 On July 22, a new low pressure area developed while the tropical wave was located over the Gulf of Honduras. However, this area of disturbed weather was unable to develop further, because the storm quickly moved over the Yucatán Peninsula. After its one-day passage through the peninsula, the system entered the Bay of Campeche, but lacked any deep convection. This time, though, the wave quickly developed the deep convection it needed to become a tropical cyclone. In part, this was due to the Sierra Madre Oriental enhancing large-scale rotation of the disturbance by forcing air to flow parallel to the mountain range, instead of through it. As a result, the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida designated it as Tropical Depression Seven, just 255 miles east-southeast of Tuxpan, Mexico. Early on the July 24, the cyclone was upgraded to a tropical storm with winds of 40 mph (65 km / h) and received the name Gert.
