WeatherFanatics: Tropical Storm Dolly Unleashes Flooding Rain, Slams Mexico

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Tropical Storm Dolly Unleashes Flooding Rain, Slams Mexico

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

September 2,2014; 9:29PM,EDT

The southwest Gulf of Mexico has given birth to the Atlantic basin's fourth tropical storm of the season and will send torrential rain into northern Mexico.
Dolly made landfall just south of Tampico, Mexico Tuesday night.
Rough surf and the risk of strong rip currents will continue from the northeastern Mexico coastline to the beaches of South Texas through Wednesday.

This animated gif shows Dolly over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. (NOAA/Satellite)
Dolly remains a tropical storm as of Tuesday night but land interaction will quickly weaken the system over the next 24 to 36 hours.
Since the system formed, Dolly has had slim chances of becoming a hurricane due to its position and track in the Gulf of Mexico.

People along the coast of northeastern Mexico will need to continue to monitor the situation through midweek, as rough seas, heavy rain and perhaps damaging thunderstorm wind gusts continue to impact the area.

Kottlowski warns that the system will bring the risk of life threatening flash flooding and mudslides in the foothills and higher terrain of the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains, regardless of how strong the system is.
More than a foot of rain can fall on the foothills and mountains in the Mexico states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.

Major cities in Mexico that can be affected include Poza Rica, Tampico, Ciudad Victoria, Veracruz and La Pesca. Brownsville, McAllen and Harlingen, Texas, may also be on the fringe effect of the system, in the form of showers and thunderstorms.
RELATED:
AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center
FLASH Urges Early Action In Hurricane Preparation
Mexico Weather Center
On a positive note, much of the area from the Yucatan Peninsula to northeastern Mexico, South Texas and the Southwest states is in need of rain.
Downpours affected the Yucatan Peninsula and part of Central America this weekend, where rainfall has been well below average this year so far.
The combination of rain from Dolly and Norbert are projected to bring rain to the southwestern U.S. and part of California late this week.

Factors for Development

The quick development of Dolly was influenced by many factors.
"The water is very warm in this part of the Gulf of Mexico," Kottlowski said.
The warm water added energy to the system as it churned over the Bay of Campeche earlier in the week.
The orientation of the southwestern Gulf and how it aligns with the counterclockwise flow around developing systems tends to be another contributing factor for tropical development.
"Weak systems that enter this region of the Gulf of Mexico tend to be aided by the curvature of the coast, which helps to spin systems up into tropical depressions or storms," stated AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Rob Miller.
Wind shear increased over the region in the past 24 hours and held back the organization and intensity of the storm by keeping it somewhat lopsided.
Wind shear refers to belts of winds in the upper levels of the atmosphere that can shred apart tropical systems when strong.

The Season So Far

In terms of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season, the year so far has been running slower than average in some cases and ahead of average in others.
Excluding Dolly, there have been four other tropical depressions in the Atlantic, of which three strengthened and became hurricanes.
The average date for the fourth named system is Aug. 23. However, the average date for the third hurricane of the season is Sept. 9. Cristobal became the season's third hurricane on Aug. 24.
The last time it has taken this long to get to the letter "D" in storm names was in 1994, when Debby formed on Sept. 9.
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski contributed content to this story.

On Social Media

AccuWeather Updates