WeatherFanatics: Hurricane Edouard Churns Over the Atlantic

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Hurricane Edouard Churns Over the Atlantic

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

September 14,2014; 9:30PM,EDT

After several days of being at tropical storm status, Eduoard strengthened into a hurricane late Sunday morning.
With this status upgrade, Eduoard now becomes the fourth hurricane of the 2014 Atlantic season.
Prior to Thursday, there have been five tropical depressions with three moving on to become hurricanes (Arthur, Bertha and Cristobal) and one becoming a tropical storm (Dolly). Eduoard now joins the ranks of those that have reached hurricane status.

This animated gif shows Edouard slowly spinning over the central Atlantic. (NOAA/Satellite)
Edouard started out as tropical depression five but took on the name Edouard early Thursday night.
Additional strengthening is possible as Edouard continues to move over warm seas. Wind shear will lessen over the course of the next few days which will allow the system to maintain its structure.
A pocket of dry air surrounding the system will be the only limiting factor through the middle of the week and will keep the system from rapidly strengthening. Instead, further development will be more gradual.
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Edouard is forecast to take a curved path over the central Atlantic, well away from land areas.
According to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bob Smerbeck, Edouard will re-curve a couple hundred miles east of Bermuda.
However, people in Bermuda should continue to monitor Edouard as rough surf and rip currents are expected to impact the island. Folks in the Azores will want to keep a close on this system as well but the system will be weakening as it heads that way.
"Edouard will move across the cooler waters of the northern Atlantic midweek and then it will begin to weaken and transition into a non-tropical system," said Smerbeck.

Meanwhile, an area of disturbed weather will drift through the Gulf of Mexico and will impact Texas and northeastern Mexico early this week. There is a slight chance this area of disturbed weather develops into something more organized.
Nonetheless, tropical moisture will feed into the Gulf Coast. When combined with a front approaching from the north, locally drenching rainfall is likely to be released during the early part of the week from northeastern Mexico to the central Gulf Coast.

Part of south and coastal Texas is experiencing abnormally dry to drought conditions.
Any non-flooding rainfall would generally be welcomed, especially from an agricultural standpoint.
Over in the eastern Pacific, Hurricane Odile is impacting Baja California. Odile is forecast to take a path paralleling the west coast of Mexico and is likely to bring another round of drenching showers and thunderstorms into the southwestern U.S. this week. There is a chance the drenching rain will reach Southern California, including coastal areas.
AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Jordan Root contributed to this story.

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