Tropical Storm Isaias forms, is forecast to become a hurricane and hit US Gulf Coast this week

Tropical Storm Isaias formed off eastern Mexico and is forecast to become the Atlantic season's first hurricane before striking the Gulf Coast late Friday or early Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane watch spans the northern Gulf Coast from Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, to Indian Pass, Florida.

Forecasters expect 3 to 6 inches of rain along the coast, with isolated totals up to 10 inches, and flooding risk reaching as far inland as Tennessee and the Carolinas. The storm would tie or break a 121-year-old record for the latest-forming first hurricane of an Atlantic season.

Gulf Shores canceled its National Shrimp Festival, which drew an estimated 325,000 people last year, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 25 Panhandle and Big Bend counties.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.