Storm Brewing Over Yucatan Peninsula Threatens Texas and Louisiana

The Atlantic’s second storm of the year may be developing over the Yucatan Peninsula, with the potential to reach Texas and Louisiana and flood Houston for the second time in a month.

Thunderstorms moving northwest from the Yucatan along the east of Mexico have a 80 percent chance of becoming a tropical system by Tuesday, according to a statement issued at 2 a.m. New York time from the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. If the storm develops it would become Bill, the second of the Atlantic season.

“Interests in and along the northwestern Gulf of Mexico should monitor the progress of this system,” the NHC said on its website. “Tropical storm conditions are possible along portions of the middle and upper Texas coast and the western Louisiana coast Monday night and Tuesday.”

Royal Dutch Shell plc is removing some non-essential workers from the Gulf of Mexico, Ray Fisher, a spokesman for the company, said in an e-mail. It doesn’t expect the weather to affect operations, he said.

There’s a chance the storm will come ashore anywhere from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Lake Charles, Louisiana, if it develops, said Evan Duffy, a meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. The forecast models will be able to give a more accurate outlook once an actual center forms.

Regardless of its chances of becoming a named system, which happens when its winds reach 39 miles (63 kilometers) per hour, rain may reach Texas in a few days, Duffy said.

“We have a very serious flood threat that will be occurring across Texas,” Duffy said. “The big area of concern is Houston, where there are still flood gauges showing major and moderate flooding.”

From 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 centimeters) of rain may fall across the Houston area, with isolated amounts of as much as 10 inches possible, according to the a statement from the National Weather Service.

Houston was inundated last month, with flood waters closing highways and interrupting fuel supplies. More than 2,500 homes were damaged and $11 million in federal assistance had been approved, according to the Houston Chronicle.

At least 31 people were killed in Texas and Oklahoma during the May floods, according to the Weather Channel.

On the west of Mexico, Tropical Storm Carlos churned, threatening the nation’s coast and prompting hurricane warnings and watches from Punta San Telmo to Tecpan de Galeana.

The third named storm of the eastern Pacific season, with winds at 70 miles per hour, was about 125 miles west of Acapulco, Mexico, the NHC said in an advisory at 5 a.m. New York time. It was moving northwest at 6 mph.

“Some strengthening is expected during the next 24 hours and Carlos is forecast to become a hurricane again by early Tuesday,” the agency said.

As much as 15 inches of rain may fall in the Mexican states of Guerrero, Michoacan, Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit, according to the advisory.

“These rains may produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides, especially in areas of higher terrain,” the advisory said.

–With assistance from David Marino in New York.