Laura weakens into a tropical depression as it moves inland

As of 11 p.m. Thursday, Laura has weakened into a tropical depression over central Arkansas with maximum sustained winds down to 35 mph.

What’s left of Laura will continue to move north-northeast through the rest of Thursday night before taking a sharper turn to the east beginning Friday afternoon as it gets swept up with the upper level pattern of the atmosphere. From here, Laura will accelerate and weaken further into a remnant low Friday night, where it is expected to bring some heavier rain to the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and over to the Mid-Atlantic states through Saturday.

So, with Laura weakening, we turn our attention back to the Atlantic, where we now have two new tropical waves, both with a 30% chance of becoming a tropical storm or tropical depression.

Stay tuned and make sure you continue to check back for updates! The next names on the list are Nana and Omar. We are now exactly two weeks out from the climatological peak of hurricane season (September 10th).