Saturday, July 4, 2020

Disturbance Soaking Gulf Coast This Weekend Might Become a Tropical Depression

Chris Dolce
Published: July 3, 2020






A stationary boundary will bring storms to much of the South this Fourth of July weekend, and there is a chance it could spawn a tropical depression early next week.

Atop the stationary boundary, an upper-level disturbance will also help to produce lift in the atmosphere, which in combination with tropical moisture, will result in numerous showers and thunderstorms.

Locally heavy rain from this setup will impact the Gulf and Southeast coasts through the holiday weekend.

Heavy rain fell in southern Louisiana on Friday afternoon, causing two homes to flood in Des Allemands, Louisiana where nearly 6 inches of rain was measured.

At least an inch of rain could fall in many communities from southern Mississippi and Louisiana into southern Alabama, northern Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Heavier totals are possible where bands of rain or clusters of thunderstorms stall for a few hours, which could lead to local flash flooding.

(MORE: Where Storms Typically Develop in July)

There is a low chance of this boundary becoming a focusing agent for tropical development at some point in the next week.

Occasionally, these decaying frontal boundaries can feed off of the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic and develop into a diffuse line of showers and thunderstorms with a little large scale spin.

Weak disturbances thousands of feet up in the atmosphere – like the one seen over the Southeast this weekend – can occasionally link up with frontal boundaries, causing them to gather more spin.

Enough spin, and eventually you could get a tropical depression or storm out of this setup.

For now, this is nothing to be overly concerned about. The chances tropical depression or storm development appear low through early in the week ahead.

The next tropical storm to form in the Atlantic Basin would be Edouard.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

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