Issued: 07:21 AM CDT Wednesday August 02, 2006
The main center of attention this morning continues to be with Tropical Storm Chris, currently centered about 65 miles north of St. Martin in the northern Leeward Islands. Chris continues to get better organized and we do think the storm will reach hurricane intensity later today. We expect Chris to move WNW over the next 3-5 days remaining just north of Hispaniola and Cuba, probably ending up across the southeast Gulf of Mexico near Key West by this Sunday. If the storm remains offshore, we do think Chris will be a hurricane once it reaches the Gulf.
Elsewhere, tropical conditions do remain fairly quiet. Tropical Disturbance 27 remains quite weak and disorganized along about 35W in the central tropical Atlantic, moving west at about 15-20 mph. Conditions do remain marginally favorable for development over the next few days and we do think this disturbance has some potential for developing into a tropical depression over the next few days. Right now the disturbance is about 4 days away from the islands of the eastern Caribbean and at least 8-10 days away from the Gulf.
Farther west, Tropical Disturbance 25 is located along about 92W, moving west at 15-20 mph. Locally heavy thunderstorms with gusty winds will spread from east to west across the northwest Caribbean and southwest Gulf over the next few days. Tropical development appears to be very unlikely.
Meteorologist: Fred Schmude
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