A new tropical depression has developed in the central Atlantic Ocean and is forecast to intensify into Tropical Storm Gabrielle, ending an unusual nearly three-week lull with no storms during the height of hurricane season.
Tropical Depression Seven formed Wednesday morning 1,185 miles from the Caribbean’s northern Leeward Islands. It had sustained winds of 35 mph at the time, just 4 mph shy of tropical storm-status at 39 mph, News.Az reports, citing CNN.
It’s expected to become a tropical storm by Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center. From there, the system will likely strengthen into a hurricane by the weekend as it tracks to the west-northwest. This will be the first tropical storm in the Atlantic since Fernand fizzled on August 28.
The United States is not expected to see direct impacts from this system, but it might churn up surf on the East Coast next week.
For only the second time since 1950, the Atlantic went storm-free from August 29 through September 16, according to Dr. Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane expert and research scientist at Colorado State University. The last time that happened was in a quiet period after Hurricane Andrew’s devastating strike on the US in 1992.
High pressure to the north of this system will act as a steering wheel the next few days, with its clockwise motion sending the storm on a west-northwest path that will take it north of the islands of the eastern Caribbean by this weekend. High surf and dangerous rip currents will be the main impacts in those islands, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
That high pressure will then weaken enough to turn the system more north into the central Atlantic. Where that turn occurs will determine how close it tracks to Bermuda next week.
Another area of showers and storms is emerging from Africa right behind Tropical Depression Seven and could develop slowly into another tropical system as it tracks west across the eastern and central Atlantic in the coming days, the National Hurricane Center says. This system is no imminent threat to land for at least the next week, regardless of whether it becomes a tropical depression or storm.
