MIAMI (NOAA)-A disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to become a tropical storm later today.

At 8am on Monday, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said the disturbance, which is called Potential Tropical Cyclone Six, was located 495 kilometres south-southeast of the mouth of the Rio Grande which separates the United States of America and Mexico.

The NHC said environmental conditions are favourable for the disturbance to develop into a hurricane either on Tuesday or Wednesday before it reaches the northwestern US Gulf Coast.

Once the disturbance achieves tropical storm intensity, it will be called Francine.

Francine will be the sixth named storm of this year’s hurricane season.

On the forecast track, the disturbance is expected to move just offshore of the northern Gulf Coast of Mexico through Tuesday, and approach the Louisiana and Upper Texas coastline on Wednesday.

The disturbance has maximum sustained winds that are near 50 mph (85 km/h) with higher gusts.