Louisiana Lake Closed for the Strangest Reason Ever

Severe weather has been marching across Louisiana for the past several weeks. While the brunt of the worst of the storms has not affected everyone in the state, just about every Louisiana resident has gotten their share of high winds, heavy rain, frequent lighting, and wind related damage.

The wind has been the biggest issue in most of the damage reported across Louisiana this past weekend. Residents of Youngsville, Louisiana in Lafayette Parish experienced damage to homes, businesses, and trees because of a phenomenon known as a microburst.

While the natural tendency in a severe storm with wind damage is to assume a rotating storm (tornado), the damage in this case done by a different danger brought on by big thunderstorms. A microburst is defined by the National Weather Service as localized column of air descending rapidly toward the ground. When these strong winds hit the surface of the Earth they spread out much like pouring water on to a flat surface.

That's what happened in Youngsville over the weekend but what happened in Caddo Parish in North Louisiana this morning is quite baffling. Cross Lake is well known in the Shreveport area as a great place for boating, fishing, catching sunshine, and just enjoying nature. It's very close to the city and it makes getting "back to nature" easy for nearby residents.

Why is Cross Lake in North Louisiana Closed?

Shreveport Police closed access to Cross Lake earlier this morning because a reason I would have never guessed. The lake has taken too much rainfall in the past few hours and the past several days. Therefore it is closed to motorized vessels until further notice.

Shreveport Police say the closure is temporary and the lake will reopen to motorized vessels as soon as the water has receded a bit. However, that might take a day or so since the entire Shreveport/Bossier City area is under a flood watch through at least tomorrow afternoon. Who knew you'd ever have to "close a lake because it rained too much". But it is in the interest of public safety and you don't need to be on the water right now anyway.

Much of North Louisiana along the I-20 corridor has been inundated with heavy rain this morning. And based on what National Weather Service Radar is displaying those heavy rains could continue to move across the I-20 corridor in Louisiana and Texas this morning. Here is a snapshot from the Shreveport Forecast Office of the National Weather Service taken at 10:00 this morning.

For the current radar scan from the National Weather Service, you may follow this link.

According to the Storm Prediction Center all of the I-20 corridor southward as far as Louisiana Highway 28 (approximately) are at a slight risk of more severe storms and heavy rains. The rest of the state is at a marginal risk of severe storms for the remainder of the day as well.

You can expect conditions to improve, or at least the rain to stop sometime late Wednesday but more likely Thursday. The outlook for the weekend does include a threat of showers but as of now the threat of severe weather and excessive rain does not appear to be included in the weekend outlook.