Watching the weather: a NOAA satellite image shows Tropical Storm Fay as she continues to move slowly along the eastern coast of Florida
Fay steers course for Gulf
Energy traders watched Tropical Storm Fay drench Florida today as she approached the Gulf of Mexico where she could disrupt oil and natural gas production next week.
Fay continued moving slowly west across northern Florida toward the Gulf of Mexico. The centere was just west of Gainesville at 1200 GMT, according to the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC).
The NHC forecast Fay would enter the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm in about 48 hours, but remain just off the coast between the Florida Panhandle and Florida Peninsula before returning inland on the Panhandle in about 48 hours.
Tropical storms usually strengthen over warm water but the NHC does not expect Fay to intensify in the Gulf as she will be too close to shore.
The NHC expects Fay to weaken from a tropical storm, with winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour (62 to 116 kilometres), to a tropical depression, with winds below 39 mph, after it hits the Panhandle in about 72 hours.
Most of the weather models forecast Fay will remain near the Gulf Coast - sometimes over water and sometimes over land - in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi before striking Louisiana over the next five days. However, some models show the system moving inland over Alabama or Mississippi after Sunday.
Depending on the strength of the storm, energy traders told Reuters Fay could disrupt production and refining facilities along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Energy traders are also keeping an eye on a low-pressure system and a tropical wave in the Atlantic that could develop into tropical depressions over the next couple of days as they move toward the Caribbean Sea.
The NHC said there was a 20% to 50% chance the low-pressure system about 400 miles east of the Windward Islands and a tropical wave about midway between Africa and the Lesser Antilles could develop over the next 48 hours.
The energy market started watching the Windward system on 18 August. It was moving west-northwest at 15 miles per hour and could reach Cuba and the Bahamas in about five days after passing over the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.
The tropical wave has just developed. It is moving west or west-northwest at about 15 mph and could be about 400 miles east of the Virgin Islands in about five days.
It is still too soon to say whether either system will ultimately make landfall in North America.
The NHC will name the next two tropical storms Gustav and Hanna.