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 .

The hurricane center upgraded Francine at 11 a.m. ET Monday from its previous status as an unnamed tropical disturbance and noted the system was expected to intensify even more over the next day or two, with storm surge watches and hurricane watches issued for parts of coastal Louisiana. Meteorologists said earlier that 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 moving slowly north-northwest Monday morning at around 5 miles per hour, packing maximum sustained winds of 50 mph while traveling up through the Gulf about 245 miles southeast of the mouth of the Rio Grande and 480 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.

A storm surge watch was issued from High Island, Texas, eastward to the border of Mississippi and Alabama, including Vermilion Bay, Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain. A hurricane watch was issued from Cameron eastward to Grande Isle, Louisiana, and a tropical storm watch was issued east of High Island to Cameron, as well as east of Grand Isle to the mouth of the Pearl River, including Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas, according to the hurricane center.

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.

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.

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.