Credit: National Hurricane Center

Credit: National Hurricane Center

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects Tropical Storm Gonzalo to develop into 2020’s first hurricane before it dissipates in the central Caribbean.

The storm currently has maximum sustained winds of 65 mph and is moving at 14 mph. It’s also about 885 miles east of the southern Windward Islands, and could bring hurricane and/or tropical storm conditions to Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines which are all under a Hurricane Watch for the next 48 hours. The NHC says it could bring up to seven inches of rain to Windward Islands Friday night.

Still, Orlando Sentinel cited meteorologist Jayme King who said that global models show the storm fading into nothing before the weekend is out.

“It’ll be facing increased wind shear and dry air that’s out there right now from Africa. That might be the silver bullet for Gonzalo,” King said.

More concerning for the southern United States is tropical depression no. 8 (TD 8), which just formed in the Gulf of Mexico, southwest of the Sunshine State. The storm has maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and is expected to make landfall on the Texas coast Saturday. It is forecast to brings showers to Florida today and through the weekend.

If TD 8 does develop into a named storm, it will be called “Hannah.”

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This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2020.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...