Weekend Begins With New Tropical Depression Near Florida That Will Move Into Gulf

A tropical disturbance over the Bahamas grew into Tropical Depression Nineteen on Friday. Weather experts expected it to grow into a tropical storm by Sunday and take aim for the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Another disturbance in the Gulf could bring rain to Deep South Texas or northern Mexico sometime next week. “[T]his area is expected to move to the west and southwest this weekend into early next week and approach Mexico,” explained Todd Beal with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.

Aside from those two systems, Beal said, forecasters continued watching Tropical Storms Paulette and Rene in the Central Atlantic, which posed no threat to the U.S. as they swirled further north.

“The National Hurricane Center is also monitoring a tropical wave south of the Cabo Verde Islands [off western Africa],” Beal said. That wave could develop into a tropical depression next week.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently warned that this year’s season could see twice the normal number of named storms.

The remaining names from 2020’s list of “Tropical Cyclone Names” are Sally, Teddy, Vicky, Wilfred. If that list is exhausted, the NHC explained, “additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet.”

Brian Kirkpatrick can be reached at Brian@tpr.org and on Twitter at @TPRBrian.

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