Marine Tropical Storm — Coastal Waters From Boothville Louisiana To Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River Out 20 Nm, Gulf of Mexico

2019-07-11 to 2019-07-13 · Coastal Waters From Boothville Louisiana To Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River Out 20 Nm, Gulf of Mexico

Event narrative

Observations at Pilots Station East (PSTL1) reported 45 knot sustained wind and 57 knot gusts at 17:42 CDT on the 12th. The WeatherFlow observation from the East Bay Tower reported a 43 knot sustained wind and 56 knot gust around 10 am CDT on the 12th. The AWOS platform KMIS in Main Pass Block 140B reported a 44 knot sustained wind and 54 knot gust at 4:35 CDT on the 13th.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Barry initially developed from a disturbance that moved from Georgia southwest to the northeast Gulf of Mexico on July 8-9, 2019. The weak low pressure system continued to move west-southwest and strengthen, and was eventually classified as Tropical Storm Barry on the morning of July 11th, 95 miles south southeast of the Mouth of the Mississippi River.

Barry continued to move slowly west then northwest and briefly reached hurricane strength on the morning of July 13th before landfall in south-central Louisiana near Intracoastal City, LA, in Vermillion Parish. Tropical storm force winds, reached the southeast Louisiana coast by midday on Friday, July 12th and spread slowly northwest reaching the Baton Rouge area during the evening of July 12th. Tropical storm wind impacts had ended across all of southeast Louisiana by midday on July 14th. Tropical storm force winds were primarily measured in gusts across southeast Louisiana. The

exception was in Terrebonne and Assumption Parishes, close to the landfall location, where sustained tropical storm force winds and frequent gusts caused more significant power line and tree damage. A few tropical storm wind gusts were recorded in the metro New Orleans area but were not very impactful. No hurricane force wind gusts were recorded in southeast Louisiana. A WeatherFlow site at Dulac, Terrebonne Parish, recorded both the maximum sustained wind and highest wind gust on 07/13/2019 at 0739CST: 42kt/48 mph and 59kt/ 68 mph, respectively. The lowest minimum pressure measured in southeast Louisiana was at the Bootheville, LA ASOS with a pressure of 999.3mb on July 12th, at 1706CST.

Mostly minor to moderate storm surge flooding occurred across coastal southeast Louisiana, including Lake Pontchartrain, and a small part of the Mississippi Coast. Terrebonne Parish had significant storm surge flooding in the lower portion of the parish with storm tides of 5 to 8 feet, locally up to 9 feet. Several local levees were overtopped on the morning of July 13th, flooding roads and a few houses. The highest storm tide reading was 9.11 feet NAVD88 at a USGS tide gage at Caillou Lake near Dulac, Terrebonne Parish. The remainder of the area had storm tide readings in the 3 to 5 foot range.

Storm total rainfall was generally between 4 and 8 inches with a maximum rainfall of 8.83 inches recorded northeast of Denham Springs, Livingston Parish. Isolated flash flooding of streets and secondary roadways occurred on Sunday, July 13th in the greater Baton Rouge area, but flash flooding was not widespread or significant.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 846158. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.