After another lull in the tropics, activity has picked up again. Currently, Tropical Storm Gamma is located in the southern Gulf of Mexico bringing heavy rain and some gusty winds to the Yucatan Peninsula. It is expected to wander around that region for the next few days, but the initial impacts on the Southeast are mostly some high clouds and some scattered rain in Florida.

At the same time, newly formed TD 26 is located just south of Jamaica and is expected to make its way NW into the Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday night as Hurricane Delta (remember, we into the Greek alphabet now). It will continue to strengthen in the Gulf and is currently forecast to make landfall along the northern Gulf Coast between Pensacola FL and the LA-TX border late on Friday. Delta has the potential of reaching major hurricane status but most likely will be a category 2 storm when it makes landfall. Once again, high winds, heavy rain, and storm surge at the coast will impact the areas closest and to the right of where it hits. This is particularly bad this year because no matter where landfall is, it is likely to affect somewhere that has already been hit once this year, at a key harvest time. Areas to the east of the storm’s track will experience periods of heavy rain, gusty winds, and some small tornadoes.

After Delta moves through the area, there is at least a chance that Gamma will redevelop from a depression into a tropical storm and will move northward over the Gulf, making landfall as a tropical storm in nearly the same spot as Delta and some of the earlier storms. This will bring even more rain to areas that have already been hit this season.

The next few days in the Southeast will be relatively dry and sunny, so producers should work to harvest crops and livestock as much as possible ahead of the next storm or storms. The forecasts are likely to change somewhat so be sure to watch for updates from the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service.