Late July may yield chance for tropical development in Atlantic

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist

July 21,2016; 9:17PM,EDT

 

 

While a vast amount of dry air has dominated and will continue to impact the Atlantic basin over the next few weeks, tropical activity could spark near the west coast of Africa.
"There is a low chance for tropical development in the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands during the last few days of July," according to AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski.

Complexes of thunderstorms moving westward across Africa can organize into tropical systems as they enter the warm, moist environment of the Atlantic Ocean.
Under the right conditions, these thunderstorm complexes can develop rotation and evolve into a tropical storm and/or hurricane over time.
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"Any system that tries to get going over the western Atlantic late in the month and into early August will likely struggle with a vast amount of dry air and disruptive winds," Kottlowski said.
During late July and early August, the favored development areas for tropical systems begins to extend eastward from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean to just north of the equator over the central Atlantic.

The average development area expands as the extent of dry air and disruptive winds begin to shrink.
"Historically, we do not have much tropical development across the Atlantic basin during June and July, and we do not see hurricanes begin to show up until the latter part of August," Kottlowski said.