NHC Warns Florida Panhandle of Possible Threat from Tropical Storm Debby in the Coming Week

August 1, 2024 TruthUSA

There is a 70 percent chance of a named storm forming over the next week, and a 30 percent chance of it forming in the next 48 hours.

Another tropical cyclone could appear in the Gulf of Mexico within the next seven days, and forecasters are again focusing on the Florida Panhandle.

National Hurricane Center (NHC) is continuing to track a “well-defined tropical wave” that could develop into a named storm once it crosses the eastern Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico.

The NHC predicts that “environmental conditions are forecast to be more conducive for [the] development” of a tropical depression, and that could happen this weekend or early next week “over the Eastern Gulf of Mexico near Florida Panhandle.”

If it does so, it will be named Tropical Depression, Tropical Storm, or Hurricane Debby.

Reports on Aug. 1 show the storm—designated Invest 97-L—bearing down on the Greater Antilles Islands, which include Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. It is moving west at a rate of 10-15 knots (roughly 11-17 mph).

Numerous showers and thunderstorms were reported over parts of The Bahamas, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands on Aug. 1.

The storm was previously forecasted to turn north-northeast along the U.S. Atlantic coast, but it is now expected to continue westward across Cuba and the Florida Straits and enter the Gulf of Mexico before cutting north.

It will be the second named storm to affect the United States this season, following Hurricane Beryl’s arrival on the Texas Gulf Coast in mid-July. Hurricane Beryl left nearly three million utility customers without power and caused flood-causing rains and dozens of tornadoes across the county from Louisiana to Vermont.

The NHC states there is a 30 percent chance of a tropical depression forming in the next 48 hours and a 70 percent chance of one forming within the next seven days.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), for this tropical wave to become a tropical depression, it would have to develop into a cyclone with “organized deep convection” and surface winds moving counter-clockwise around a “well-defined center,” producing maximum sustained winds of 38 mph or less.

If sustained winds reach between 39 mph and 72 mph, it will be designated a tropical storm. For hurricane status, the minimum sustained wind must be 73 mph.

Early spaghetti models show it moving north off Florida’s west coast and making landfall along the panhandle between the “Big Bend” region and Pensacola.

The Florida panhandle has been the target of multiple extreme weather events over the past year. In the final days of August 2023, Hurricane Idalia made landfall in the Big Bend region as a Category 3 hurricane, and tornadoes struck communities in Panama City Beach and the surrounding area in January 2024.

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