Tropical Storm Francine forms, expected to become hurricane

Tropical Storm Francine developed in the Gulf of Mexico Monday and is on track to potentially make landfall Wednesday along the coast of Texas or Louisiana, forecasters said. The National Hurricane Center warned that Francine will likely become a hurricane before it arrives on the northwestern U.S. Gulf shoreline, possibly as the sixth tropical cyclone of this year's unusually active season .

"Additional intensification is expected over the next day with more significant intensification forecast on Tuesday Night and
Wednesday," the hurricane center said. "Francine is expected to become a hurricane before it reaches the northwestern U.S. Gulf Coast on Wednesday."

A hurricane watch was in effect Monday afternoon for the Louisiana coast from Cameron to Grand Isle. A tropical storm watch was in effect for parts of coastal Texas and Louisiana, as well as parts of Mexico. A storm surge watch covered the coastal area from High Island, Texas, east to the Mississippi-Alabama border, including Vermilion Bay, Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain.

A storm surge watch indicates the possibility of life-threatening inundation within 48 hours. Hurricane and tropical storm watches mean conditions typically associated with those weather events are possible within that same time period.

Meteorologists said earlier the storm system brought with it an "increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds along the Louisiana and upper-Texas coasts."

Francine was expected to dump 4 to 8 inches of rain in many areas and up to a foot in some places, forecasters said, and tropical-storm-force winds were extending outward up to 160 miles from its center.

Francine was moving slowly north-northwest Monday at around 5 miles per hour, packing maximum sustained winds of 60 mph while traveling up through the Gulf about 180 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Rio Grande and 450 miles south-southwest of Cameron, Louisiana, the hurricane center said. Wind speeds would need to strengthen to at least 74 mph in order for Francine to be considered a Category 1 hurricane.

The tropical storm's development follows an unusually calm August and early September in the Atlantic hurricane season, which has had five named storms.

Experts had predicted one of the busiest Atlantic seasons ever and, The Associated Press notes, Colorado State University researchers said last week they still expect an above-normal season overall.