Tropical Storm Francine tracker: Forecast to become hurricane as it approaches Louisiana
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Francine is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane on Tuesday as it takes aim at the Gulf Coast.
By Tuesday night, Francine is expected to become a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 100 mph.
Landfall is expected on Wednesday in Louisiana, between Cameron and Morgan City, as a Category 2 hurricane.
Heavy rain and strong winds are already lashing South Padre Island, Texas, on Tuesday morning.
Up to 1 foot of rain is forecast for parts of Louisiana from Tuesday night into Wednesday.
Flash flooding will be a significant threat on Wednesday for New Orleans, Lake Charles and Alexandria, Louisiana as well as Jackson, Mississippi.
Storm surge could reach 10 feet along the Louisiana coast.
By Thursday, flooding rain will spread into the Mississippi River Valley, bringing up to 6 inches of rain to Memphis, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Paducah, Kentucky.
(NEW YORK) — A busy series of northern lights activity will soon come to a peak as the sun reaches its solar maximum stage in the coming months.
Several regions in the United States were treated to a multicolored light show earlier this week due to an increase in solar storm activity. The Aurora Borealis display stretched as far south as Arizona, Mississippi and Texas on Monday, images show.
The event followed other viewings in the U.S. in May and January. Opportunities to see the northern lights are expected to increase in the coming months.
How are the northern lights created?
Every 11 years, the sun’s magnetic field reaches its solar maximum, in which the number of solar flares is at its highest, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather and Prediction Center.
The northern lights occur when atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere clash with a solar flare, which causes the atoms in the upper atmosphere to glow, creating a spectrum of color in the night sky.
Earth is currently approaching the peak of Solar Cycle 25, in which more sunspots with intense magnetic activity are expected, according to NOAA. Impactful space weather events are possible throughout 2024.
The current cycle is expected to peak between November 2024 and March 2026, according to NOAA. Northern lights activity will be heightened during this time, scientists say.
After the solar maximum is over, the sun’s magnetic field equalizes and returns to normal.
Where can the northern lights be seen?
The northern lights are visible — typically at the poles — as the solar flares travel through space and into Earth’s magnetic field. In the U.S., the northernmost states, such as Maine and Alaska, have the best viewing opportunities.
The lights can be seen closer to the equator depending on the strength of the geometric storms. But the further south you go, a more reddish hue is visible rather than green. This is because the curvature of the Earth causes the particles to interact higher in the atmosphere.
The Space Weather Prediction Center advises star-gazers to get away from city lights and travel to the darkest location possible for the best viewing.
Typically, within an hour or two of midnight tends to be the best time, according to NOAA.
It is notoriously hard to predict when an Aurora Borealis will occur, scientists say. Often, auroras can occur with just a 30-minute warning, according to the Michigan Technological University. Researchers typically use satellites to measure the speed and density of solar wind to forecast when conditions are favorable for the northern lights to occur.
On Thursday, the northern lights may be visible from Fairbanks to as far south as Unalakleet, Talkeetna and Tok in Alaska, according to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, Geophysical Institute website, which tracks the phenomenon.
Intense geomagnetic storms can potentially disrupt navigation systems by interfering with radio and GPS signals, as well as electrical power networks, due to the subatomic particles that bombard the Earth, according to NOAA.
(WILLINGBORO, N.J.) — Police are searching for the gunman who shot and killed a mother and daughter during a home invasion in New Jersey.
Catherine Nunez, 33, and her mother, Marisol Nunez, 54. were found dead in an upstairs bedroom of their home in Willingboro early Wednesday, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said.
It appears the intruder broke a first-floor window to enter the home, prosecutors said.
No arrests have been made, prosecutors said.
Authorities said they believe the crime wasn’t random and don’t think other residents in the neighborhood are at risk.
(NEW YORK) — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump will return to court Thursday, seeking to reverse the ruling from a New York judge that held him liable for business fraud and ordered him to pay $454 million.
Lawyers will present oral arguments before an intermediate appeals court in New York, following a February ruling from Judge Arthur Engoron that found Trump liable for frauds that Engoron said “shock the conscience.”
Trump, his eldest sons, and two top Trump Organization executives exaggerated Trump’s wealth to secure better terms from lenders, Engoron found during an 11-week trial in Lower Manhattan.
In a written submission to the New York Appellate Division’s First Department prior to Thursday’s hearing, Trump’s attorneys pressed many of the same arguments they made during the trial, insisting that New York Attorney General Letitia James misused the law to bring a political case, and arguing that Trump undervalued, not overvalued, his assets.
“President Trump stands among the most visionary and iconic real estate developers in American history,” the defense filing said. “As trial evidence highlighted, banks and lenders vied eagerly for his business. They acknowledged his unique ‘vision’ and unparalleled ‘expertise,’ and they recognized that dealing with him would deliver ‘tremendous’ value.”
The attorney general’s office said it was not required to prove any lender was harmed.
“Indeed, one of [the law’s] core remedial purposes is to protect the honesty and integrity of commercial marketplaces in New York by stopping fraudulent and illegal practices before they cause financial losses to market participants or broader harms to the public,” the office wrote in a submission to the appellate court.
The attorney general’s office argued that Engoron correctly decided Trump and his codefendants “used a variety of deceptive strategies to vastly misrepresent the values of nearly all the assets and asset categories,” inflating his net worth by as much as $2.2 billion.
Engoron, in his ruling, determined that Trump valued his apartment as if its square footage was triple its actual size; that he valued rent regulated apartments as if they were unregulated; and that he valued his Mar-a-Lago estate as if deed restrictions did not exist.
Trump, following the ruling, secured a $175 million bond while he appeals the judgment.
