Trop­i­cal Storm Francine formed Mon­day off the coast of Mex­i­co and was ex­pect­ed to drench the Texas coast with up to a foot (30 cen­time­tres) of rain be­fore com­ing ashore in Louisiana Wednes­day night as a hur­ri­cane.

“We’re go­ing to have a very dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tion de­vel­op­ing by the time we get in­to Wednes­day for por­tions of the north-cen­tral Gulf Coast, pri­mar­i­ly along the coast of Louisiana, where we’re go­ing to see the po­ten­tial for life threat­en­ing storm surge in­un­da­tion and hur­ri­cane force winds,” said Michael Bren­nan, di­rec­tor of the U.S. Na­tion­al Hur­ri­cane Cen­ter in Mi­a­mi.

Storm surge and hur­ri­cane watch­es have been is­sued for the Louisiana coast.

This map issued by the National Hurricane Center, shows the forecast for tropical-storm-force wind speed possibilities, for the period Monday 9 to Saturday 14 September 2024.

Francine is tak­ing aim at a stretch of coast­line that has yet to ful­ly re­cov­er since hur­ri­canes Lau­ra and Delta dec­i­mat­ed Lake Charles, Louisiana, four years ago.

The hur­ri­cane cen­ter said Francine is lo­cat­ed about 245 miles (395 kilo­me­tres) south­east of the mouth of the Rio Grande, and about 480 miles (770 kilo­me­tres) south-south­east of Cameron, Louisiana. Francine’s top winds Mon­day morn­ing were about 50 miles per hour (85 kilo­me­tres per hour). A trop­i­cal storm is de­fined by sus­tained winds be­tween 39 mph and 73 mph (62 kph and 117 kph).

This map issued by the National Hurricane Center, shows the forecast for the earliest reasonable arrival times of tropical-storm-force winds, for the period Monday 9 to Saturday 14 September 2024.

Francine should be a hur­ri­cane as it ap­proach­es the north­west­ern Gulf Coast on Wednes­day, push­ing a storm surge of up to 10 feet (3 me­tres), fore­cast­ers said.

“Francine is ex­pect­ed to bring heavy rain­fall and the risk of con­sid­er­able flash flood­ing along the coast of far north­east Mex­i­co, por­tions of the south­ern­most Texas coast, the Up­per Texas Coast, south­ern Louisiana, and south­ern Mis­sis­sip­pi in­to Thurs­day morn­ing. A risk of flash and ur­ban flood­ing ex­ists across por­tions of the Mid-South from Wednes­day in­to Fri­day morn­ing,” the hur­ri­cane cen­ter warned. —MI­A­MI (AP)