“A tropical depression is expected to form by Thursday from a broad area of low pressure moving slowly westward over the northern Gulf of Mexico,” the National Hurricane Center said.
A tropical depression is an area of thunderstorms that produce a circular wind flow with maximum sustained winds below 39 mph.
If maximum sustained winds strengthen to 39 to 73 mph, the system becomes a tropical storm. And if they strengthen to 74 mph, we’d have a hurricane.
It’s too early to pinpoint exactly where the system would strike the worst, or how intense it would be.
But a “general westward movement is expected as the system most likely tracks toward the Louisiana or Upper Texas coast over the weekend,” CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen said.
High tides and strong winds also threaten southeast Louisiana or coastal Mississippi, especially if the system develops quickly and gains strength, the National Weather Service’s New Orleans office said.
But what if the tropical depression doesn’t happen? Coastal cities will still get hammered.
“Even if the system doesn’t fully develop, very heavy rains are forecast along the Gulf Coast region, with up to 10 to 15 inches of rain possible along the future path of the storm,” Hennen said.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said tropical depressions are assigned names.
Source : CNN
