AUSTIN (KXAN) — Tropical Storm Beta has formed in the Gulf of Mexico about 280 miles SSE of South Padre Island. The storm is forecast to become a hurricane this weekend and may impact the Texas coast with flood-producing rainfall totals of 8-12 inches or more.

The National Hurricane Center forecast cone is very large, an indicator of great uncertainty about the storm’s eventual track. Austin and much of the KXAN viewing area are even located in the cone of uncertainty, meaning the remnants of the tropical storm or hurricane could move into Central Texas.

Rain in our area wouldn’t arrive until early next week, and projected totals in Central Texas currently only range from 1-3 inches. If the storm eventually tracks into our area, those totals could go much higher. See more about Tropical Storm Beta below.

Meanwhile, it will be a mostly great weekend in our area with northerly breezes bringing a cooling trend. This weekend’s weather looks hard to beat with pleasant mornings and warm, low-humidity afternoons. There will be a slight chance for a shower or storm late in the day Sunday as the tropical system approaches the Texas coast.

Tropics In-depth

We expected the new Gulf tropical storm would be named Wilfred or Alpha, but two other storms formed earlier in the day Friday and were assigned those names, thus we have Beta. For only the second time in history (2005 was the first) there have been so many tropical storms and hurricanes this year we have exhausted the list, making the Greek alphabet our new source for names for the rest of the season.

Climate change is making hurricanes slower and wetter. Here’s the latest peer-reviewed research:

Storms moving 16% slower near landfall

Storms are 10% stronger

Storms are 15% wettert