Tropical Track Forecast Puts Acadiana Under the Gun Next Week

1,192 miles, that's the estimated distance this morning between Lafayette Louisiana and what is believed to be the center of Tropical Depression 14. Over the next five days, forecasters believe the distance between those two points will decrease dramatically as the storm system moves in the general direction of Louisiana's coast.

As of the 4 am CDT advisory from the National Hurricane Center the system remains a tropical depression that is located very near the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. The system, if it continues to move in a more westward motion could interact with the coastline of those nations during the day today.

From there, forecasters believe Tropical Depression 14 will move in a more northerly direction which should carry it across Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico. By Tuesday of next week, forecasters believe the system will be just off Louisiana's coast as a minimal hurricane.

Most of Acadiana is now included in the National Hurricane Center's cone of uncertainty. I think uncertainty is the operative word here. Over a week's time we've seen the track forecast slide from northern Mexico through the middle and upper Texas coast to now a potential landfall somewhere along Louisiana's coast.

Could the forecast track slide even more to the east? It certainly could, especially if Tropical Depression 14 interacts with Tropical Depression 13 which is forecast to be in the eastern Gulf of Mexico at about the same time.

By the way, that system, Tropical Depression 14 is expected to brush the west coast of Florida during the day on Monday and make a potential landfall in the Florida Panhandle sometime early Wednesday.

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