Although you wouldn’t know it listening to conversation around Austin, this summer’s drought and heat are not the “worst ever.” They do, however, to put a technical spin on it, suck. A system passing from the Caribbean to the Gulf of Mexico today, could, theoretically, improve things around here. Let us hope. From the National Hurricane Center’s Jack Beven:

Computer model predictions of the path of the first tropical storm of the season with a chance to file down the teeth of the drought afflicting Central Texas. Credit: Wunderground
Thunderstorm activity associated with a tropical wave near the Yucatan Channel continues to become better organized … and radar data from Mexico suggests that a circulation could be forming about 50 miles northeast of Cancun. If current trends continue … a tropical depression could develop later today. Interests in the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula … as well as the central and western Gulf of Mexico … should monitor the progress of this system as it moves west-northwestward near 15 mph. This system has a high chance … 80 percent … of becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours. An Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft is scheduled to investigate this system later today.