Tropical Storm Bill became the second tropical cyclone of the Atlantic hurricane season late Monday, and also the second to strike the United States.
The storm was just off of the central Texas coast Tuesday morning and was expected to bring 4 inches to 8 inches of rain to the eastern part of the state -- or as much as a foot in some areas, according to the National Hurricane Center. Texas is already coming off of its wettest single month on record, with an average of nearly 9 inches of rainfall across the state.
Bill is forecast to move northward, becoming a tropical depression over the center of the state by early Wednesday and then moving northeast across the middle of the Mississippi River valley.
But it is expected to maintain some strength -- and significant moisture -- as it moves across the middle of the country. The weather service predicts as much as 5-8 inches of rain across the Ohio River valley and at least a couple of inches of rain in the mid-Atlantic over the next week.
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1, but technically got off to an early start when Tropical Storm Ana moved up the East Coast in early May. Ana made landfall on the South Carolina coast and was the second-earliest tropical cyclone to hit the U.S.
The second named storm of the season doesn't typically arrive until Aug. 1, according to hurricane center climatology data.
Still, forecasters expected a subdued hurricane season because of the presence of El Niño, which tends to inhibit cyclone formation.