As we await the first hurricane of the 2013 season, the seventh named storm, Tropical Storm Gabrielle, has brushed Peurto Rico and brought stormy weather conditions and heavy rain to the Caribbean before heading further into the Atlantic, the Washington Post reports. Will it become a hurricane?
On Aug. 25, Gabrielle formed from an easterly wave off of the coast of Africa, and has most recently weakened into a mass of thunderstorms as winds fell to 35 miles per hour, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. The hurricane center reports that Peurto Rico could receive up to 8 inches of rain in the island's central, mountainous regions.
"These rains could cause dangerous flash floods and mudslides over mountainous terrain," the center said.
By Wednesday afternoon, Gabrielle had upgraded to a tropical depression 7, and by 11 p.m. it had become a tropical storm. At 8 a.m. EDT this morning, Gabrielle organized and condensed around Peurto Rico, though land interactions have caused the storm to become disorganized. The National Hurricane predicts that over the next five days, Tropical Storm Gabrielle will head north and then northeast before possibly brushing Bermuda early next week, and will likely downgrade back to a tropical depression.
Though hurricanes and tropical storms are separated by mere differences in sustained wind speed (60kts and 65kts), it is possible a new record will be reached this year with no hurricanes into Sept. 5., remarkable considering that just last year, Hurricane Sandy devastated much of the East Coast. So far this year, the strongest storm has been Tropical Storm Andrea, which caused flash flooding across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Peurto Rico has already dropped its storm watches and warnings as Gabrielle's winds continue to decline.
Aside from Gabrielle, weather watches from the National Hurricane Center are following a Gulf of Mexico storm system that has a 30 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone, with a mass of low pressure and thunderstorms, according to Reuters.
Click here to see the predicted path of Tropical Storm Gabrielle.
