The U.S. Census Bureau said today that, based on the latest (2 p.m. EDT) projected path of Tropical Storm Arlene, an estimated 2.4 million residents of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana along the Gulf Coast could be affected by the storm’s tropical storm force winds.

     If the storm continues on its current path, it could make landfall near the central Gulf Coast sometime early Saturday morning. Arlene is the first named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.

According to the National Hurricane Center at 2:00 p.m. EDT, Arlene packed maximum sustained winds of near 66 MPH, making it a tropical storm. Arlene's tropical storm-force winds extend outward 150 miles.

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Note: The above calculations are based on projections of the storm’s path from the National Hurricane Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service, Census 2000 counts contained in LandView 6, a mapping software program, and Census Bureau population estimates as of July 1, 2004. These data do not present a full picture of the seasonal population increases of coastal or other tourist areas.