Will Tropical Storm Cristobal or Tropical Storm Dolly wreak havoc on the U.S.?

It's still pretty early in the hurricane season, but things are heating up in a hurry. Now many are wondering whether a major landfall is possible or if a major hit to the oil rigs in the Gulf could cause another price jump for crude oil.

There are now two active tropical storm's in or near the Atlantic Ocean. The first storm, which is of less concern, is Tropical Storm Cristobal. Cristobal sits just a little east of the Outerbanks of North Carolina and has top winds of 50 mph. Why is this storm of little concern to the states? The path of the storm is actually taking it away from land. The storm is projected to move northeast over the next few days, which would take it further and further from the United States. Cristobal could still cause some heavy rain and some high tide along the east coast, but it shouldn't be anything that area isn't prepared for.

The second storm, which is of much greater consequence to entire region, is Tropical Storm Dolly. Right now Tropical Storm Dolly is located about 125 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. The top winds of the storm currently clock at about 45 mph, but these are expected to increase. Later tonight Dolly should make landfall somewhere along the eastern side of the Yucatan peninsula, but the storm will then re-emerge by sometime tommorrow. Once the storm emerges into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico some rapid intensification could take place. What is the current track on Dolly? Dolly currently looks as if it will second landfall somewhere between Central Mexico and Houston, Texas. Somewhere right along the Texas and Mexico border is currently the area that looks like the most probable second landfall for the storm.

If Dolly does indeed strengthen and become a Hurricane when it moves into the Gulf of Mexico then this storm will have to be watched very closely for a couple of reasons. The first is that any hurricane can be extremely dangerous and can take many lives, as Hurricane Katrina did a few years ago in New Orleans. The second is that the storm could move into an area where there are a lot of oil rigs. You can bet that the oil market will be keeping a close eye on Dolly as its track becomes more clear. If the storm does affect a large amount of rigs, it could cause another spike in already elevated oil prices.

Cristobal will likely be out of the news in the next few days, but Dolly is going to be one to watch very closely. Let's hope for the sake of the safety of America as well as the American economy that Dolly doesn't prove to be too destructive.

Want to find out more about how the hurricane naming system works?

Hurricane Names for 2008