Things have been incredibly slow in the tropics recently… slow enough that even some of us in the weather office had been lulled into a false sense of security that the last storm of the 2008 Hurricane Season was already behind us.
Nope. We’re not done yet.
Earlier today, Tropical Depression #17 formed off the coast of Nicaragua and Honduras. It spawned from a stationary and large area of low pressure that has been sitting on the warmest waters in all of the Atlantic Basin. The Hurricane Hunters investigated today… and they found enough of a low-level circulation to call it TD #17.
Wind shear is low enough and the water warm enough that this system will likely be upgraded to Tropical Storm Paloma tonight or Thursday morning. The official NHC forecast even calls for it to become a Category 1 hurricane by Friday. So this may in fact become a significant storm.
Its’ track, thankfully, will likely keep Paloma away from South Florida… but not by much. The system will drift to the northwest and north for the next two days before turning to the northeast towards Southeast Cuba. That turn will happen because of a large dip in the jet stream over the southeast USA. If that dip wasn’t there, we might be looking at some impacts here. But that’s not what we see happening… as of this writing, we feel that Paloma will stay to our south and have a minimal impact (rain) if any here in South Florida.
Stay tuned to NBC6 and nbc6.net for the latest on this storm… and have a good night.
– Paul
