August 4, 2008

What will Tropical Storm Edouard do?

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

The season’s third potential hurricane looks like it won’t build up enough steam to reach hurricane status, meteorologists said earlier today. But Tropical Storm Edouard continues on a path projected to have it come ashore tomorrow morning near Galveston, Texas. The U.S. Census Bureau has calculated that 5.4 million people living in Texas and Louisiana may feel the effects of the storm, including flooding and power outages.

In a lone bit of good news, oil prices came down a few notches today as forecasters predicted that Tropical Storm Edouard would not threaten Gulf Coast oil rigs and refineries. The nearly $4 drop brought oil prices to a three-month low, with the cost per barrel briefly dipping under the $120 mark, according to the AP.

Scientists have called for an active hurricane season this year, with as many as five major hurricanes developing before season’s end on November 30. Two have sprung up thus far, named Bertha and Dolly, with the latter making landfall near Cancun on July 21, cutting across Guatemala and then up into northeastern Mexico and southeastern Texas. Edouard is August’s first big Atlantic storm.

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