forecasters will likely discontinue the tropical storm warnings currently extending from florida to louisiana later today. the weather channel's mike sidel is in dolphin island, alabama. explain to us why this storm fell apart and threatening the area like we thought it would. >> reporter: yeah. well, it never really had a very healthy environment. wind shear, the winds mid and upper levels of the atmosphere are too strong. hurricanes, tropical storms are like heat engines. they like everything to evacuate and then get the outflow. so a lot of dry air. that is obviously not good for a tropical system. and even though it's sitting over 85 or 86-degree water, that is not the end all. you need more than just warm water or every thunderstorm out there would turn into a storm or hurricane. so it's not just the warm water. you have other issues. let's show you the gulf of mexico right now. in the distance, you see the oil platforms. the difference with this versus alex is the forecast was for storm to come over the area.