FIVE AND COUNTING

Visible light satellite image (NOAA) of 9 July showing a strengthening Hurricane EUGENE off the Pacific coast of Mexico

A strengthening Hurricane EUGENE. the fifth-named tropical cyclone of the 2017 eastern north Pacific hurricane season is active off the western coast of Mexico, moving NW parallel to the coastline.

Projected track of Hurricane EUGENE as of 9 July 2017 (Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Research Lab.)

EUGENE is the fifth tropical cyclone to generate in this sub-basin over the last seven weeks. The probability of other tropical cyclones developing soon in this sub-basin appears strong, given the continued presence of a conglomerate of tropical waves and disturbed weather cells in the region extending from the Gulf of Panama to the Pacific waters off the coast of Central America and Southern Mexico, which is in part being fed by tropical waves generated over the eastern Atlantic traveling along ‘Hurricane alley’ and crossing over northern Venezuela and Colombia into the Pacific.

GOES WEST infrared satellite image of 9 July 2017 showing Hurricane EUGENE off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Notice the conglomerate of disturbed weather cells and tropical waves ranging from the Gulf of Panama to waters off the coast of southern Mexico.

The 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season, which is forecast to be busier than average by NOAA, has produced an early ‘off-season’ tropical storm ARLENE in April, and two other named storms, BRET and Cindy, since the official start of the season on 1 June. Tropical Depression #4 generated recently over the western end of ‘Hurricane Alley’, but dissipated over the weekend before amounting to much of anything.  However, the tropical wave ‘assembly line’ over Equatorial Africa and the region over the Eastern Atlantic continue to be populated by stormy weather cells and tropical waves, which provide a continuous source of ‘fuel’ for possible future cyclogenesis over the increasingly warmer surface waters of the Atlantic.

Infrared satellite image (NOAA) of 9 July 2017 showing several tropical waves over the eastern Atlantic waters south of the Cape Verde Islands, and over Equatorial Africa.

While we watch and wait for what may develop, we must remain alert. Be prepared. MITIGATE!

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