Tropical Storm Gabrielle Drenches Parts of Caribbean
The seventh storm of the Atlantic hurricane season spun up this past week, though did not affect the continental United States. The tropical storm, Gabrielle, did not reach hurricane status due to unfavorable conditions for storm development, including shear levels being on the high side. Shortly after it made landfall on Thursday it had been downgraded to tropical depression status. Drenching rains still fell across Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and the US Virgin Islands thanks to Gabrielle’s southerly flow bringing in copious amounts of moisture (PWAT values approaching 75mm) from the Caribbean Sea.
As of Friday morning the highest rainfall amounts came out of St. Thomas where 175mm had already fallen. In general anywhere between 100mm to 250mm will have fallen across the region after Gabrielle has moved off to the north in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Friday evening the storm had been almost completely torn apart north of Puerto Rico and wasn’t a threat to land anymore. No deaths or injuries have been reported with the storm.
Surprisingly there has not been one hurricane in the Atlantic so far this year and if there continues to be a lack of hurricanes until September 16th, a record for the latest start to a hurricane season (since records began) would be achieved. However, longer range models such as the GFS have been showing tropical development in the Caribbean as well as another wave coming off Africa’s west coast in the near future which will be something to keep an eye on.
