The twenty second tropical depression of the year has formed today over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. Tropical Depresion #22 is expected to move slowly over the western Gulf into early next week. It is expected to become Tropical Storm Wilfred and impact the United States early next week.
When Wilfred forms, it would become the 21st named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Only a few seasons have had that many storms; for those that did, none had the 21st storm form so early in the season. The current record for earliest 21st named storm in the Atlantic basin was Vince which formed on October 8, 2005. Once Wilfred is used, the National Hurricane Center would label future named storms after letters of the Greek alphabet. The first letter up would be “Alpha”; it was only used three times before; twice for subtropical storms and once for a tropical storm.
For now, the center of Tropical Depression #22 is near 21.9N, 94.3W which puts it about 230 miles east of Tampico, Mexico and roughly 330 miles southeast of the Rio Grande River. Maximum sustained winds are 35 mph while the minimum central pressure is 1005 mb or 29.68 inches.
The National Hurricane Center expects this depression to become a tropical storm by tomorrow.
