Roberto Villalpando

Melissa is projected to approach Jamaica this weekend, make landfall by early next week, and be near or over eastern Cuba by the middle of next week.

Melissa is expected to significantly strengthen by late Friday and over the weekend, when the storm could become a hurricane as early as Saturday.

The system is a tropical wave of low atmospheric pressure that’s centered over the eastern Caribbean Sea, producing thunderstorms and heavy rainfall.

Texas has yet to face a direct landfall by a tropical system and the chances of tropical trouble on the Gulf Coast are quickly running out.

Forecasters said Gabrielle was likely to weaken soon as it drifts farther into the cooler northern latitudes of the North Atlantic later this week.

The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean are inactive, so it's fair to ask: Can Texas can stand down early, even with two months left in hurricane season?

Remnants of Lorena, in the form of upper-atmospheric moisture, can still cause trouble, particularly as a cold front surges into Texas this weekend.

Lorena’s threat to Texas, of course, won’t be a direct landfall. Instead, forecasters anticipate trouble from the accumulated atmospheric moisture.

Around 12:10 p.m., Doppler weather radar detected heavy rainfall from thunderstorms soaking areas that have already recorded up to 2 inches of rain.

While a Gulf disturbance that moved into Texas on Friday seems to have run its course, Hurricane Erin in the western Atlantic intensifies.