Tropical Storm Watch on the Gulf Coast as Depression Two Nears Strength; Beaver, Utah Under Flash Flood Emergency and Water Notice

EM Morning Brief · Jul 20, 2026 · 11m · transcript

Tropical Depression Two drifts toward the northern Gulf Coast with a Tropical Storm Watch from the Ochlockonee River to the Mississippi and Alabama border, and New Orleans opens sandbag sites ahead of expected impacts. The nation holds at Preparedness Level 5 with 78 large fires burning roughly 888,000 acres: Oregon’s lightning siege puts five incident management teams on 27 Central Oregon fires, Washington’s Kaiser Canyon Fire displaces more than 1,000 people near Nespelem, and Minnesota’s Boundary Waters closure extends through July 24. In Utah, a debris flow off the Cottonwood Fire burn…