Tropical Storm Arthur forms on Texas coast

The first named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, Arthur, has formed and is centered just southwest of Galveston. The maximum sustained winds are 40 mph and it's crawling toward the northeast at 9 mph. Although it will dissipate soon once it's back over land, the flooding rainfall threat will exist for the next several days across the southeast U.S.

As is evident in the satellite image at the top of the post, the strong thunderstorm activity is all displaced to the south and east of the low-level center, so the heavy rainfall threat is already over for Texas, but a lot lies ahead for Louisiana and areas to the east... all the way into Georgia this weekend.

Over the past five decades, the median date of first named storm formation is June 18, so this is right on schedule. And although the trend is toward earlier in the year, the past five years are all above that trend line (later).

Although there's nothing else on the horizon now, the next couple of names on this year's list are Barry and Chantal.  Arthur, by the way, has been on the rotating list of names since it was first introduced in 1984, so this is its 8th time around (1984, 1990, 1996, ..., 2026).

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