Houston, Florida and Puerto Rico are still picking up the pieces from two of the most devastating hurricanes in history, yet there may be a third on its way.
Tropical Storm Nate has formed off the coast of Belize and will track east of Mexico in the next day or so.
If it continues to move north through the warm Caribbean waters, it will almost surely be elevated to hurricane status as it bears down on the southern coast of the U.S.
And it’s more or less inevitable since there’s nowhere else for it to go.
The only questions that remain are what category it will have gained before landfall and which day it will hit.
Most tracks show the storm splitting the difference between Harvey and Maria for the south-central area between Louisiana and Alabama.
Here’s more from Accuweather…
Tropical Depression 16 has strengthened to Tropical Storm Nate near the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua and will threaten part of the southern United States as a hurricane this weekend.
Since Nate will be moving inland over the U.S. this weekend, people may have little time to react and prepare for a tropical storm or hurricane.
“Nate will move northward over the central Gulf of Mexico on Saturday and make landfall along the U.S. upper Gulf coast on Sunday,” according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rossio.
Nate is likely to make landfall somewhere from the Florida Panhandle to southeastern Louisiana. The exact point of landfall will be determined once the storm begins to move north of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
“In all likelihood, this storm will impact areas not severely impacted by Harvey or Irma. The extent of the damage will depend, of course, on the precise path and whether the storm intensifies beyond a Category 1 storm,” AccuWeather Founder, President and Chairman Dr. Joel N. Myers said.
Only if Nate tracks much farther west than currently forecast may heavy rain and damaging winds reach Harvey-ravaged Texas and southwestern Louisiana.
Similarly, only if Nate travels much farther east than currently forecast would flooding rain and high winds reach Imra-ravaged areas of Florida.
