Laura first hit the Lesser Antilles and brushed Puerto Rico as a tropical storm, then moved across the island of Hispaniola, killing 31 people in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic.

[1][2] After landfall, Laura caused significant wind damage in southwest and central Louisiana before becoming a tropical storm later that day.

On August 29, Laura degenerated into a remnant low over Kentucky, before being absorbed into another extratropical storm near the East Coast of the U.S. shortly afterward.

On August 16, 2020, a tropical wave along the eastern end of a monsoon trough emerged off the west coast of Africa over the Atlantic Ocean.

[3] At this time, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted the possibility of tropical cyclogenesis over the next five days as environmental conditions gradually became more favorable for development.

[5] A surface low accompanied by organizing banding features coalesced about 700 mi (1,100 km) west-southwest of the Cape Verde islands.

[6] By 03:00 UTC on August 20, the low and accompanying convection became sufficiently organized to be classified as a tropical depression, the thirteenth of the season, about 1,035 mi (1,666 km) east-southeast of the Leeward Islands.

[11] Moderate wind shear hampered further development through August 22, displacing the bulk of convection east of the surface circulation.

[20][21][22] Maintaining a west-northwest trajectory, Laura entered the southeastern Gulf of Mexico and quickly organized throughout August 25, reaching hurricane-strength by 12:15 UTC.

[28][29] Continuing to strengthen into August 27, Laura reached its peak intensity of 150 miles per hour (240 km/h), a high-end Category 4 hurricane, and a minimum pressure of 937 mbar (hPa; 27.67 inHg).

[36][38] The system ultimately degenerated into a remnant low over Kentucky early on August 29, as it began merging with an approaching extratropical storm.

[39] Laura's remnant low continued moving eastward, before being absorbed into the approaching extratropical system several hours later over Maryland.

[46] Haitian authorities urged people to evacuate to shelters, and to remember to wear masks and respect social distancing orders in the areas due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[47] Although the center of Laura was forecast to remain north of Jamaica, associated rainbands on the southern side of the circulation were anticipated to bring significant precipitation.

A mobile hospital unit was pre-staged in Marion County and personal protection equipment kits were readied for distribution to shelters.

[51] The mayor of Monroe County, Heather Carruthers declared a local state of emergency, and mandatory evacuations for mobile homes and boats, although visitors were allowed to stay.

[81][82] Search and rescue teams were put on standby as Governor Asa Hutchinson declared an emergency ahead of Hurricane Laura and set aside $250,000 to prepare for the storm's impacts.

[84] For the first time in the state's history the National Weather Service issued tropical storm watches and warnings for several southern counties of Arkansas with local forecasters predicting that areas southeast of Little Rock face the greatest risk of damage.

[85] Laura caused widespread devastation throughout most of its path with tropical-storm force winds going over almost all of the Antillean Islands, hurricane and tropical-storm force winds impacting parts of Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas, and flooding rain and storm surge affecting a large portion of the storm's path.

[108] Similar to the Dominican Republic, heavy precipitation affected much of Haiti; a personal weather station in Port-au-Prince measured 6.61 in (168 mm) of rain.

[111] After clearing Hispaniola, Tropical Storm Laura brought damaging winds and flooding rains to Southeastern Cuba on August 23–24.

[114] Wind gusts reached 35 to 40 mph (56 to 64 km/h) along southern coastlines near Kingston, and in Montego Bay on the country's north coast.

[152][153] There was extensive damage to trees, power lines and poles, and structures in De Quincy and much of the town of Delcambre was left underwater due to flooding.

[160] Widespread flooding was reported in Natchitoches Parish, where I-49 had to be closed past SH 174 west of Powhatan due to a downed tree.

[90] Before the hurricane made landfall, one person was killed and another injured after rough surf from Laura slammed them against jetties in Corpus Christi on August 26.

[171] A wind gust of 79 miles per hour (127 km/h) was recorded at Kirbyville Raws site near Call and trees were downed in Groves.

[188] Following the storm, five people died in Southeast Texas in four separate incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of improperly-placed generators.

A 57 miles per hour (92 km/h) wind gust was recorded just south of El Dorado, causing several trees and power lines to fall, two of which landed on houses.

[221][222] Moderate to heavy rainfall impacted the eastern half of Oklahoma, prompting a flash flood warning in Le Flore County.

Two days later, he visited the areas most heavily affected by the storm, including Lake Charles in Calcasieu Parish, and Orange County.