Tropical Storm Kate Strengthening As It Moves Away From The Bahamas

November 9,2015

Tropical Storm Kate is strengthening as it moves away from the Bahamas. This trend is expected to continue due to warm sea surface temperatures and low vertical wind shear.

Kate is not a direct threat to the United States.

(MORE: Follow Tropical Storm Kate With Our Interactive Storm Tracker)

Highlights:

• Tropical Storm Kate was centered 175 miles north-northeast of the northwestern Bahamas as of Monday night.
• All tropical storm warnings have been discontinued.
• The threat of heavy rain and gusty winds in the Bahamas are diminishing.
• High surf will continue to impact eastward-facing beaches in the northwestern Bahamas.
• Tropical Storm Kate is not expected to make landfall in the U.S.
• The latest forecast calls for Kate to become a strong tropical storm and possibly a hurricane before eventually being absorbed by a non-tropical low pressure system midweek as it moves out to sea.
• Kate is the eleventh named storm of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season.
• Kate originally formed as Tropical Depression Twelve Sunday night, and was upgraded to tropical storm status Monday morning.

(MORE: Hurricane Central)

Current Status

Projected Path and Intensity

Tropical Storm Kate is beginning to move away from the Bahamas but locally heavy rainfall and gusty winds are still possible into early Tuesday in the northwestern Bahamas. 

Due to atmospheric steering currents on the western periphery of high pressure over the open Atlantic, Kate is currently being pulled north and then is expected to turn northeast Tuesday, remaining off the Southeast coast. No direct threat to Florida is anticipated, but some increased surf is possible along Atlantic-facing shores of the Sunshine State.

Shower and thunderstorm activity with locally heavy rain will impact the coastal Carolinas early this week from a separate weather system. However, Kate may help to add more moisture to the already soaking setup there and may enhance rainfall from Virginia to southern New England.
(MORE: Flash Flood Threat in the Southeast Early This Week)
This system has already doused parts of the Lesser Antilles with excessive rainfall. Martinique picked up 192.4 millimeters (7.57 inches) of rain from Thursday through 8 p.m. AST Saturday. Most of that fell Friday, causing serious flooding on parts of the island.

MORE: Hurricanes Joaquin (Oct. 2015)