Nicholas becomes hurricane as it heads to Texas. Two Atlantic storms could form this week
Nicholas became a hurricane late Monday night as it began dumping rain on the Texas coast. The nasty weather is expected to continue over the next two days.
The Houston office of the National Weather Service tweeted that 10 to 20 inches of rain could be possible in some spots, and large swaths of Texas and southwest Louisiana could see 5 to 10 inches. Storm surge could be as high as three to five feet.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center found the storm farther north than expected Monday morning, possibly due to a new center forming. As of the 11 p.m. update, Nicholas was moving north northeast at 10 mph just off Texas’ southernmost coast.
Its maximum sustained winds were 75 mph, ahead of making landfall near San Antonio Bay, north of Corpus Christi. That region is under a hurricane watch due to the possibility that the Gulf of Mexico’s super warm waters and low shear could power Nicholas into a hurricane just before landfall.
Nicholas was about 20 miles southeast of Matagorda.
The hurricane center is also tracking two disturbances that could develop into tropical depressions this week.
The first and most likely candidate is a tropical wave that rolled off Africa’s west coast. It’s charging west at 15 mph and forecasters said a tropical depression is likely to form later this week. They gave it a 40% chance of formation in the next two days and 80% within the next five, as of the 8 p.m. update.
The other disturbance, an area of low pressure expected to form midweek a couple hundred miles north of the central Bahamas, is expected to gradually strengthen. Forecasters said it could form into a tropical depression later this week. They gave it a 10% chance of developing in the next two days but a 50% shot at becoming a tropical depression within the week.
The next two names on the list are Odette and Peter.
Miami Herald staff writer Carli Teproff contributed to this report.
