First alert of 2024 hurricane season: Tropical storm watch on Texas coast
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is heating up.
A system in the Gulf of Mexico that will soon become Tropical Storm Alberto has prompted a tropical storm watch for the Texas coast, the first alert of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.
Heavy, potentially flooding rain is expected across the western Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said, with as much as 15 inches possible. A tropical storm watch has been issued for the Texas coast from Port O'Connor southward to the mouth of the Rio Grande.
Two separate tropical systems are forecast to impact the U.S. this week: One will affect the Gulf Coast, the other the Southeast coast.
Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.
It's one of two separate tropical systems – the other is in the Atlantic Ocean – that are forecast to strengthen this week and each could have an impact on portions of the southern U.S., forecasters said Monday.
Alberto will be the first named storm of what's expected to be a doozy of an Atlantic hurricane season.
Tropical storm in the Gulf?
The Gulf system is forecast to strengthen into a tropical depression, then a tropical storm right before making landfall along the northern Gulf Coast of Mexico, AccuWeather said. Once its sustained winds reach 39 mph, it will become Tropical Storm Alberto.
Although the center of the storm will likely make landfall in Mexico on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center warned that heavy rainfall is still expected to spread over portions of the northwestern coast of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico by the middle of the week. In addition, gale warnings have been issued for portions of the Gulf of Mexico.
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Dan Pydynowski explained that "even if the tropical storm falls short of reaching tropical storm status, a plume of rich, deep tropical moisture is expected to surge into Mexico, Texas and Louisiana into the middle of the week."
Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore warned that "double-digit rainfall totals (are) likely along the coastal counties of Texas and potentially Houston." Flash flooding is a possibility in some parts of Texas, including in Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Houston and San Antonio, according to Weather.com.
An Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft is scheduled to investigate the system later Monday.
Busy season ahead: The 2024 NOAA hurricane season forecast is unlike any other. See the record predictions.
Atlantic system also bears watching
Forecasters on Monday were also keeping watch on a budding tropical system in the Atlantic Ocean. The system, which was several hundred miles east of the Bahamas on Monday, "is forecast to approach the coast of the southeast United States on Thursday or Friday," the Hurricane Center said.
"This appears to be a quick-moving and compact low-pressure area that will be moving westward into northeastern Florida or perhaps as far north as southeastern Georgia on Thursday," Pydynowski said.
Locations from Melbourne, Florida, to Charleston, South Carolina, will be at risk for heavy rain from the storm.
The National Weather Service in Jacksonville, Florida, warned of "numerous to widespread showers and embedded heavy storms pushing onshore at times with strong gusty winds as the main threat."
An 'extraordinary' year is possible
Once Alberto forms, it will be the start of what's expected to be a very active year for storms. NOAA Director Rick Spinrad said last month that the Atlantic hurricane season is shaping up to be "extraordinary," with an "85% chance for an above-average year."
The record for most named storms in a season is 30, set in 2020. A typical year averages about 14 tropical storms, seven of which spin into hurricanes, based on weather records spanning from 1991 to 2020.
Contributing: Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: First alert of 2024 hurricane season: Tropical storm watch on Texas coast