A tropical rainstorm is targeting the Caribbean islands including Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas. The tropical threat will dump heavy rainfall into these regions this weekend.
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00:00We still have some action right now out on the Atlantic Basin.
00:04Yeah, we certainly do. The tropical season in the Atlantic doesn't end till the end of November,
00:08so we're still watching across the basin. In fact, we have two areas that we're watching right now,
00:13one in the Western Caribbean and then one tropical wave coming across the center of
00:17the Atlantic right now. So we'll start off with the one out in the Western Caribbean right now.
00:22You can see that big area of thunderstorms there. We're giving it a medium chance for development.
00:26Good news for the United States. It looks like it's going to be pushed west into Mexico,
00:30so even if it develops, it doesn't look like it's going to be any threat to the United States.
00:34That's good news, Alex, especially right on the heels of Milton and Helene. Now,
00:42you mentioned that we still have a ways to go, about 25% still left of this hurricane season,
00:48and we do have some activity here still brewing out across the central Atlantic as well.
00:54Yeah, we certainly do. We have a tropical rainstorm coming across the Atlantic right now.
00:57This is an area we're going to have to watch, especially for the northern Caribbean islands here
01:02over the next week or so as it approaches the islands, and it's in a pretty rough environment
01:06right now. That's why we really haven't seen it develop quickly. There's a lot of wind shear
01:10around it right now, a lot of dry air, so it's really struggling right now. However,
01:15when it gets a little bit closer to the islands there, the greater Antilles, the environment does
01:20get a little bit more conducive for development, and we could see this develop into a tropical
01:24storm. Yeah, it's gonna move into an environment where that wind shear starts to weaken a little
01:29bit there, but it does have plenty of moisture to draw from, and we are anticipating that it's
01:35gonna strengthen into a named storm. Yeah, it looks like it probably has a chance to do so.
01:40Again, I think the dry air kind of decreases, and so does the wind shear, so it's gonna have
01:44a narrow window in there north of the islands where it can develop. It's gonna be a brief
01:48window, though, because as it moves west, it's gonna tangle with the islands, and it's gonna
01:51get into an area of increased wind shear, so I don't think this storm is gonna have a very long
01:55lifespan, but it could bring some pretty heavy rain and maybe some gusty winds to those islands there.
02:01Yeah, you mentioned the heavy rain threat. That's because we have plenty of tropical moisture here,
02:05but can we first talk about the impacts potentially to the U.S.? Alex, I know a lot
02:10of people are on high alert. I mean, we're right on the heels of Milton and Helene. Yeah, I have
02:16some good news for the United States. That's big area of high pressure across the southeast
02:20should keep all of the tropical moisture and all these tropical systems away. You can see the one
02:24to the south in the western Caribbean that we started with. That one should be pushed west
02:28into Mexico, and then even if this tropical wave in the Atlantic develops into a named storm,
02:33all the tropical moisture should be kept south and east of Florida. Now, Alex, you also mentioned
02:39earlier that rain threat as well. Can you just talk about the risk associated with it? Yeah,
02:45this tropical rainstorm doesn't have to get all that strong to cause a lot of problems in those
02:49islands. A lot of these islands, Dominican Republic, Haiti, they have mountains that are
02:536, 7, 8, 9,000 feet that go up. And so these mountains can act like a sponge and can really
02:59squeeze out a lot of that moisture that these tropical systems can bring. And so that's my
03:03main concern with this is even if it doesn't get very strong in terms of wind speed, it's going to
03:08bring a lot of rain, I think, and those mountains are really going to squeeze out a lot of that
03:11moisture. And so I'm concerned about mudslides, landslides, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto
03:16Rico as well.