Messy Week Ahead for the Northern Gulf Coast
Regardless of development, heavy rainfall and gusty winds anticipated by Wednesday and Thursday
An area of low pressure in the southern Gulf of Mexico associated with a washed-out cold front will lift northward today and accelerate northeastward on Wednesday and early Thursday toward the northern Gulf Coast. Several inches of rainfall are expected with the low-pressure system from southeast Louisiana to the Florida panhandle which could lead to localized flooding, primarily along and south of the I-10 corridor. The storm system will also bring gusty winds, possibly as strong as 30-40 mph, by Wednesday night along the immediate Gulf Coast.
The National Hurricane Center gives the area a low chance of tropical development, but it’s unlikely the system has enough time to become a standalone tropical cyclone before linking up with a warm front on Wednesday. Regardless, the impacts don’t change for the north-central and northeastern Gulf as increasingly strong upper-level winds will make for a sloppy, stormy system by mid-week.
Invest 92L slowly cooking in the eastern Atlantic
Invest 92L over the eastern Atlantic is taking it’s time organizing in the deep tropics well south of the Cape Verde islands off Africa. It’s uncommon for a tropical cyclone to form so far south and east this late in the season but not unheard of. The most recent instance of such a late-forming named storm this far east was Nadine in 2018.
If the system develops, computer models only strengthen it modestly – perhaps into a strong tropical storm or borderline hurricane later this week. Regardless, it will curl up into the open Atlantic and poses no threat to land.