Forecasters warn of tornado risk as Laura tracks inland

As Laura tracks inland following its landfall along the Louisiana coast early Thursday morning, the storm's impacts will be far-reaching and spread through portions of the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio valleys through the end of the week.

Some of the dangerous risks that forecasters are expecting include damaging wind gusts, flooding and the potential for tornadoes.

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As AccuWeather Broadcast Meteorologist Geoff Cornish explained earlier this month when Isaias made landfall in the Carolinas, a city's location, relative to the track of a tropical storm or hurricane's path, determines if that city is at a higher risk for tornadoes than others.

"If you find yourself east of the track of the storm, the right front quadrant of the storm, you're going to be in that spot where there is a risk of tornadoes," Cornish said.

Isaias created a tornado outbreak from the Carolinas to mid-Atlantic earlier this month that was one of the biggest on record from a tropical system. Now, forecasters say there is a threat of tornadoes from Laura as the potent storm moves inland.

"The risk area for tornadoes will be to the right side of the system as it moves inland through Friday," AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said.

As of 8 a.m. CDT Friday, there have been a total of six tornado reports as a result of Laura. Two were in southern Louisiana, two were in eastern Arkansas and two were in northern Mississippi. There have been no reports of injuries due to the storms..

"A lack of dry air circulating into Laura thus far has something to do with the lack of tornadoes into early Friday," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bob Smerbeck, "But as Laura ingests dry air, we may very well see an uptick in tornadoes."

As Laura tracks across the southern U.S., the storm will begin to lose wind intensity. However, winds could gust between 40 and 60 mph as far north as southern Illinois and Indiana in lieu of any thunderstorms.

Wind this strong can knock over trees, break large tree limbs and lead to power outages.

Motorists should avoid parking under trees and driving through areas where there are large trees along the roads, which can come down at any time. Where trees have pulled down power lines, people should avoid the area as wet surfaces can allow the electric current to travel.

While rain from Laura will be heavy and likely to lead to urban, small stream and some river flooding, it should not be a repeat of Harvey as this storm will keep moving along. Harvey stalled over eastern Texas for days and brought several feet of rain and catastrophic flooding.

A general 4-8 inches of rain is forecast with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ rainfall of 12 inches in western Louisiana, northeastern Texas and southwestern and central Arkansas. But, since much of the rain will occur in less than 12 hours, flash flooding of urban areas and along small streams are anticipated.

As Laura takes a turn to the east, it will continue weakening through Saturday. But, there is a chance it maintains some sort of circulation as a rainstorm, after spending days over land.

As the storm accelerates eastward this weekend, rainfall amounts are forecast to be lower across Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, generally in the 1- to 2-inch range.

Depending on how Laura interacts with a non-tropical system in the Eastern states, there may be more general coverage of heavy, gusty thunderstorms with isolated severe weather. This is possible in portions of the Northeast and the Southeastern states.

As Laura merges with the other non-tropical feature, an area of heavy rain and locally gusty winds can occur in parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, southern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, southeastern New York state and perhaps southeastern New England this weekend. The non-tropical system can bring locally heavy rainfall to parts of northern New York state and northern New England as well.

Farther north, areas of the Great Lakes and parts of the Northeast that are dealing with drought conditions will not receive any rain from Laura, although a cold front may bring some beneficial rainfall. Both the front and Laura are expected to move offshore by Sunday.

There is a chance that Laura regenerates off the mid-Atlantic coast late this weekend or early next week. The system could become a tropical storm all over again.

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