Tropical Storm Beta forms in Gulf of Mexico, could impact Texas in coming days

By WRAL Severe Weather Center

It’s been a busy Friday in the tropics with two new storms named for letters in the Greek alphabet.

Subtropical Storm Alpha formed off the coast of Portugal on Friday afternoon. It made landfall in Portugal Friday night and was expected to dissipate into Saturday.

A subtropical system has characteristics of both a low-pressure system and a tropical storm. Names are given to storms that have sustained wind speeds higher than 39 mph.

In the 11 p.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center, Alpha was over Portugal with winds at 50 mph.

Tropical Storm Beta formed Friday afternoon. According to the 11 p.m. advisory from the NHC, it had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph and was moving north northeast at 12 mph. The storm was off the Mexico coast and was expected to move further north and likely impact Texas in the coming days.

Friday was the earliest a tropical storm was named from the Greek alphabet.

Tropical Storm Wilfred also formed in the eastern Tropical Atlantic on Friday. It was the last name left on the list generated at the beginning of hurricane season by the World Meteorological Organization. At 11 p.m., it had winds at 40 mph and was moving west northwest at 18 mph. It was about 830 miles west southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands.

Each storm after WiIfred will now be named storms based on the Greek alphabet. The last time that happened was 2005, when there were 28 named storms.

Hurricane Teddy, currently a Cat. 4 storm, has top winds of 130 mph and was moving northwest at 13 mph. It is 730 miles southeast of Bermuda. It could impact Bermuda in the coming days and create rip current threats along the United States. It could make landfall north of Maine next week, meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner said.

We are in the peak of hurricane season until early-mid October. The season officially ends Nov. 30.