We now have our seventh named storm of the season as of this afternoon. Tropical Depression #9 increased in strength to Tropical Storm Gaston joining Hurricane Earl and Tropical Storm Fiona in the North Atlantic.
Currently, none of these storms pose a threat to the Southeast Texas Region.
We should keep an eye on Fiona over the next few days. It is currently a Tropical Storm with 60mph sustained winds moving NW at 20mph. If it remains on its forested path, it will not become a threat and will venture up the East Coast or back out to sea. However if the storm does not take the forcasted turn to the North over the next 48 hours it could be at risk for moving into the Gulf of Mexico between Cuba and Southern Florida as shown by some forecast models.
Tropical Storm Gaston (Beauty and the Beast comes to mind) had maximum sustained winds at 40mph and is moving West at 15mph and is currently on a B-line for Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The storm is predicted to gradually strenghten as a Tropical Storm over the next 72 hours and stay on its current heading. This storm is far enough South in the Atlantic that without a strong turn to the North in the next week, has a good chance of making it into the Eastern Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico. But this is still a ways out.
