It's been quite the 24 hours across south Louisiana as Hurricane Laura barreled onto our coastline as a major category 4 storm late Wednesday night.
The extent of the damage in Lake Charles is widespread as the clean-up and recover efforts get underway. This is likely to take several months and perhaps years.
Although we did not take a direct hit in Acadiana, we still saw our fair share of damage with localized flooding in certain spots.
As quick as the clouds, wind, and rains moved through, they were suddenly gone and sunshine returned to the region on Thursday.
The storm, however, left behind a very humid and sticky air mass, so it won't feel anything close to pleasant overnight tonight and into Friday morning as lows struggle to fall back into the upper 70s.
What we'll have to be on the lookout for are tropical rain bands that try and re-develop Friday morning and linger through some parts of tomorrow afternoon due to an upper-level feature that will move in and tap into a moist air mass.
Some of these storms could be on the stronger side with localized heavy rainfall and gusty winds.
Keep in mind that any rainfall that develops tomorrow will be falling over already saturated grounds, so localized flooding could be an issue.
Rain chances come back down slightly for the weekend, but scattered showers and storms will be possible in our afternoons.
Rain chances continue to come down heading into next week as more of a typical summertime pattern looks to set up.
In the tropics: We now have 2 new small areas of interest out in the Atlantic that we are monitoring, but both have a small chance of development in the next 5 days. We will continue to watch.
