After a seemly quiet tropical season, the Atlantic Ocean has given birth to a couple disturbances that bear watching in the next few weeks.
The first tropical cyclone that is on our watch list is labeled Tropical Depression Nine but in a matter of days it is expected to be a full-fledged tropical storm and possibly a hurricane. The depression, soon to become "Isaac", is hanging out east of the Windward Islands and is continuing to feed warm, moist air into it's core. With hardly little wind shear in place and rich supply of warm waters, this storm is expected to rapidly intensify soon. The National Hurricane Center is well aware of the situation and are sending reconnaissance planes to intercept the storm later this afternoon.
(GFS model showing a strong tropical storm or hurricane hitting Gainesville, FL one week from today.)
This tropical disturbance wouldn't garner a lot of attention if it weren't for the fact that almost every single hurricane model shows it slamming into Florida early next week. It's too early to speculate that the Sunshine State would take a direct hit, but given the upper level flow projections, it does favor the storm racing toward our southeast border. All in all, this storm needs to be monitored especially when you consider the Republican National Convention will be down there the same week the storm could reach shore.
Another tropical wave we have on the back burner just formed by the Cape Verde Islands, over to the west of Africa. Given the situation at hand, we'll worry about this storm complex later next week as it continues to turn over in the middle of the Atlantic. As for now we'll keep most of the attention on the storm at hand in the Caribbean. Until then make sure to stay with us for more tropical updates.
