Tropical Storm Harold Nears Texas, Bringing Up to Seven Inches of Rain

As Tropical Storm Hilary continues to batter the West Coast, a new storm is brewing over in the Atlantic Ocean, with weather warnings issued in southern Texas.

Tropical Storm Harold was named early on Tuesday morning after reaching sustained wind speeds of 45 miles per hour. This is the fourth storm to be named in the Atlantic in 48 hours and the ninth named storm of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season.

The National Hurricane Center has issued warnings of heavy rainfall and tropical-storm force winds across southern Texas, with as much as 7 inches of rain in some areas, according to the National Weather Service Corpus Christi. There is also a risk of flash and urban flooding through Tuesday and Wednesday. Flash flooding with possible landslides is also expected in northern Mexico.

While Storm Harold moves in towards southern Texas, Storm Franklin—named over the weekend—is expected to bring heavy rain and tropical storm conditions to Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti through Tuesday and Wednesday. It will reach maximum wind speeds of 50 miles per hour.

Storm Emily, which was named over the weekend, has collapsed and is no longer being monitored, while Storm Gert, which was named yesterday, has been demoted back to a Tropical Depression.

Tropical storms are formed when warm, moist air over the ocean rises upward, causing an area of lower air pressure beneath it. This allows air from higher air pressures to push into this low-pressure system, causing this "new" air to become warm and rise too.

As this air cools down, it begins to condense into large, swirling clouds, which spin and grow, fed by water evaporating continuously from the ocean's surface.

As the storm system begins to rotate faster and faster, an "eye" develops in the center of the storm. When the wind speed around this eye is sustained at over 39 miles per hour, the weather system is classified as a "tropical storm," and qualifies for a name.

Only when wind speeds reach 74 miles per hour does a storm qualify as a tropical cyclone, or hurricane.

Until Tuesday, Storm Harold was referred to as Tropical Depression Nine. However, as of Tuesday morning, wind speeds are now exceeding the 39 mile-per-hour threshold.

While weather warnings have been issued, some users on social media have described Storm Harold as welcome relief.

"What's great about Harold is that it will provide beneficial rainfall to parched landscapes, and also not intensify too much," wrote one user on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Storm Harold is forecast to make landfall around midday on Tuesday on the Lower Texas Coast, according to the National Weather Service Brownsville.