Marco is expected to become a hurricane on Saturday and Laura is forecast to produce heavy rain over several Caribbean Islands.
KHOU 11 Meteorologists and the National Hurricane Center are keeping a close eye on Tropical Storms Laura and Marco. Both systems are expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico, and from there, it’s still uncertain where they will end up (KHOU 11 Houston & National Hurricane Center).
Tropical Storms Marco and Laura continued to churn in the Caribbean on Saturday, prompting a wave of warnings and watches for several countries, and leading the governor of Louisiana to declare a state of emergency.
Marco on Saturday was 105 miles east-northeast of Cozumel, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said on Saturday morning.
“It’s looking pretty organized,” said Joel Cline, tropical program coordinator for the National Weather Service. “It’s expected to become a hurricane later today or tonight.”
Mr. Cline said it was possible that both storms would become hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico as early as Monday. He added that it would be “pretty unusual” and that the last time it happened was in 1933. The last time a hurricane and a tropical storm were both in the Gulf of Mexico was in 1959, he said.
Dennis Feltgen, meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center, on Friday squashed social media speculation that the storms would collide forming a single monster storm. “They cannot merge,” he said. “They actually repel each other because of the rotations.”
