Details are still fuzzy, but the likelihood that Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine will turn into Hurricane Helene and affect the Gulf Coast later this week is increasing.

Record warm waters of the Caribbean are strengthening this system, which will pick up speed over the next day or two.

A system of low atmospheric pressure brewing in the northwestern Caribbean Sea is all but certain to become a tropical cyclone in the Gulf of Mexico over the next 48 hours — but neither Houston nor any part of the Texas Gulf Coast is expected to be landfall target for any developing storm.