Tropical Storm Don

The first major storm threatening the US coast is upon us as Tropical Storm Don is nearing the Texas Southeast coastline. In about 36 hours it will make landfall as most likely a tropical storm, strengthening just slightly from its current state. Continued vertical shear and interaction with some dry air will prevent the storm from intensifying much further. Here is the projected path of the storm

You can see there are tropical storm warnings up for the Texas coastline and also a tropical storm WATCH for the extreme southern tip of the TX coast.

Wind speeds right now of tropical storm force encompass a small circular area in the gulf and projected wind speeds for the storm are as follows

Probability of tropical storm force winds are shown here with the light brown indicating 60 to 70 percent and the darker brown (hitting the coastline) 50-60%.

With a strong ridge set up over the middle of the country, and models projecting it to be stationary for the next 36-48 hours, I would expect the storm to follow this Northwesterly path up until landfall and just a little afterward before shifting Northward and Northeast a few days from now.

With the big drought occuring right now in Texas, this rain will be welcomed by many. I will post updates on Twitter as needed. @huskyAaron