 On August 5 , 1964 , a weak trough emerged from Florida over the northeastern Gulf of Mexico . According to the Atlantic hurricane database ( referred to as HURDAT ) , the system developed into a tropical depression by 18 : 00 UTC ( 1 : 00 p.m. CDT ) that day , with its center located roughly 160 mi ( 260 km ) south @-@ southeast of the Mississippi River Delta . Moving generally west , the system exhibited no signs of further development as it neared the Texas coastline . However , on August 7 , radar images from <unk> , Galveston , Lake Charles , and Victoria showed an abrupt increase in organization . During the afternoon hours , banding features consolidated around a developing eye and weather reconnaissance planes were dispatched to the system . <unk> initially mistook the eye as a hook echo @-@ type feature at the end of a <unk> line . It is estimated that the depression became a tropical storm by 12 : 00 UTC ( 7 : 00 a.m. CDT ) , roughly 60 mi ( 95 km ) southeast of Galveston , Texas . Operationally , the system was not even monitored as a depression this time , with the classification and naming of Tropical Storm Abby occurring at 16 : 00 UTC ( 11 : 00 a.m. CDT ) on August 7 . 
