Forecasters are keeping their eyes on two tropical storms that could hit Texas.
Laura, Marco both have potential to impact region, 3 years after Harvey battered area
Two tropical storms headed for the Gulf of Mexico have a potential to hit Texas, local forecasters say.
Tropical Storm Marco had initially been the focus for Texas. Forecasters thought Tropical Storm Laura would head toward Florida and the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. But as of Friday evening, some tracking models had Tropical Storm Laura coming farther west.
“If that were to occur, it could actually approach our area late next week,” said Dan Reilly, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Houston/Galveston office. “So earlier we were thinking TD 14 was going to be the main storm for us, and that still may be the case, but Tropical Storm Laura is something we will have to keep an eye on.”
During a presentation recorded Friday at 4:30 p.m., Reilly said Tropical Storm Marco had been slow to organize, but it was upgraded from a tropical depression at 10 p.m. It is forecast to cross the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico and entering the Gulf on Sunday and Monday, approaching the coast of Texas or Louisiana.
The National Hurricane Center said tropical-storm-force winds could arrive Monday night or Tuesday morning.
“Exactly where that occurs is actually a bit more uncertain now than we were thinking even earlier today,” Reilly said in his presentation, noting that some tracking models were taking the storm toward Mexico and South Texas while other models were bringing it toward Louisiana.
Tropical Storm Laura had a similarly uncertain path, though the National Hurricane Center forecast at 7 p.m. still had it curving to a coastline east of Texas. It could strengthen to a hurricane before making landfall.
“The models are not handling