Tropical Storm Cristobal's US landfall expected in Louisiana; Houston area could get rain

View The Original Article Here

The storm’s forecast cone continues on a northern track towards Louisiana, but Texas is not totally in the clear yet.

HOUSTON — Tropical Storm Cristobal formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and is forecast to make landfall as a storm along the Louisiana coast early next week.

But Texas isn’t totally in the clear yet.

This week was the official kick off to the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, and it’s already turning out to be busy.  We already had Arthur and Bertha form in the second half of May.

Cristobal is the earliest we have had the third named storm form on record, and records go back to 1851.

Where will Tropical Storm Cristobal go?

The official forecast track from the Hurricane Center takes the storm north across the central Gulf of Mexico, toward the upper Texas or Louisiana coast on Sunday afternoon.

RELATED: Tropical Storm Cristobal: Spaghetti models, forecast track and position

RELATED: NOAA predicts ‘busy’ Atlantic hurricane season with 3-6 major storms

Impacts to Houston?

Those in the direct path and on the right or “dirty side” of the storm can expect to get the heaviest rainfall. This includes much of Louisiana, as of the current forecast track. It’s not out of the question that Houston and much of Southeast Texas could also get rain from Cristobal. As of right now there is a 50% chance of rain on Monday in Houston.

It’s too soon to say that Houston is totally in the clear as far as any flooding concerns might go. We’ll watch the storm’s path closely over the next couple days.

Storm tracker map