Potential first Atlantic tropical cyclone of year develops off Texas Gulf Coast
Forecasters are monitoring the potential first tropical cyclone of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, saying it could develop into a fully formed storm on Wednesday and bring "life-threatening flash flooding."
The National Hurricane Center dubbed the tropical disturbance Potential Tropical Cyclone One.
It came as record rainfall and life-threatening flash floods were already drenching parts of the South, where communities braced for more very heavy rain throughout the week. Some 56 million people are could see flooding, CBS News meteorologist Nikki Nolan points out. The rain could impact World Cup events in Houston Wednesday, Nolan notes.
On Wednesday morning, Potential Tropical Cyclone One was in the northwest Gulf off the Texas coast. The hurricane center said it was approximately 35 miles southwest of Port O'Connor, Texas and 255 miles southwest of Lake Charles, Louisiana, traveling northeast at 6 mph. It had maximum sustained winds of 30 mph, below the 39 mph threshold required for it to be designated as a tropical storm.
The system "should move northeastward along the Texas coast today and then move inland over southwestern Louisiana by tonight," the center predicted, adding that, "Some strengthening is forecast, and the disturbance could become a tropical storm today. Weakening is anticipated once the low moves inland, and it could dissipate by tonight or early Thursday."
It's "expected to produce rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches, with isolated higher totals near 20 inches, through Thursday from the mid- and upper-Texas coast east-northeast into southern and central portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, along with western portions of Georgia and the Florida Panhandle," the center said, and that "could generate dangerous to life-threatening flash flooding."
A tropical storm warning was in place for the coast of Louisiana from Sabine Pass to Morgan City, meaning tropical storm conditions are expected within the next 24 hours, and a tropical storm watch was posted from Sabine Pass to Sargent, Texas.
Several major cities, including Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and New Orleans, could experience ongoing spells of excessive rainfall, forecasts showed.
