Late Afternoon Notes on Rita

.....She was centered about 25 miles SSW of Shreveport, moving north at 12 mph.
.....Will weaken further to a tropical depression tonight
.....Tropical depressions can also dump tons of rain
.....She will move north, slow down, and then gradually curve toward the east.
.....Official track forecast sends her to Shreveport, then eastward to Little Rock.
.....To near Memphis by midday Monday
.....Then curving SE into NE Mississippi near Tupelo by mid-day Thursday.
.....Now that will be very, very interesting as they used to say on Laugh-in (do you remember that whacky TV program)
.....all along this track, she will dump a whole bunch of rain (as my young daughter used to say)
.....Look for some serious inland flooding.

LATE AFTERNOON SPOT REPORTS
New Orleans...rain, wind south 29, gusts 39
Baton Rouge...cloudy, wind SE 26, gusts 35
Lafayette...cloudy, wind south 26, gusts 43
Alexandra...rain, wind south 29, gusts 43
Shreveport...heavy rain, wind east 24, gusts 36
Texarkana...rain, wind NE 29, gusts 40

FLASH FLOODING
.....Numerous roads underwater in the Shreveport area and other parts of NW Louisiana.
.....Shreveport Airport has been reporting heavy rain for hours.
.....Rainfall of 8.46 inches had already accumulated at Center by 1:30 this afternoon and heavy rainhas continued most of the time since then.

(Scan down for other recent posts including an Alabama update and reports of serious tornadoes in West and NW Missippi)