Hurricane Fausto’s maximum sustained winds climbed to 75 mph over the past 24 hours, the National Hurricane Center reports, even as the National Weather Service’s alert count leveled off at 41 across Alabama and Louisiana after nearly tripling the day before.
The wind increase — up from 70 mph a day earlier — marks the most significant development overnight, pushing Fausto further into hurricane strength. But unlike Monday’s sharp escalation from 15 to 40 alerts, the warned area has largely stabilized, suggesting forecasters see the current footprint holding rather than expanding further for now. The National Hurricane Center has not issued updated forward-motion data for the storm.
The bulk of active alerts remain marine warnings covering the bays, sounds and open Gulf waters from southeast Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. Areas under warning include Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas, Barataria Bay, Terrebonne Bay, Breton and Chandeleur sounds, and both North and South Mobile Bay, along with Perdido Bay and the Pensacola Bay Area including Santa Rosa Sound. Coverage extends to coastal waters off Pensacola, Florida, and out to the Okaloosa-Walton County line, meaning tropical storm conditions are possible well east of the Alabama-Louisiana alerts driving today’s count.
The National Weather Service says southwest to easterly winds of 25 to 35 knots with gusts up to 50 knots are possible across these waters, with seas building to 7 to 12 feet nearshore and 12 to 17 feet over the open Gulf. On land, Louisiana’s Upper Jefferson, Upper Lafourche, Lower Lafourche, Upper Plaquemines and Upper Terrebonne areas remain under warning as well.
The National Weather Service’s safety instructions are direct: mariners should alter plans to avoid hazardous conditions, remain in port, seek safe harbor, alter course or secure vessels against the wind and seas. Officials warn that tropical-storm-force winds and hazardous seas could capsize or damage vessels and reduce visibility across the warned waters.
A second system, Tropical Storm Bertha, continues to churn with sustained winds near 45 mph, unchanged from the previous day. The National Hurricane Center has not reported a change in Bertha’s intensity or listed it as an immediate threat to the Gulf Coast in the data available today.
Residents and mariners along the coast from New Orleans and Mobile to Pensacola should continue monitoring official National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center updates as Fausto’s intensity trend continues to be assessed.