WeatherFanatics: Tropics: Eyes on Western Caribbean for Early June

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Tropics: Eyes on Western Caribbean for Early June

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

May 27,2014; 9:25PM,EDT

The area centered around the western Caribbean Sea will be one of a few places to watch for tropical development in the Atlantic Basin this June.
This area represents some of the warmest waters of the basin and is generally free from disruptive high-level winds. Usually this area is also removed from dry air over the central Atlantic.
AccuWeather meteorologists will be watching the vicinity of the western Caribbean and the eastern Gulf of Mexico closely over the next couple of weeks as conditions change in the environment around the region.

June 1, 2014, marks the start of the Atlantic Hurricane season.
While this area is quiet and generally free of rain now, there is some indication that conditions over the waters of the western Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico around Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula will become more unsettled with the potential for locally heavy rain during the first week of June.
According to AccuWeather Long Range Expert Paul Pastelok, "We are likely to see a zone of high pressure develop at mid-levels of the atmosphere over western Texas and correspondingly an area of low pressure may try to form well away, farther to the southeast."
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Low pressure areas aloft in the tropics often initiate showers and thunderstorms and can eventually instigate development.
This broad area of low pressure will then be monitored to see how quickly showers and thunderstorms are produced and whether or not the rainfall takes the next stage toward organization.
"If upper-level winds remain weak in the area of showers and thunderstorms that form, there could be some room for modest development," Pastelok said.
Late next week, anticipated steering-level winds over the eastern third of the United States may allow any disturbance and locally heavy rain to be drawn northeastward out of the Caribbean, then perhaps to along the central to eastern Gulf Coast and possibly along the Atlantic Seaboard.

It is too early to say for sure whether or not a system will develop over or near the western Caribbean next week, but this is an area to keep a keen eye on from a climatology standpoint.
In a statement from AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski earlier this spring, "The 2014 Atlantic hurricane season could be ushered in by a system or two during June to July."
While El Niño is in the developing stages, its full effect on the Atlantic Basin may not be felt until late summer or fall.
The warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific Ocean produced during an El Niño tends to cause an increase in disruptive winds for tropical development over part of the Atlantic Basin.
During early June of 2013, Andrea developed near the Yucatan Peninsula and tracked across northern Florida and up along the Atlantic Seaboard.
In 2012, two tropical storms, Alberto and Beryl, developed in May. While Hurricane Chris developed in mid-June and avoided land, Tropical Storm Debby formed just north of the Yucatan Peninsula and crossed central Florida during late June.

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