SpaceX has launched another Starship rocket, but passed up catching it with giant mechanical arms.

South Florida residents are bracing for changing weather this week as the remnants of Tropical Storm Sara, now a moisture-laden system, merge with an advancing cold front.

Sara, a tropical storm on Friday, was forecast to move into the Gulf of Mexico. It could start to merge into a cold front and move more east toward Florida.

The disturbance we’ve been tracking through the Caribbean this week was upgraded to Tropical Depression Nineteen Thursday morning off the coast of northern Honduras.

An endangered sea turtle has been released into the Gulf of Mexico after being found off the coast of the Netherlands, 5,000 miles from its home.

A disturbance tracking south of Jamaica Wednesday morning – designated Invest 99L by the National Hurricane Center – is expected to organize into Tropical Storm Sara over the coming days and could strengthen into a powerful hurricane by this weekend as it hangs about off the coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua.

A significant late-season tropical system is poised to come together later this week and could strengthen into a formidable November hurricane by this weekend or early next week as it meanders in the western Caribbean.

With Rafael quickly spinning down over the Gulf of Mexico this weekend – its thunderstorm activity wiped clear by a slug of dry air and hostile wind shear – we’d hope the hurricane season would finally come to its senses and move into its traditional November hibernation, but the Caribbean has other plans.

Rafael re-strengthened overnight to a major Category 3 hurricane over the central Gulf of Mexico, becoming the farthest west a Category 3 or stronger hurricane has been observed during the month of November.

Rafael strengthened into a major Category 3 hurricane with 115 mph winds shortly before striking the southern coast of western Cuba at 4:15 PM ET Wednesday near Playa Majana in Artemisa Province.

Rafael took advantage of a deep reservoir of warm water south of Cuba to rapidly intensify since yesterday and is expected to be a major (Category 3) hurricane before striking western Cuba later today.

Hurricane Rafael has pushed into the Gulf of Mexico after plowing across western Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane with winds so powerful it knocked out the entire country’s power grid.

Tropical Storm Rafael formed on Monday in the Caribbean – the 17th named storm of the busy 2024 Atlantic hurricane season – and is on track to impact the Cayman Islands on Tuesday and parts of western Cuba on Wednesday as a hurricane.

On Sunday, the National Hurricane Center initiated advisories on Potential Tropical Cyclone Eighteen, a tropical disturbance in the southwestern Caribbean forecast to develop into a named storm in the coming hours, possibly reaching hurricane status before impacting western Cuba by Wednesday.

Coral reefs are in the midst of an ecological crisis and are at risk of extinction, according to the United Nations Capital Development Fund.

Overnight computer models waffled on the outlook for a disturbance we’ve been following in the southwestern and central Caribbean, softening its development prospects and pushing back the development window into early next week.

NASA says an astronaut has been released from the hospital after returning from space.

Four astronauts are back on Earth after a space station mission that lasted almost eight months.

Peter Dodge flew hundreds of missions into hurricanes as a radar specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

With its mighty strength and its dangerous path, Hurricane Milton has powered into a very rare threat that is flirting with experts’ worst fears.

Ferocious Hurricane Milton is charging its way across the Gulf Coast with Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida, in its sights.

Despite Hurricane Milton still being in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday, residents and business owners in some parts of Miami-Dade County were already dealing with high water — and preparing for even more flooding.

A tropical storm watch was in effect for the Florida Keys Monday as Hurricane Milton roared off the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Milton has intensified into a dangerous Category 5 storm as it churns across the Gulf of Mexico, with maximum sustained winds nearing 155 mph.

North Miami Beach was among the cities distributing sandbags Sunday to help residents in flood-prone areas prepare for the risk of storms as a hurricane remained on Florida’s forecast.

U.S. Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft reported Sunday that Milton was rapidly intensifying into a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, according to The National Hurricane Center.

The National Hurricane Center upgraded Tropical Depression 14 on Saturday into Milton, a tropical storm forecasted to strengthen into a hurricane that will impact Florida.

A broad area of low pressure and storminess we’ve been tracking over the Gulf of Mexico this week is expected to bring persistent rounds of heavy rain to much of the Florida peninsula – including across South Florida – beginning in earnest on Sunday and lasting through much of next week.

South Florida will endure showers and thunderstorms this weekend and through the middle of next week. The National Hurricane Center tracked two hurricanes in the Atlantic and possibly a third hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

Forecasters say Tropical Storm Milton has formed in the Gulf of Mexico.

A broad area of low pressure and storminess we’ve been tracking over the Gulf of Mexico this week is expected to bring persistent rounds of heavy rain to much of the Florida peninsula – including across South Florida – beginning in earnest on Sunday and lasting through much of next week.

A sloppy, broad area of low pressure will develop in the Gulf of Mexico this weekend.

The broad area of storminess we’ve been monitoring in the Caribbean has begun to pivot northward into the Gulf of Mexico, where some slow development is possible by this weekend or early next week.

We continue to monitor a disturbance lifting northward from the western Caribbean for possible development over the Gulf of Mexico by this weekend.

Another tropical system could form later this week over the northwestern Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico – in the vicinity of where Helene formed last week – and move toward the Gulf Coast for next weekend or early next week.

Storm surge records shattered along Florida’s Gulf Coast, with hurricane gusts and flash flood emergencies sweeping inland across the southeastern U.S.

Massive Hurricane Helene crashed into Florida’s sparsely populated Big Bend region, bringing storm surge and high winds across the state’s Gulf Coast communities before ripping into southern Georgia.

Officials estimated Helene was to blame for at least four deaths: A sign fell on a car killing one in Florida. A tornado killed two in Georgia. A tree fell on a home in North Carolina killing one person.

Hurricane Helene was moving fast Thursday on the Gulf of Mexico. The wide Category 2′s rain bands affected the Florida Keys. Waves crashed into the anchored concrete Southernmost Point Buoy in Key West.

Helene steadily strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane early Thursday morning and is poised to strike the northeastern Gulf coast tonight as a major hurricane, bringing catastrophic winds and storm surge into Florida’s Big Bend from east of Apalachicola to Florida’s Nature Coast, centered on Apalachee Bay.

Helene has strengthened into a hurricane with forecasters warning that the storm would intensify as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico on a path to Florida.

It has been a nice weekend without any heat advisories. The first day of Fall will bring a ton of sunshine and only an isolated storm for inland areas. Many will stay dry.

A broad area of low pressure near the coast of Nicaragua today is expected to slowly organize this week and is likely to become a tropical depression or named storm by the middle of the week as it heads northward toward the U.S. Gulf Coast for Thursday into Friday.

A tropical system could form over the southern Gulf next week and threaten the northern Gulf Coast into next weekend

Forecast models continue to advertise slow tropical development beginning next week across the northwestern Caribbean, with a system that could pivot into the southern Gulf of Mexico by the middle to latter part of the week.

On Thursday, the National Hurricane Center continued to raise the specter of tropical formation over the western Caribbean and southern Gulf of Mexico for the early to middle part of next week.

On Tuesday evening, the National Hurricane Center outlined an area of possible tropical development in the western Caribbean for early next week.

A billionaire spacewalker is back on Earth.

Francine is weakening after striking Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane as it heads far inland from the Gulf Coast.

Francine strengthened into a hurricane by late Tuesday and continued to strengthen into the morning hours Wednesday over the northern Gulf of Mexico as it made its final approach to coastal Louisiana.

Hurricane Francine has slammed into Louisiana as a dangerous Category 2 storm, knocking out power to more than a quarter million customers and threatening a large stretch of the Gulf Coast with flooding and destructive winds.

A large disturbance over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico is organizing and is expected to become Tropical Storm Francine later today as it sets its sights on the northwestern Gulf Coast.

The National Weather Service says a tropical system in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico was expected to strengthen this week into a tropical storm and dump heavy rains onto Mexico and Texas before reaching the U.S. as a potential hurricane.

As we’ve discussed in recent newsletters, the tropical struggles across the Atlantic only days removed from the hurricane season peak – especially in a season forecast to bring exceptional activity – feel more unusual with each passing day.

Fall officially arrived this month – at least the fall most important to meteorologists (astronomical fall begins later this month) – and although South Floridians still have to wait another month before feeling some relief, the hottest months of the year are at least behind us.

Despite several disturbances peppering the Atlantic from the Gulf of Mexico to Africa this Labor Day – a traditionally active turn in the hurricane season – none show any immediate signs of development.

We all know how important warm waters are to hurricanes. The heat of the ocean is the power source of hurricanes and water temperature across the tropical Atlantic is the single biggest predictor of how active the hurricane season will be, especially by August when they explain a whopping 66% of the year-to-year difference in seasonal hurricane activity.

A strengthening Debby in the Gulf of Mexico aimed to land Monday at or near Cedar Key, an island town, southwest of Gainesville, off the northwest coast of Florida.

Storm surge, heavy rain, and high tide hit at the same time Sunday in Fort Myers Beach, as Tropical Storm Debby moved north in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tropical Storm Debby was advancing across the southeastern Gulf of Mexico Sunday, and the rain bands were set to cause more evening thunderstorms in South Florida.

Tropical Storm Debby was in the eastern Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. It is set to cause flooding in Florida’s Gulf Coast and strengthen into a hurricane Monday before making landfall in Florida’s Big Bend.

A depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Debby over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. It was the fourth named storm of this Atlantic hurricane season.

It’s an area of low atmospheric pressure, thunderstorms and wind sloshing out of the Caribbean Sea into the Gulf of Mexico.

Late on Friday, the strong disturbance dubbed Potential Tropical Cyclone Four earlier in the day by the National Hurricane Center finally gained enough organization south of Cuba to be classified as a Tropical Depression. By Saturday morning, hurricane watches had been issued for Florida’s sweeping Big Bend, from just west of Apalachicola to near Crystal River.

On Thursday, the National Hurricane Center designated the strong tropical disturbance now moving across eastern Cuba Invest 97L, a procedural move that allowed NHC to begin running a specialized suite of computer models to better interpret its future strength and track.

In Wednesday morning’s newsletter, we discussed how the interplay between the robust tropical wave moving through the complex terrain of the northeastern Caribbean islands today and tomorrow would be crucial to its forecast this weekend.

The mostly “dry” tropical disturbance moving through the Atlantic that we first brought to your attention in this newsletter a week ago is slowly gathering storminess as it moves through the islands of the northeastern Caribbean this morning.

Beryl has moved into the the Gulf of Mexico and is taking aim at the south Texas coast, after battering Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

Tropical Storm Alberto came ashore around daybreak Thursday near the border of Tamaulipas and Veracruz in northeastern Mexico.

Tropical Storm Alberto is rumbling toward northeast Mexico as the first named storm of the season, carrying heavy rains that left three people dead but also brought hope to a region suffering under a prolonged, severe drought.

Tropical Storm Alberto, the season’s first named storm, has weakened as it moves inland over northeast Mexico — but not before bringing heavy rains to the parched region and leaving at least three dead.

Authorities are using boats to patrol the ocean and warning swimmers about sharks this weekend along Florida’s Gulf Coast, where a woman and two teenage girls were hurt in two separate shark attacks on Friday.

Authorities are warning of shark dangers this weekend along Florida’s Gulf Coast, where three people were hurt in two separate shark attacks.

Although tropical storms and hurricanes can impact any state along the Gulf Coast or southeast U.S. in June, two states especially stand out. T

After all the pre-season hype, it’s only fitting that the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is on track to see the latest start of any year since at least 2014.

Extreme heat in Mexico, Central America and parts of the US South has left millions sweltering, strained energy grids and resulted in iconic Howler monkeys in Mexico dropping dead from trees.

Scientists say temperatures that have gone “crazy haywire” hot, especially in the Atlantic, are close to making the current global coral bleaching event the worst in history.

A fossil hunter is all smiles after finding a giant Mastodon or Mammoth tusk in the Gulf of Mexico.

The world is not doing enough to protect coral reefs.

Reef scientists say coral reefs around the world are experiencing global bleaching for the fourth time due to prolonged warming of the oceans.

Four astronauts from four countries are back on Earth after catching a ride from the International Space Station with SpaceX.

A 14-foot-long white shark might not be something swimmers want to see at the beach.

A handful of super powerful tropical cyclones in the last decade has a couple of experts proposing a new category of whopper hurricanes: Category 6.

Oil companies have offered $382 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico after courts rejected the Biden administration’s plans to scale back the sale to protect an endangered whale species.

As much as 1.1 million gallons of oil may have been discharged into the Gulf of Mexico from a pipeline system off Louisiana’s southeast coast.

Far off the Texas coast there is a beautiful surprise in the Gulf of Mexico that draws divers from around the world: a stunning amount of coral coverage on undersea mountains.

A federal appeals court has ordered the Biden administration to carry on with an auction of oil and gas drilling leases for Gulf of Mexico waters in 37 days — rejecting arguments by environmentalists.

The Biden administration has designated four tracts of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas and Louisiana coasts for development of wind energy.

An area of low pressure in the southern Gulf of Mexico associated with a washed-out cold front will lift northward today and accelerate northeastward on Wednesday and early Thursday toward the northern Gulf Coast.

Salt water inching up the Mississippi River is progressing more slowly than once projected — buying time for water systems in metropolitan New Orleans that draw drinking water from the river.

President Joe Biden's administration has proposed up to three oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico over the next five years but none in Alaska.

Salt water flowing from the Gulf of Mexico into the drought-stricken Mississippi River is prompting Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards to ask President Joe Biden to declare a state of emergency.

The Biden administration is appealing a federal judge's order requiring the Interior Department to expand next week’s scheduled sale of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases by millions of acres.

Hurricane Idalia damaged Stacie Austin’s home. Its storm surge pushed a mobile home over a block away from where it once stood. Its force was so random that it spared Chip Potter nearby.

The quaint community that sits about three miles out into the Gulf of Mexico may be one of the hardest hit from Hurricane Idalia.

Images from ISS show Hurricane Idalia as it passed over Florida's Gulf Coast.

Feeding on some of the hottest water on the planet, Hurricane Idalia is rapidly strengthening as it bears down on Florida.

Invest 93L was upgraded to Tropical Depression Ten Saturday afternoon and continues to steadily organize as it meanders near the island of Cozumel and the eastern tip of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

An area of low pressure between Cuba and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula – designated Invest 93L by the National Hurricane Center – has steadily organized since Friday and is expected to become a tropical depression or storm by later today or Sunday.

A system in the northwest Caribbean was likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and make landfall in northern Florida next week.