Will Texas be the Next Target for a Hurricane?
By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist
Aug 30, 2011; 9:08 AM ETShare | .
There is a possibility that more than just tropical moisture flows into Texas starting later this week. We could be looking at tropical storm formation in the western Gulf of Mexico.
An upcoming area of disturbed weather in the western Gulf of Mexico bears watching from Louisiana to Texas and northeastern Mexico.
The tropics may yet lend a hand in the Texas drought situation as it appears a system rolling through the western Caribbean now may later gel in the western Gulf of Mexico.
That system is rather disorganized at this time, but there is room for development late in the week.
The seriousness of the drought and heat in Texas goes without saying, and most of Texas would be willing to take a hit from a tropical storm or minimal hurricane to bring a change.
We are not going to say either is definitely coming to Texas at this point, but there will be a disturbance milling around in the western Gulf of Mexico during the second half of this week.
This infrared satellite image from Tuesday morning shows the feature of interest over the western Caribbean, to the northeast of Nicaragua and Honduras.
If that system is able to avoid land long enough, shifting weather patterns up north and to the west could allow it to organize, strengthen and eventually drift toward Texas real estate.
Interests in the Gulf of Mexico and the central and western Gulf coast should continue to monitor the situation.
According to Long Range Expert Paul Pastelok, "At the very least it does appear that there will be some rain getting into eastern Texas starting later this week, especially south and east of Dallas."
Elsewhere across the Atlantic Basin, Katia has formed and is expected to become our next hurricane by the end of the week.
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/s ... target.asp
