For a while there, it looked like Tropical Storm Chantal was going to come in and ruin everybody's weekend by being all tropical stormy on our asses.
But now, she isn't looking so tough, thanks to her weakening overnight and what with Cuba's mountainous terrains battering her enough to slow down the storm's progress.
Thanks, Cuba!
The very latest from the National Hurricane Center is that by the time Chantal hits our neck of the woods on Friday, it is expected to be downgraded to a Tropical Depression :(
Chantal might also be downgraded even further, to a tropical wave, before Friday, when it gets hit by wind shear and with its interaction with land while crossing over Hispaniola and Cuba.
The storm's track, however, has veered more westward, toward the state, which means we could start to see stormy weather around Friday morning (just in time for morning rush hour!).
We could also see a lot of rain, but nothing like we saw when Tropical Storm Andrea paid us a visit a few weeks ago.
Bottom line, we're still going to get wet, but it won't be a tropical storm event.
So, there's the good news. The bad news is, the weekend is going to be wet.
As of 8 a.m. today, Chantal was 155 miles southwest of the Dominican Republic, moving northwest at 29 mph with 45 mph sustained winds.
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