Bonnie weakens while heading towards New Orleans

A disturbance that was Tropical Storm Bonnie and weakened to a tropical depression after crossign the southern end of Florida broke apart further and has now been classified as a tropical rainstorm. Since entering the Gulf of Mexico, Bonnie has been quite lopsided with most or all of its rain situated on the eastern portion of the storm. A tropical depression needs to have a closed circulation to be classified as a cyclone.

Bonnie a Tropical Rainstorm; Thunderstorms Main Impact (AccuWeather)

Thunderstorms are the main impact from Bonnie, which weakened to a tropical rainstorm Saturday afternoon as it approached southeastern Louisiana.

At 4:30 p.m. EDT Saturday, Bonnie was centered about 100 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Without thunderstorms wrapping around its center, Bonnie has been downgraded to a tropical rainstorm.

Strong southeasterly winds high in the atmosphere, also known as wind shear, caused Bonnie to weaken.

Bonnie will continue to move in a west-northwest fashion. The AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center expects Bonnie to come onshore not far to the southeast of New Orleans Saturday night.

Even so, all alerts for Bonnie have been lifted. What was Bonnie will come ashore as a series of gusty thunderstorms. While sustained winds are no longer the issue, strong gusts reaching tropical storm force could be seen with some of the thunderstorms coming ashore. Caution should be maintained as in any strong thunderstorm but damage is not expected as the system makes landfall in southeastern Louisiana.

All warnings lifted as Bonnie becomes a remnant low (NOLA.com)

The remnants of Tropical Storm Bonnie turned into a disorganized low Saturday afternoon, as what was left of the storm was sheared apart by atmospheric winds. The National Hurricane Center lifted all tropical storm warnings for the Gulf Coast Saturday morning.

Winds had dropped to 30 mph, and the only thunderstorm activity associated with the storm was in a small area to the north of the center. At 4 p.m. CDT, the low pressure system that used to be Bonnie was located at roughly latitude 28.5 north, longitude 87.6 west. The depression was moving to the west-northwest at 14 mph. The center was expected to move inland somewhere between southeast Louisiana and Alabama late Saturday or Sunday.