Texas coast could be hit by Harvey
Forecasters say resurgent remnants of Tropical Storm Harvey could threaten Texas late this week.
Forecasters say resurgent remnants of Tropical Storm Harvey could threaten Texas late this week.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm is expected to pass from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula into the southern Gulf of Mexico late Tuesday and regain tropical storm force.
It then could “move in the general direction of the Texas coast on Friday.” The center warns it could bring storm surge and tropical storm- or hurricane-force winds to the Texas coast.
Harvey, reduced to a collection of thunderstorms over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, has a 90 percent chance of becoming a tropical storm again by Thursday as it moves into the Bay of Campeche, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
It initially formed last week east of Barbados before being torn apart by wind shear.
“The most likely scenario is it will be a tropical storm,” said Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Weather Underground in Boulder, Colo. “It needs to be watched.”
The Gulf Coast from Corpus Christi to Lake Charles, La., is home to nearly 30 refineries — making up about 7 million barrels a day of refining capacity — and is in the path of heavy rainfall expected to start as early as Friday. Flooding poses risks to operations, while torrential rains can shut units and cause supply disruptions.
Wholesale gasoline prices jumped in Houston on Tuesday as suppliers stocked up in anticipation of potential outages at refineries or fuel distribution centers. Conventional 87-octane gasoline rose 0.8 percent to $1.5630 a gallon, while premium prices increased 1.8 percent to $1.6983.
Should Harvey recover its strength, it will be in the Bay of Campeche where conditions are conducive for storm development, Henson said. State-run Petroleos Mexicanos said it has no plans to evacuate offshore oil rigs.
A reformed Harvey could crash into the coastline anywhere from northeast Mexico to southern Texas and spread flooding rains as far north and east as Louisiana, especially if the storm stalls off the coast, Henson said.
As many as 7.6 inches of rain are forecast to fall between Corpus Christi and Lake Charles in the next seven days.
Since the storm is so disorganized, it doesn’t have a clear center needed for an accurate forecast from computer models. The outlook will get better Wednesday after the storm returns over the ocean, said Patrick Blood, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Dickinson.
Also Tuesday, oncemighty Hurricane Kenneth weakened rapidly in the Pacific and was downgraded to a tropical storm. It had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.