Caribbean islands at risk of approaching tropical rainstorm

AccuWeather

AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter monitors two tropical threats developing in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. A tropical rainstorm is currently heading towards the Caribbean islands.

Transcript

00:00John, this is the time of year when we just want to hear it end, is it?

00:05Well, I know that is what we would all like at this point.

00:08But unfortunately, if you think about the hurricane season sort of in the timeline of a football game,

00:13we are making our way right through the third quarter here, about ready to head into the fourth quarter.

00:18And just like in a football game, lots of things can still happen in the fourth quarter.

00:22So we've got to continue to be vigilant here as we make our way through the next month and a half or so.

00:27You notice we start tailing down here as we head through the end of October into November,

00:32the historic average number of tropical storms, but still can have troubles, especially in the Caribbean.

00:38And that's one of the areas we're going to be monitoring.

00:41And here you can see on the water vapor imagery, there's a couple spots we're keeping an eye on with those shades of blue.

00:47That's correct. We're looking at a tropical rainstorm making its way through the Atlantic Ocean.

00:52And notice there's a lot of dry air. That's the yellows and oranges here.

00:56But the thunderstorms associated with it have been able to keep their own sort of pouch of moisture,

01:01and that's going to continue to move to the west.

01:03And this is going to bring some heavy rainfall to Puerto Rico and some of the other Caribbean islands here over the coming days.

01:09More on that in just a moment.

01:10The other area that we continue to watch, it's very broad still, not as well organized,

01:15but a cluster of showers and thunderstorms in this trouble spot in the Caribbean Sea.

01:20And there's still a risk that that may organize into a short-lived tropical storm, but it's not heading toward the United States.

01:26That's going to head toward parts of Belize and perhaps the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico as well.

01:32The U.S. here, the continental U.S., is protected from tropical trouble for now.

01:38And as we talk about tropical trouble, let's follow that system in the Atlantic,

01:42because we've been watching here that that is a tropical rainstorm.

01:46We're talking about that potential farther west, too, so there's a lot to cover here in the next few days.

01:52That's right. We'll be watching that tropical rainstorm,

01:54and we maintain this medium risk that we've had for days ahead of all other sources

01:58with regard to this heavy rain threat across parts of Central America as well.

02:03And there we can see the wind shear.

02:05Tell us a little bit about this with that tropical rainstorm.

02:08Well, the thing that we've been noticing about the rainstorm,

02:10it's going to continue to move to the west here north of the islands,

02:14but notice it's getting into an area with lighter wind shear with these colors of purple here.

02:21That means that it has a narrow window to perhaps strengthen into a tropical depression or a tropical storm.

02:27The impacts, though, will remain fairly similar, which is mainly a heavy rain threat.

02:32And as we follow that path then, that's why a little bit of that shear right now means it won't develop real quickly,

02:38but that window does occur. When does it occur, John?

02:41It's into the first part of the weekend, later Friday and through early Sunday,

02:47where we may end up with a short-lived tropical storm as the storm moves north of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

02:54Still, though, a heavy rain threat, and that's always a problem, Melissa, in the steep terrain of the Caribbean.

03:02This can result in mudslides and significant flash flooding.

03:05That's why we're concerned about these rain impacts, whether or not this organizes further or not.

03:10It's certainly hard for some of the infrastructure there in countries like Haiti, for example,

03:14that don't quite have what the U.S. builds to as far as coding.

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