down in that vicinity, kind of waiting for things to come on shore here
03:02later this afternoon.
03:03And then hopefully things get out of here pretty quickly as we get later in tonight.
03:07I will say one benefit I have heard a lot of folks talking about in here.
03:10It's going to be the rain.
03:11While there's going to be a lot of it and is going to present some flooding issues,
03:14there are a lot of folks along this narrow path that are going to be feeling kind of lucky
03:19because it has been pretty bone dry here this summer.
03:22So the rain will be helpful.
03:23Of course, as it always seems to be, guys, it just comes too much at once.
03:27We can never have just a simple like here.
03:30Here's a nice dousing rain.
03:32So with the good comes the bad, and that's going to be the bad.
03:35But we'll be out here keeping track of things for you through the afternoon.
03:38And we'll be looking forward to see what Edward brings when he comes on shore here this afternoon.
