Tropical Disturbance Heading For Gulf, Louisiana Could Be Impacted
LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA: A tropical disturbance will be heading into the Gulf of Mexico this weekend. We have all the details and a new update at the bottom of this article.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is giving this disturbance a 60% chance to form into an organized storm through the next seven days.
The NHC is calling this disturbance a "well defined tropical wave". It's currently over Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands heading for The Greater Antilles and eventually Florida where it will cross into the Gulf of Mexico.
AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Expert Paul Pastelok told USA Today:
The latest models show it going into the eastern Gulf and then exploding there, Residents from Louisiana to Florida's West Coast have to be ready in case it rapidly intensifies.
Forecasters are expecting this tropical disturbance to eventually turn in Tropical Storm Debbie, with some thinking when the storm enters the Gulf it will explode with intensity from the very warm waters that are jet fuel for potential hurricanes.
I've been following the track of this storm for the last week. At first the NHC had the track heading up the east coast of Florida, however, as the disturbance gets closer to us it continually moved more westward with ever update.
Meteorologist Zack Fradella is one of the most trusted voices in Louisiana when it comes to extreme weather in the Gulf region of the USA. If you aren't following him on social media, you should definitely do that today. He's a balanced voice in the world of hurricane reporting that often gets blown out of proportion, I'm looking at you Weather Channel. Zack will not steer you wrong or fear monger with his reporting.
In fact, he made a post today about all the spaghetti models that will be coming out about his potential named storm. Zack said in an earlier post that it's hard for the computer models to really get a hold of the direction that storms will travel when they don't have a defined center of circulation. Until then it's all guess work, and most spaghetti models made during this time period of a storm's life are wildly inaccurate.
We will be keeping our eye on this developing tropical disturbance. It's hurricane season, download our free mobile app for continuing Gulf weather coverage.
If SWLA is evacuated for a hurricane, you can not only listen to our live radio coverage with our free mobile app, but you can also receive news notifications and app articles with information about the storm before, during, and after landfall.
UPDATE 8/2/24:
The NHC is now tracking the disturbance as they have upgraded the storm to Tropical Cyclone 4.