At a Glance

Tropical development in the northern Gulf of Mexico is possible this week.In 2019, Barry developed in the northern Gulf, then made landfall as a hurricane. In 2016, massive flooding occurred in Louisiana from a system that was never named.

Tropical development is possible this week in the northern Gulf of Mexico, bringing to mind a pair of recent systems that each provided its own cautionary tale.

The National Hurricane Center is currently monitoring a strip of the northern Gulf of Mexico where broad low pressure could develop into a tropical depression or tropical storm. You can read the latest forecast details on that area of disturbed weather .

It won't form in the Caribbean Sea or deep tropical Atlantic Ocean and spend days intensifying. However, that doesn't mean this system won't have some significant impacts.

To illustrate this, let's consider a pair of systems within the last six years.

Hurricane Barry 2019

Just three years ago - also in mid-July - a system became a hurricane despite forming close to the Louisiana coast.

What began as spin a few thousand feet above the ground generated by a cluster of thunderstorms in the Plains ended up over the northern Gulf of Mexico and spawned Tropical Storm a week later.

Two days after that, Barry managed to become a hurricane just before it made landfall along the coast of southern Louisiana on July 13.

From 12 to 24 inches of rain fell over parts of southwest and central Louisiana, triggering flooding in numerous areas. Storm surge of only added to southern Louisiana's flood woes.

However, flooding rain happened both before and after Barry was "officially" a named storm.

The morning before Barry became a tropical storm, in just a few hours prompted a in New Orleans. That was more rain than fell in the metro while Barry was a named storm.

Days later, a band of rain in Arkansas as Barry decayed to a remnant low dumped up to 16 inches of rain in the town of Dierks, the state's all-time 24-hour rainfall record. This deluge prompted water rescues, washed out roads and flooded a section of Interstate 30 in Clark County.

The 'Unnamed Louisiana Flood' 2016

Six years ago, one of the worst rainfall flood events in Louisiana history happened in the heart of hurricane season, but didn't involve either a tropical depression, storm or hurricane.

A slow-moving area of low pressure resembling an "inland tropical depression" drifted west across the northern Gulf Coast states in mid-August 2016.

Combining with near-record amounts of atmospheric moisture, this unnamed system wrung out over parts of Louisiana from August 11-15.

At least measured record flooding in Louisiana. Some topped their previous record flood crest by over 6 feet.

Thirteen people were killed and at least 30,000 people were rescued from the flooding, according to .

At least 50,000 homes, 100,000 vehicles and 20,000 businesses were damaged or destroyed. The total damage estimate of $12.3 billion (in 2022 dollars) made this one of America's costliest non-tropical flood disasters.

So, don't shrug off this system in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Regardless of how close it develops to shore - or even if it never develops at all - it could still be hazardous along parts of the northern Gulf Coast.

Boats pass a home partially submerged by flood waters on August 16, 2016 in Port Vincent, Louisiana. Starting last week Louisiana was overwhelmed with flood water causing at least seven deaths and thousands of homes damaged by the flood waters.

(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, .