From abc13 (HOU) met Travis Herzog:
8PM Thursday Tropical Update:
Barry is getting a little stronger in the Gulf, and I don't like that I'm seeing an increased spread in the computer model forecasts this evening. We're just 24-48 hours from Barry making landfall, and we still don't have a good lock on when it will turn north.
Let me be clear: Louisiana is going to receive severe impacts from Barry. I would strongly discourage travel through the state this weekend.
But for us in Houston, we still having this lingering uncertainty over our impacts. I don't think they'll be serious like what will happen to our friends in Cajun country, but I won't have complete peace until I see Barry either form a single center of circulation or make the turn north.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, we have a guarded optimism about the impacts here in southeast Texas, but our local National Weather Service office cautioned we must remain vigilant until it makes that turn north or confidence grows in the forecast. Even the National Hurricane Center is still cautioning about the higher than normal level of uncertainty with the track.
We should know when wake up Friday whether the forecast model aimed at Houston is right or wrong. It shows a straight west path while the others make a northwest turn. The reason that particular model, known as the UKMET, is not taken lightly is because it is historically the 2nd best performing model when it comes to hurricane tracks.
You can watch my latest in-depth update here, including different rainfall scenarios based on it if tracks up the middle of the cone, along the left edge of the cone, or along the right edge of the cone:
https://abc13.com/weather/eye-on-the-gu ... r/5383125/I'll update you again in the morning.