2 storms pose a possible double threat to stretch of US Gulf Coast
Tropical Storm Marco formed Friday in the northwestern Caribbean, joining Tropical Storm Laura as what could become a double threat within days to a huge stretch of the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Marco has emerged about 180 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. The storm’s maximum sustained winds were near 40 mph and it was expected to move near the Yucatan Peninsula on Saturday. The storm is headed northnorthwest at 13 mph.
Marco became a tropical storm on the heels of Laura, which set a record for the earliest 12th named storm of a season when it formed on Friday morning northeast of the Lesser Antilles.
Forecasters said the center of Marco will cross the northeastern part of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Saturday night and move over the central Gulf of Mexico toward the northwestern Gulf on Sunday and Monday. Additional strengthening is expected and forecasters say Marco could be near hurricane strength when it moves over the central Gulf in coming days.
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Two tropical systems could become almost simultaneous threats to the U.S. Gulf Coast early next week. They could even get sucked into an odd dance around each other. Or they could fall apart as they soak the Caribbean and Mexico this weekend.
Tropical Storm Laura and a depression that is likely to become Tropical Storm Marco have such bad and good environments ahead of them that their futures were not clear Friday. Computer forecast models varied so much that some saw Laura becoming a major hurricane nearing the U.S., while others saw it dissipating.
If both storms survive the weekend, Laura is forecast to head toward the central
Gulf Coast around Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, while the other system aims at Texas. The National Hurricane Center’s late Friday afternoon forecast pushed both farther west and slowed Laura’s track.
“A lot of people are going to be impacted by rainfall and storm surge in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Joel Cline, the tropical program coordinator for the National Weather Service. “Since you simply don’t know you really need to make precautions.”
Two hurricanes have never appeared in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time, according to records going back to at least 1900, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. The last time two tropical storms were in the Gulf together was in 1959, he said.
Because the hurricane center slowed Laura’s entrance into the Gulf and moved its track westward, the two storms are now forecast to be together in the Gulf on Tuesday, just before the weaker western storm smacks Texas with Laura making landfall a bit less than a day later.
The hurricane center on Friday issued tropical storm warnings for the northern Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico. Laura was forecast to smack Puerto Rico on Saturday morning, go over or near the Dominican Republic and Haiti late Saturday and Cuba on Sunday.
Laura, which set a record for the earliest 12th named storm of a season, was moving through the northern Leeward Islands on Friday evening, about 250 miles east-southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was heading west at 17 mph.
The hurricane center also issued a tropical storm warning and hurricane watch for part of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula because the other storm system, called Tropical Depression 14, was predicted to strengthen into a tropical storm by Saturday.