Tropical Storm Nicholas forms, threatens Texas, Louisiana with heavy rain

A disturbance in the Bay of Campeche officially became a named storm on Sunday morning.

Tropical Storm Nicholas is near Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, and has potential to bring flooding and rain to Mexico and Texas.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Nicholas will produce heavy rain across portions of southern Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. The heavy rain will continue to threaten those coastal areas through the middle of the upcoming week.

“Localized significant rainfall amounts are possible, potentially resulting in areas of flash, urban, and isolated river flooding,” they wrote in the storm update.

This past Friday marked the peak of hurricane season. So far this tropical season, we have had 14 named storms, which is typically what we see over an entire season – meaning we are very likely to surpass our average number of named storms.

While the threat to the U.S. is over from Mindy and Larry, they will continue bringing a high risk of rip currents along North Carolina’s coast through the next few days.

Long-lasting Hurricane Larry made landfall as far north as Canada and will, surprisingly, bring several feet of snow to southeastern Greenland through the weekend.

Meteorologists are also watching other areas of interest in the tropics. One system has a 70% chance of development off the coast of Africa, looks to stay in the eastern Atlantic and move around the large area of high pressure.