Tropical Storm Harvey strengthened into a hurricane on Thursday as it headed to coastal Texas, where it was expected to bring life-threatening flooding, meteorologists said.
The National Hurricane Center said Air Force Hurricane Hunter planes had spotted Tropical Storm Harvey strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico, with about 60-mile-per-hour winds more than 300 miles off the southern coast of Texas early on Thursday. A hurricane warning, meaning hurricane conditions are expected, has been in effect from Port Mansfield in far southern Texas to Matagorda, about 100 miles southwest of Houston.
But later in the day, the planes spotted the system strengthening until it became a hurricane, with 80 m.p.h. winds, the hurricane center said.
Parts of Louisiana and the lower Mississippi Valley were also in the path of hurricane conditions from the storm system, the hurricane center said. Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana said on Thursday Hurricane Harvey was expected to hit Corpus Christi early on Saturday as a Category 3 hurricane, but its outer bands of rain could be felt earlier. The impact on Louisiana was expected early next week, he said.
“It is getting more and more serious as time goes by,” Mr. Edwards said in a news conference. He said the weather service has told him there was some possibility that the hurricane could make landfall in Texas, re-enter the Gulf before moving eastward to Louisiana, he said.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/us/harvey-storm-hurricane-texas.html
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