Hurricane Laura could bring heavy rain to Mid-South

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Hurricane Laura is expected to strengthen as it moves through the warm water in the Gulf of Mexico.

Laura is forecasted to make landfall along the western Louisiana coast on Wednesday night as a major category 3 hurricane with at least 100 mph winds.

As it makes landfall, it will quickly weaken and move north towards Arkansas. This will result in heavy rain and gusty winds across the Mid-South.

WHEN: The rain bands from Laura will start moving into our area Wednesday. With these tropical systems, you get rounds of rain and then several hours with dry (and sometimes sunny) conditions. This will also be the case on Thursday, so it will not be an all-day rain event. The heaviest rain from Laura will be over our area Friday morning through Saturday.

IMPACTS: With tropical systems, abundant moisture can result in very heavy rain. This can cause 1-2 inches to drop within an hour and can cause flash flooding. The greatest threat for flooding will be on Friday into early Saturday, especially in west Tennessee and Arkansas. Most of the area will receive 1-3″ of rain, but some areas could receive higher totals. We will also have a threat for gusty winds up to 30 mph on Friday. Thankfully, we are not anticipating severe weather.

Since Laura still has not made landfall yet, our forecast will become more refined as we get later in the week. Please keep checking back with your First Alert Weather Team for updates.