GULF OF MEXICO

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.

By the time we get to October, San Antonians should turn their attention to the Pacific when it comes to rain chances.

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

The Biden administration has tightened offshore oil drilling safety regulations, including rules regarding the use of “blowout preventer” devices on offshore oil and gas drilling rigs.

Sweltering temperatures are lingering in a large swath of the central U.S., causing misery from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes.

Several factors will determine how rain chances play out in South Central Texas

The Biden administration has announced plans for the first sale of offshore wind power leases in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.

Some oil companies have expressed interest in bidding to build wind turbines off the Texas coast, which could help reduce emissions that cause climate change but still come at an environmental cost.

This year’s hurricane season is expected to be more active than initially predicted, according to researchers at Colorado State University, one of the most trusted tropical storm forecasters.

The Padre Island National Seashore says it recently received a “not-so-welcome visitor.” The invasive Australian Spotted Jellyfish, or Phyllorhiza punctata, was spotted on North Beach, PINS said.

Tropical Storm Arlene, the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, has formed in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Space X launch on the southern tip of Texas last week caused large concrete chunks and stainless steel sheets to shoot thousands of feet away and started a fire in the Boca Chica State Park, according to a federal agency investigating the test flight.

SpaceX’s giant new rocket exploded minutes after blasting off on its first test flight and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.

A new study says changes in air patterns as the world warms will likely push more and nastier hurricanes up against the United States’ east and Gulf coasts.

A new National Academy of Science study says that 13 years after a massive BP oil spill fouled the Gulf of Mexico, regulators and industry have reduced some risks in deep water exploration in the gulf but some troublesome safety issues persist.

Offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico give off much more methane emissions than official estimates, according to a study published Monday.

The United States is Earth's punching bag for nasty weather.

Meteorologists are warning of a series of severe storms that could rip across America's Midwest and South over the next couple of weeks, with the first and perhaps most dangerous outbreak forecast to strike Friday.

Oil companies including Chevron and ExxonMobil offered a combined $264 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico in a sale mandated by last year’s climate bill compromise.

A seaweed bloom spanning 5,000 miles is being pushed toward the Gulf of Mexico, causing hundreds of tons of seaweed to wash up on beaches across the Caribbean and the Gulf.

Four space station astronauts are back on Earth after a quick SpaceX flight home.

The Biden administration said Wednesday it is considering the first-ever lease sale for offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico, a key part of a push to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 to help fight climate change.

Experts say a natural La Nina weather pattern, unusually warm moist air juiced by climate change, and long-term shift in where tornadoes hit all are factors in Thursday's devastating tornado in Alabama.

The Coast Guard found 350 pounds of illegally caught red snapper on a boat off the South Texas coast over the weekend.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will reopen saltwater fishing on the coast.

The Texas State Aquarium released nine loggerhead sea turtles into the Gulf of Mexico after they were rehabilitated at its program in Corpus Christi.

The aquarium decided to relocate its sea turtle operations to the nearby 26,000-square-foot Striker Building at the Port of Corpus Christi.

A federal agency says an outage involving a Coast Guard marine warning system and “data gaps” in radar systems were factors in last year's deadly capsize of an oil industry lift boat off Louisiana's coast.

A quick study by two scientists calculates that climate change made Hurricane Ian 10% rainier than it would have been if there were no such thing as global warming.

Hurricane Ian is quickly gaining monstrous strength as it moves over oceans partly heated up by climate change, just like 30 other Atlantic tropical storms since 2017 that became much more powerful in less than a day.

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary is the only sanctuary site located in the Gulf of Mexico and it’s now facing a deadly threat.

Hurricane Ian tore into western Cuba as a major hurricane, knocking out power to the entire country and leaving 11 million people without electricity.

Citing water quality concerns, the Environmental Protection Agency may refuse to recognize a permit that Texas approved Thursday for a marine desalination plant at the Port of Corpus Christi.

The Biden administration has accepted nearly $190 million in bids from an offshore oil and gas lease sale that was held nearly a year ago but rejected by a federal judge.

Renewable energy incentives in the climate bill signed by President Joe Biden are expected to drastically reduce overall U.S. emissions.

A judge's order that forced the Biden administration to resume sales of oil and gas leases on federal land and waters has been lifted by a federal appeals court.

The world's smallest and most endangered sea turtle has hatched in Louisiana's wilds for the first known time in 75 years.

The Biden administration is proposing up to 10 oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one in Alaska over the next five years.

Modest chance for development into a tropical depression or tropical storm

A Texas angler may have broken a state and world record after he reeled in a monster of a fish in Port Aransas last week.

The Biden administration says it is canceling three oil and gas lease sales scheduled in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska.

SpaceX has returned four astronauts from the International Space Station with a midnight splashdown off the Florida coast.

A plane carrying former President Donald Trump was forced to make an emergency landing in New Orleans last weekend after suffering engine failure over the Gulf of Mexico.

If you’re familiar with the Texas coast, which isn’t known for having crystal clear water, you probably never would have suspected that a mere 100 miles off of Galveston is a 56 square mile marine sanctuary complete.

The ashes of Winter the dolphin have been returned to the sea, about two months after the beloved marine mammal of movie star fame died at a Florida aquarium.

From the Gulf of Mexico to deep in the heart of Texas, there were a ton of record-breaking catches this year by Texas anglers and we’ve compiled a list of a few of our favorites.

Energy companies have offered a combined $192 million for drilling rights on federal oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico in the first government lease sale under President Joe Biden.

The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday will auction vast oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico estimated to hold up to 1.1 billion barrels of crude.

Four astronauts are back on Earth after a 200-day space station mission.

Response to disasters such as Hurricane Ida falls primarily to state and local officials, but the federal government is playing an important support role.

Response to disasters such as Hurricane Ida falls primarily to state and local officials, but the federal government is playing an important support role.

Oil companies began gradually to restart some of their refineries in Louisiana, and key fuel pipelines fully reopened, providing hopeful signs that the region’s crucial energy industry can soon recover from the blow of Hurricane Ida.

Companies evacuated oil and gas platforms south of Louisiana ahead of Hurricane Ida but a far greater worry was potential damage to refineries and petrochemical plants in its projected path from flooding and storm surge.

A North Texas animal shelter is taking in more than 40 at-risk, homeless animals in Louisiana ahead of Hurricane Ida’s landfall.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has ordered a mandatory evacuation for a small area of the city outside the levee system.

Landfall is expected along the Louisiana Gulf Coast on Sunday

A tropical system could form by Sunday

The National Hurricane Center said Fred has regained tropical storm status in the Gulf of Mexico as parts of the Caribbean began seeing impacts from tropical depression Grace.

A U.S. Coast Guard commander says a technical issue prevented it from relaying severe thunderstorm and marine warnings one day last April when a Seacor Power lift boat capsized in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving 13 dead in hurricane-force winds.

Researchers say this year’s Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” is larger than average.

U.S. government forecasters say they expect the Atlantic hurricane season to be busier than they first thought.

If you’ve been to a beach along the Gulf of Mexico - from Texas to Florida - you’ve likely heard you need to shuffle your feet to help avoid getting stung by a stingray in a move dubbed the “stingray shuffle.”

Every coastline in the U.S. will experience rapidly increasing high-tide flooding due to “moon wobble” and climate change, according to a new study.

Given its location next to the Gulf of Mexico, one would think that the Tampa Bay region would have an extensive history with hurricanes. On the contrary, that's not the case.

Mexico's state-owned oil company says it suffered a rupture in an undersea gas pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico.

System will bring heavy, flooding rains for parts of the Gulf Coast

High winds and heavy rains are striking coastal Louisiana and Mississippi as a disorganized and unpredictable tropical weather system churns through the Gulf of Mexico.

The 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season is heating up and it’s heating up fast. An area of disturbed weather in the southern Gulf of Mexico is showing signs of organization.

The 2021 Atlantic Hurricane season has a 60% chance to be above average

More heavy rainfall and strong storms possible

A South Texas fisherman landed a whopper 876-pound bluefin tuna last month about 150 miles off the coast of Port Aransas, breaking a nearly 40-year state record.

SpaceX has delivered four astronauts back to Earth, making the first U.S. crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.

Texas can get up to $79 million in BP oil spill restoration money, Mississippi nearly $69 million, and Florida almost $74 million for recently approved ecological projects and programs.

NASA and SpaceX are promising more Coast Guard patrols and fewer pleasure boaters for this weekend's splashdown by four astronauts.

As the search for survivors of a capsized lift boat ends, attentions turn to comforting the loved ones of the dead and missing, a grim hunt for bodies and a painstaking investigation that could take as long as two years.

The U.S. Coast Guard says it has covered an area larger than the state of Rhode Island in its search for a dozen people missing off the Louisiana coast after an offshore oilfield vessel capsized in a storm.

The $12 million Great Red Snapper Count estimated that the Gulf holds about 110 million adult red snapper -- those at least 2 years old. More than 60% of the red snapper were in areas that previously had not been checked, according to the study by 20 scientists from 14 universities and NOAA. The report estimated that about 48 million adult red snapper swim off Florida, 29 million off Louisiana, 23 million off Texas and 10 million off Mississippi and Alabama. He noted that the red snapper count received twice as much funding as all of the studies he oversees at the Southeast Fisheries Science Center. Congress voted for the study in 2016, as red snapper recreational seasons got shorter and shorter while anglers kept seeing more and bigger fish.

Not only did they see a huge pod of orca whales swimming in the Texas gulf, but some of those orcas swam right up to the boat to check them out. AdHardeman said the encounter lasted about 30 minutes until the group of orcas got bored and swam back to join their pod. Orcas do live in the Texas Gulf but are rarely sighted. Hardeman started his career 17 years ago in Alaska and has been working on offshore fishing boats in the Texas gulf for about 10 years. Hardeman said he’s happy he can share the video of his orca encounter so others can enjoy it too.

– A small parade of rescued young sea turtles has headed into the Gulf of Mexico from Louisiana — a bright note in a tough season for sea turtles. Sea turtles get cold-stunned and lethargic when the water around them chills down so fast they can’t swim to warmer waters. Those released this week at Grand Isle were Kemp's ridley sea turtles, like most of those injured in New England, where volunteers rescued 775 turtles, said Kate Sampson, regional sea turtle stranding coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Texas turtles were likely in relatively good shape because the cold came on so quickly, she said. AdSo many green and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles were found off Texas in February that the South Padre Island Convention Center was used as an emergency sea turtle hospital.

The Interior Department said Friday, Feb. 12, 2021 that it is postponing onshore and offshore oil lease sales planned for next month in line with President Joe Biden's executive order on climate change. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)NEW ORLEANS – The Interior Department said Friday that it is postponing onshore and offshore oil lease sales planned for next month in line with President Joe Biden's executive order on climate change. The onshore sales were postponed to confirm the adequacy of underlying environmental analyses, said Interior spokesperson Melissa Schwartz. AdLow interest and small attendance at offshore lease sales covering different parts of the Gulf of Mexico prompted President Barack Obama's administration to combine them. “Canceling this huge offshore Gulf oil auction helps protect our climate and life on Earth," said Kristen Monsell of the Center for Biological Diversity.

In the closing months of the Trump administration, energy companies stockpiled enough drilling permits for western public lands to keep pumping oil for years. Its effect could be further blunted by companies that stockpiled enough drilling permits in Trump's final months to allow them to keep pumping oil and gas for years. But Biden’s move could be the first step in an eventual goal to ban all leases and permits to drill on federal land. Oil and gas extracted from public lands and waters account for about a quarter of annual U.S. production. But there are other ways an ambitious Biden administration could make it harder for permit holders to extract oil and gas.

The industry saw Wednesday’s auction as potentially the last opportunity to lease federal waters for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico for the next four years. In the last opportunity for oil companies to bid on federal Gulf of Mexico waters under a Trump administration, the federal government on Wednesday leased more than a half-million acres to companies for offshore oil drilling and production. Oil companies have struggled this year as the pandemic, combined with less faith from Wall Street investors, have left them strapped for cash. A handful of Texas energy companies, including a subsidiary of Murphy Oil, which recently said it would relocate its headquarters to Houston from Arkansas, made smaller offers. “This lease sale is pouring fuel on the flames of climate change,” said Emma Pabst, a global warming solutions advocate with Environment Texas.

Hurricane experts were closely watching the Caribbean, where Tropical Storm Iota formed Friday afternoon. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Iota could bring dangerous wind, storm surge and as much as 30 inches (76 centimeters) of rainfall to northern Nicaragua and Honduras. The storm was located about 350 miles (560 kilometers) south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica and had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph). Iota is a record-setting 30th named storm of this year’s extraordinarily busy Atlantic hurricane season. Earlier, firefighters in Tampa had to rescue around a dozen people who got stuck in storm surge flooding on a boulevard adjacent to the bay.

One death in Florida was linked to the storm, along with some scattered flooding and forecasters said the tropical storm was on a path offshore of South Carolina that would eventually take it further out to sea. That came amid a combination of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico being carried up by a cold front that had pushed Eta across Florida earlier. Earlier Thursday, Eta was in the Gulf of Mexico when it slogged ashore near Cedar Key, Florida. Before that first brush with Florida, Eta first hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane and killed at least 120 people in Central America and Mexico, with scores more missing. A 29th named system, Tropical Storm Theta, was centered late Thursday about 440 miles (705 kilometers) south of the Azores and moving east.

Hurricane Zeta passed through Wednesday leaving much of the city and metro area without power. Even as Zeta battered the south, the upcoming election was still on the mind of some residents. “Guys, we received the brunt of Zeta, and Zeta gave us a good punch,” McInnis told WDSU-TV. More than 875,000 customers were without electricity in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, including about 350,000 in metro New Orleans. Winds could be “especially severe” in the southern Appalachian Mountains, where flash flooding is possible, the hurricane center said.

Clouds gather over Playa Gaviota Azul as Tropical Storm Zeta approaches Cancun, Mexico, early Monday morning, Oct. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Victor Ruiz Garcia)MIAMI – Hurricane Zeta lashed Mexico's Caribbean coast resorts around Tulum with high winds and rain Monday night as it headed toward the Yucatan Peninsula and then a possible landfall on the central U.S. Gulf Coast at midweek. It was the second time this month that boat captain Francisco Sosa Rosado had to perform the same maneuver, after Hurricane Delta hit the resort in early October. Trees felled by Hurricane Delta barely three weeks earlier still littered parts of Cancun, stacked along roadsides and in parks. There was also a Tropical Storm Zeta in 2005, but that year had 28 storms because meteorologists later went back and found they missed one, which then became an “unnamed named storm."

Zeta is moving toward the east-northeast near 55 mph (89 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue through tonight. On the forecast track, the center of Zeta will emerge over the western Atlantic this evening. Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph (85 km/h) with higher gusts. A sustained wind of 39 mph (63 km/h) and a gust to 46 mph (74 km/h) were recently reported at Ocean City, Maryland. RAINFALL: The last of the heavy rainfall along the track of Zeta will impact the Mid-Atlantic through this evening.

Environmental groups have asked a federal court to toss out the government's assessment of oil and gas activity's likely effects on endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico. A lawsuit filed Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020, says the report doesnt consider the likelihood of another catastrophic oil spill like BP's Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010. He predicted the litigation will be lengthy because both the report and suit cover a huge area and many species. It will be largely a battle of experts, he said, but allegations about ignoring large spills are a strength of the suit. The suit said NOAA underestimated the largest spill likely.

Marcus Peterson walks past a downed tree in his yard after Hurricane Delta moved through, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020, in Jennings, La. It then moved over Lake Charles, a city where Hurricane Laura damaged nearly every home and building in late August. While Delta was a weaker storm than Category 4 Laura, it brought significantly more flooding, Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said. Forecasters warned that heavy rain, storm surges and flash floods continued to pose dangers in areas from Texas to Mississippi. They arrived back in Lake Charles last weekend, got a new roof on Monday and had to evacuate again Thursday.

This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken Friday, Oct. 9, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. – Ripping tarps from already damaged roofs and scattering debris piled by roadsides, Hurricane Delta inflicted a new round of destruction on Louisiana as it struck communities still reeling after Hurricane Laura took a similar path just six weeks earlier. Delta's reach stretched as far west as Galveston, Texas, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from where the storm struck Louisiana. Tropical Storm Marco fizzled as it hit the southeast Louisiana tip just three days before Laura struck. “The wind is much worse than what Hurricane Laura brought,” Gove said in a message on Twitter.

This Oct. 8, 2020 photo made available by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Delta in the Gulf of Mexico at 12:41 p.m. EDT. Delta is the sixth storm this year and the second in a week to reach the threshold, Lillo calculated. Hurricanes Hannah, Laura, Sally and Teddy and tropical storm Gamma all gained at least 35 mph (56 kph) in strength in 24 hours. This year is particularly nasty and Delta is a good example, said study co-author Gabriel Vecchi, a Princeton climate scientist. “This season has given a lot of examples of these rapidly intensifying storms that we expect to be more common,” Princeton’s Vecchi said.

Louisiana residents who are still recovering from the devastation of a powerful hurricane less than two months ago braced for another hit as Hurricane Delta steamed north through the Gulf on Thursday after swiping Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the Associated Press reported. “They do not retire Greek alphabet storm names -- at least so far,” Gross said. The last time we went through all the letters of the alphabet and moved on to the Greek alphabet was 2005. In 2005, a record-breaking year of devastating hurricanes, we made it through six Greek letters. The Committee also agreed that it was not practical to retire into hurricane history a letter in the Greek alphabet.

Louisiana residents still recovering from the devastation of a powerful hurricane less than two months ago braced for another hit as Hurricane Delta steamed north through the Gulf on Thursday after swiping Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula. The projected path included the southwest area of Louisiana where Category 4 Hurricane Laura made landfall less than two months ago. Randazzo watched pieces of one of his restaurants, Panorama Music House, fly past a meteorologist’s car on a Facebook Live video during Hurricane Laura. The most recent forecast for Hurricane Delta has the storm making landfall “almost precisely” where Hurricane Laura struck — a region where homes and electrical infrastructure are still damaged, Edwards said in a radio interview. New Orleans, well to the east of the projected landfall area, was expected to escape the worst of Hurricane Delta.

Location 90 miles S of Knoxville Tennessee Wind 15 mph Heading E at 15 mph Pressure 29.77 Coordinates 84.1W, 34.5NDiscussionAt 1100 PM EDT (0300 UTC), the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Delta was located near latitude 34.5 North, longitude 84.1 West. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the east near 15 mph, and this motion is expected to continue tonight and Monday morning. Maximum sustained winds are near 15 mph (30 km/h) with higher gusts. Some further weakening is possible tonight as a new surface low develops in the Carolinas, and Delta's surface low is expected to be absorbed by this new low pressure area on Monday. Moderate to major river flooring will continue across the Calcasieu and Mermentau river basins in Louisiana through much of next week

Tropical Storm Gamma has moved into the Gulf of Mexico, while Tropical Storm Delta has developed right behind it in the Caribbean. Here’s what you need to know:Tropical Depression GammaGamma is a tropical depression as of Monday night. Stay InformedTo follow along with the busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record, bookmark our hurricane page or download the KSAT Hurricane Tracker App. You can also find your local forecast anytime - including potential impacts from Tropical Depression Twenty-Two - on the KSAT Weather page. Types of Tropical SystemsNot all tropical systems are created equal!

– Louisiana will get nearly $215 million in BP oil spill money for two projects planned to restore more than 4,600 acres of marsh and other habitat in the New Orleans area, Gov. The money is from BP’s $8.8 billion settlement for natural resources damage caused by the blowout that killed 11 men and spewed more than 100 million gallons (380 million liters) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, leaving long-lasting effects. “The Mississippi River created our parish and the many historic ridges of our landscape,” said Plaquemines Parish President Kirk Lepine. It was based partly on the judge’s estimate that the 87-day Deepwater Horizon spill spewed nearly 134 million gallons (507 million liters) of crude into the Gulf — enough to fill the U.S. Capitol rotunda 13 times. Federal experts estimated the total at more than 176 million gallons (666 million liters), while BP estimated 102 million gallons (386 million liters).

After a very slow trek through the Gulf of Mexico over the past few days, Beta has finally made landfall in Texas. Here’s what you need to know:Beta made landfall as a Tropical Storm near Port O’Connor, Texas around 10:00 pm MondayThe latest forecast track takes Beta inland, before a turn to the northeast begins Tuesday and WednesdayLatest track for TS Beta; Valid Monday, September 21, 2020 (Copyright 2020 by KSAT - All rights reserved.) Latest track for TS Beta; Valid Monday, September 21, 2020 (Copyright 2020 by KSAT - All rights reserved.) Beta will continue to move very slowly, which will likely result in prolonged periods of heavy rain for some areas, especially in and around the Houston areaImpacts for the San Antonio AreaOverall, the most rain will fall well east of the I-35 corridor this week, so flooding is not a concern for San Antonio & Bexar CountyHowever, a Flash Flood Watch has been issued through Tuesday for places like Hallettsville, Cuero, and GoliadThose easternmost communities could see rainfall totals in the 3-6″ rangeIn contrast, the San Antonio/Bexar County area is expected to see around 1 inch of rain through midweekLatest Video ForecastStay InformedTo follow along with the busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record, bookmark our hurricane page or download the KSAT Hurricane Tracker App. You can also find your local forecast anytime - including potential impacts from Tropical Depression Twenty-Two - on the KSAT Weather page.

Residents in Port O’Connor prepare for Tropical Storm Beta to make landfallPublished: September 20, 2020, 5:43 pmThe latest forecast of Tropical Storm Beta shows the storm making landfall in the afternoon near Port Lavaca. While San Antonio is expected to only see about an inch of rain, Cuero and Hallettsville can see up to seven inches. The most significant impact is expected to occur along the Gulf Coast.

MIAMI – An exceptionally busy Atlantic hurricane season was churning along Saturday as the Texas coast prepared for a tropical storm that could strengthen into a hurricane before breaching its shores in the week ahead. Both the city of Galveston and Galveston County on Saturday issued voluntary evacuation orders ahead of Tropical Storm Beta, as did the city of Seabrook to the north of Galveston. Forecasters issued a tropical storm warning from Port Aransas, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana. Beta had maximum sustained winds at 60 mph (95 kph) and was moving north-northeast at 2 mph (4 kph) Saturday night. A tropical storm warning was in effect for Bermuda.