Severe Storms Moving Across Acadiana This Early Morning

As of 1:15, the National Weather Service Office in Lake Charles has posted a severe thunderstorm warning for persons who live in Eastern Allen Parish. Here's the way the warning reads from the NWS:

The National Weather Service in Lake Charles has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...
  Eastern Allen Parish in southwestern Louisiana...

* Until 145 AM CDT.

* At 109 AM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Allen Parish
  Airport, or near Oakdale, moving southwest at 30 mph.

  HAZARD...Two inch hail and 60 mph wind gusts.

  SOURCE...Radar indicated.

  IMPACT...People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail
           damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles. Expect
           wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...
  Oakdale, Oberlin, Allen Parish Airport and Harmony.

The storm is one of many that have rumbled across the area in the nighttime hours of Tuesday into this early Wednesday morning.

Here is a link to the live radar scan coming out of NWS Lake Charles. The image above was captured at 1:20 from that scan. As you can see there is a large and long band of precipitation with come embedded heavy to severe storms.

The heaviest activity is the thunderstorm cell, the bright red dot on Highway 165 between Lake Charles and Alexandria. The severe storm is moving to the southwest at 30 mph while the general motion of the entire area of showers was drifting to the south.

It does appear as if the band of showers and associated storms is weakening but the system could still produce strong gusty winds, heavy downpours, and gusty winds with frequent lightning as it moves through the heart of Acadiana this morning.

The forecast for the rest of Wednesday calls for showers to decrease as the early morning hours fade into the sunrise. However, more showers and storms will be firing up across the area thanks to daytime heating and high humidity. The rain chances are listed at 50% for most of Acadiana. Today's high will still be slightly above normal at 95 degrees but as of now, no heat advisories are posted for the area today.