Hurricane season finally gets underway by Nina Ridge
After a very slow start, we could well have the first hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic Hurricane season. Tropical Storm Dean was born on Tuesday in the warm seas halfway between Africa and America and forecasters predict that it could grow into a powerful storm which may threaten the Caribbean and south Florida.
Dean is currently travelling westwards towards the Caribbean and is approximately 1295 miles west of Barbados. Travelling slowly over the warmer Atlantic waters, the storm is intensifying.
It currently has wind speeds of around 50 mph (80 km/h). A Tropical storm becomes a Hurricane when wind speeds reach 74 mph (119 km/h), so it’s expected that Tropical storm Dean will become Hurricane Dean by the end of today.
The National Hurricane Centre believes that Dean could reach a category 3 Hurricane (winds of 111-130 mph) by the time it passes Barbados and the Windward Isles.
Meanwhile, hurricane forecasters have warned that a cluster of thunderstorms over the south-central Gulf of Mexico were becoming more organised and could soon develop into the season’s fifth tropical depression.
Although hurricane experts have lowered the seasonal forecast for hurricane activity this year, they still predict a very active Atlantic basin Hurricane season for 2007 -with around 15 expected, with 4 of those to become a category 3 or above.
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