miles per hour. here is the hurricane hunters. not one, but two different missions that are out there. now, one of the measurements is 161. if you remember from what christi said, 157 is the threshold. will they take that reading or split the difference here? we are waiting for that update. the outer bands are starting to move in. you are starting to notice that heavy rain across areas of louisiana. we have a tornado warning in effect right here. you can see that pink dot. these are going to become more frequent throughout the day. the thing with the tornado warnings and tropical systems, they spin up very fast. you don t have a lot of warning. that s why you have the tornado watch so you are aware that those things can happen today. this is valid to 8:00 p.m. eastern time tonight including mobile, biloxi, new orleans. storm surge numbers are already starting to go up. a lot of these areas three, even four feet now. but this is not the peakism want you to understand that. those numbers
intensification it has to increase 35 miles per hour in less than 24 hours. we jumped 40 miles per hour in just six hours. six hours. we did rapid intensification in six hours when you normally do it in 24. the hurricane hunters are out. they are still investigating this system, trying to determine, okay, is this storm going to continue to strengthen? what are the highest winds? where is the center of the storm? they will look at it until landfall today, expected to be early this afternoon, a few hours from now. it is expected to make landfall as a category 4 storm in louisiana. now, we are starting to see some of those storm surge numbers begin to tick up. this is not the peak number. i want to emphasize that. most of these areas about two to three feet. but those numbers are going to continue to go up throughout the day. we are starting to see those outer bands also begin to spread into some of theers areas, not just louisiana, but mississippi, alabama, even areas of florida.
but looking at new orleans now, you are starting to see some of these really heavy rain bands begin to push in with even additional lightning, too. we showed the storm surge numbers of where they are now. this is where they are expected to peak. this pink area 12 to 16 feet, here 8 to 12. some of these numbers have gone up one to two feet from a few hours ago because the storm is stronger. c some of these numbers may have changed from what they were when you went to bed last night. the other thing, too, phil and christi, those winds. it s not just the storm surge, but the winds. which is why power outages are expected to be such a widespread concern as well. allison, thank you so much for the update. let s go to cnn s derek van dam live in louisiana. help us understand what it s like there because according to the radar it looked like you would be feeling this right now. i think i hear some rain behind you. what do you see? reporter: definitely the
moderate flash flood risk across several states here. another thing to note. when the ground is saturated like that, it doesn t take very strong winds. usually but 40 or 60 miles per hour to bring trees and power lines down. the forecast is calling for winds much stronger than that. you can see the red area. 75 to 110-mile-per-hour wind gusts. this purple area including montauk, perhaps even higher than that which is why we re anticipating such widespread power outages. not just sunday but for the days after as well. storms are just going to be a big concern, especially right there along the coast from nantucket, providence, down through east hampton. about 3 to 5 feet there but even areas like boston and the jersey shore, in theory, pretty far from where the landfall point will be. they can still expect some storm surge numbers around 1:00 to 3:00 feet. one other thing to point out, for some of these locations, when landfall is happening, high tide may also be occurring, jim, and one
a very large eye wall. still there showing that the storm is still very strong at this point in time. here s a look at forward tracking. this is what we talked about. we do still anticipate landfall likely over portions of north carolina, but until then you ve got very strong storm surge pushing into north and south carolina and very heavy rain band. one of the other concerns we re starting to see now is the addition of tornado warnings. we have one in north carolina and one in south carolina right now. most of those tend to favor the northeast quadrant, and that s the stuff that s going to be making its way inland as we go through the day today. those are still likely for north and south carolina. greater water spouts and damaging winds that are going to be associated with the storms. perhaps one of the biggest threats to this storm for the carolinas and georgia is going to be the flooding. here s a look at the storm surge numbers. places like savannah and charlesto charlestown, 4 to