Less than a week after Hurricane Alex plowed into the northern Mexico coast, it’s looking increasingly likely that the second tropical storm or hurricane of the Atlantic season, Bonnie, will form this week — and potentially track into the southern Gulf of Mexico.

This system raises the concern for renewed flooding in many of the areas that were hit hard by Alex and the prospects that cleanup of the massive BP oil spill in the northern gulf may be interrupted once again.

An area of disturbed weather in the northwestern Caribbean — the area where Alex first developed into a hurricane — became better organized over the weekend. The system is located over warm water, and general atmospheric conditions are favorable for development during the next couple of days.

Experts at the National Hurricane Center are actively monitoring this area of disturbed weather and have given it a 30 percent chance of becoming an organized tropical cyclone (a tropical depression or tropical storm) within the next two days.

tropicalwx.com

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A dangerous and record-challenging heat wave will affect much of the East this week as a once-delightful air mass turns ugly.

In some locations this heat wave will rival many that have occurred in the past 20 years with the potential for up to a several-day stretch of temperatures in the upper 90s to low 100s from southern New England to the Carolinas.

Cities from Hartford, New York and Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., Raleigh and Columbia will swelter.

Temperatures over the Independence Day were just a warm up compared to how nasty the weather will get, especially for those who do not have air conditioning or must do manual labor outdoors.

The highest temperatures will occur Tuesday and Wednesday in northern areas, while southern locations feel the inferno later in the week.

Full report

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Moisture lingering along the central Gulf of Mexico will be watched closely for possible development this weekend.

It’s not good for vacationers to the Gulf coast…or for those who hate seeing beaches covered by oil.

It would be a near worse case scenario for oil. A low pressure forms south of Apalachicola or west of Tampa and intensifies
into a tropical storm while moving northwest toward New Orleans.

That wouldn’t give the thousands of workers trying to stop the oil and clean it up much time to evacuate.

It would also provide a strong south to southeast wind for a day or longer…pushing the oil
directly towards the coast on high waves and rough surf.

Full report – tropicalwx.com

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Hurricane Alex ripped off roofs, caused severe flooding and forced thousands of people to flee coastal fishing villages before weakening to a tropical storm over northern Mexico.

The Atlantic season’s first hurricane largely spared nearby Texas, which had prepared for a possible direct hit. While it brought rain, spawned two tornadoes and caused 1,000 people to evacuate low-lying areas there, state officials reported no injuries or major damage.

Earlier, Alex whipped up high waves that frustrated oil-spill cleanup efforts on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico and delivered tar balls and globs of crude onto already soiled beaches.

The storm made landfall Wednesday night on a sparsely populated stretch of coast in Mexico’s Tamaulipas state, about 110 miles (180 kilometers) south of Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros.

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At 800 PM CDT…0100 UTC…the eye of Hurricane Alex was located by a reconnaissance aircraft and National Weather Service radar from Brownsville near latitude 24.3 north…longitude 97.5 west or about 15 miles…25 km…east of the coast of northeastern Mexico.

Alex is moving toward the west near 10 mph…17 km/hr. This general motion is expected to continue until landfall in northeastern Mexico in a couple of hours. On the forecast track…Alex will be moving over northeastern Mexico on Thursday.

Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 100 mph…155 km/hr…with higher gusts. Alex is a category two hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. Little change in strength is likely prior to landfall. Weakening is likely after the center crosses the coastline…and Alex is expected to dissipate over Mexico within 1 to 2 days.

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