Good Morning after a sobering night across southeast Louisiana. Crews are covering tornado damage throughout our viewing area this morning, and National Weather Service survey teams will deploy at sunrise to assess official damage reports and tornado ratings.
This is our preliminary track of the Orleans Parish and St. Bernard Parish tornado which began near Gretna, possibly lifted near Algiers Point, crossed the Mississippi River, then caused extreme devastation throughout Arabi and the Lower 9th Ward.
Another survey team will set out on the Northshore near Lacombe up towards the Mississippi state line. This started out as a waterspout over Lake Pontchartrain then continued inland in the Lacombe area just east of Mandeville, heading northeast towards our Mississippi counties.
The good news is our forecast for clean up efforts will be beautiful. Temperatures are now in the 50s and will continue to fall a few degrees as cooler air from last night’s cold front these storms were out ahead of continues filtering in.
This afternoon, we top out in the mid or upper 60s, but 70s for highs return into your weekend. Overnight, the 40s will return across both sides of Lake Pontchartrain. Low rain chances are in the forecast for these next 7 days.
We’ll continue to bring you updated information on tornado ratings as survey teams assess damage. Please stay off of the roads until debris is cleared and powerlines are no longer down.