Gustav could become a major hurricane...interesting weather here too...

Gustav is a 90mph hurricane this morning, and land interaction with southwestern Haiti will occur with the next 12 hours or so. However, after that, Gustav will likely bend back to the WNW or W and head through the bath water-warm water temps just south of Cuba. As Gustav traverses the south side of Cuba, it has the chance to become a major hurricane.

There is still a good deal of divergence in the model data down the road, however, I am now confident this will head into the Gulf of Mexico. To me, the most likely scenario at this point looks to be an eventual landfall on the central or western Gulf coast. And odds favor this being a significant hurricane. All interests along the Gulf coast need to closely monitor Gustav.

App State is down in Baton Rouge Saturday to take on LSU, and my Mississippi State Bulldogs are in Ruston to open the season with Louisiana Tech. Gustav should not be an issue....Gulf landfall would likely be next work week.

Around here, a wet day is on tap as tropical moisture continues to get lifted up our way. In the Piedmont, 1-3" of rain could fall between this morning and tomorrow, with some locally heavier amounts possible. Even higher amounts of rain will occur in the mountains and foothills.

I do need to mention there is some risk for a spin-off tornado, especially this afternoon and tonight. Obviously, instability values will not be very high due to the clouds and rain. However, helicity values look to be very high, so even though the wind fields (speed of the winds) are not overly impressive, a couple of tornadoes look possible.