A tropical system could form again in the Gulf of Mexico this week, days after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and killed more than 100 people as its floodwaters raged through the southeast.
Coastal towns in Florida’s Big Bend are flattened. Mountain cities in North Carolina are drowned. But this week, forecasters asked weary Gulf Coast residents to watch a large area of low pressure over the southwestern Caribbean Sea. Forecasts show it could develop in the Gulf of Mexico through the weekend.
Some news was good: Strong winds high in the atmosphere could stifle the system’s future strength.
But forecasters also said the system could develop in roughly the same spot as Helene, which could again send a storm toward the northeast Gulf Coast.
“It is still too early to know the final destination or intensity,” Alabama meteorologist James Spann wrote on social media . He said some storm models show the system could near Florida. “But again,” Spann said, “we simply don’t know how it plays out at this point.”