Overview
- Invest 97L is a low about 125 miles south of southeastern Louisiana that the National Hurricane Center upgraded to a medium 50% chance of forming into a short-lived tropical depression or storm before it reaches the upper Texas or southwestern Louisiana coast around Tuesday.
- Hurricane hunter aircraft are scheduled to investigate the Gulf disturbance early Monday to gather wind and structural data that forecasters say will reduce uncertainty in timing and intensity.
- The remnants of Tropical Storm Dolly are producing heavy showers, near-gale gusts and 8–12 foot seas across the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands while showing near-zero 48-hour and about 20% seven-day chances of redevelopment.
- Forecasters warn that both systems pose near-term hazards even if they never form named storms, with locally heavy rainfall, flash flooding risk and hazardous marine conditions expected for coastal Louisiana, upper Texas and islands in the northeastern Caribbean.
- Broader context: the Atlantic basin has been quieter this season because of factors such as El Niño, but forecasters note that small Gulf lows can spin up quickly and that a named storm from Invest 97L would take the next name, Edouard.