Hurricane Tracker: Tropical Storm Laura moving west, TD-14 aiming at Texas

This year's tropical season is continuing to smash records. The 4 p.m. Friday update on Tropical Storm Laura and TD-14 shows TD-14 making landfall west of Houston as a tropical storm late Tuesday. The big change is to Laura who is still expected to make landfall as a hurricane, but closer to New Orleans than Tallahassee on Wednesday. Some of the long term models show Laura skidding west along the gulf coast and bringing heavy rain and winds to East Texas late next week. Typically, there aren't 11 named storms across the Atlantic Ocean until late November. To add to the concern, 85% of major hurricanes (Category 3 and above) don't usually occur until after August 20. Tropical Storm Laura has formed near the Lesser Antilles, becoming the fastest occuring "L" storm on record. It is expected to continue moving towards the US, eventually should become a Category 1 hurricane during the day on Tuesday. Tropical Depression 14 (TD-14) will reach Texas first, and could bring East Texas some heavy rain showers and increased winds toward the middle of next week. At any point today, it's expected to become Tropical Storm Marco. Once named, it will become the fastest occurring "M" named storm on record. From there, it is expected to strengthen to a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast late Tuesday. A rare scenario could arise where two storms (Laura and Marco) make landfall at the same time on Tuesday. The last time there were two tropical storm systems in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time was June 18, 1959 — more than 60 years ago. The last time we had a year close to being as active as 2020 was back in 2005 — the year Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. It was also a year when La Niña developed in the fall. Hold on to your hats, folks. Things could get very dangerous during the next two months along the gulf coast.