Zeta might be a good analog for future Rafael. A friend of mine brought up Zeta 2020 this afternoon and it really intrigued me.
So here's what the WPC has for Tuesday currently with Rafael south of Cuba with frontal system near MS River and how the WPC map from October 28th, 2020 looked with Zeta. Both this one and Zeta had frontal systems involved in the mix.
You may ask well that frontal system should push Rafael more towards Florida and be a Florida landfall. Which could still happen. I'm not discounting anything yet, but two key takeaways from NWS Memphis afternoon discussion show how this ends up further west (not to Texas though):
1. The
front is expected to stall across the region through late
week, as the main
trough dampens and lifts northeast of the
region. Deep southwesterly
flow will setup across the region on
Thursday in response to another
deepening trough over the Four
Corners Region. The stalled
front will back north of the region
on Thursday.
2. This system`s track will need to be closely monitored, as it has the
potential to interact with a mid-
latitude cyclone in the Lower
Mississippi Valley next weekend. Both
Ensemble and Deterministic
guidance suggest that tropical
moisture will interact with a
frontal boundary over the Mid-South next weekend. Significant
rainfall could occur over portions of the Mid-South as PWATs climb
above 2 inches. Stay tuned.