GREENSBORO, N.C. — There's still no official tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico, but in just a few days a hurricane could be hitting the Gulf Coast. Once it forms, this storm will be called Barry - and areas from Texas to Mississippi are on alert.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a large area of thunderstorms sits in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida. It hasn't clustered together yet into an organized tropical storm, but that's all but certainly going to happen by this time on Thursday. The National Hurricane Center is already flying planes into the storm to gather more data and see if it is better organized.