The next storm of the season in the Atlantic Basin has already taken shape and is likely to enter the Caribbean Sea later this week.
A vigorous tropical wave can be seen travelling westward across the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, on the heels of tropical storms Karl and Lisa.
The tropical wave is not gathering too much moisture due to its swift forward speed. Therefore, the weather system will develop into a tropical depression or storm during the latter part of the week.
The steering currents and wind shear near the weather system will decrease as it approaches the Windward Islands. This is important for the formation of a strong weather system. Usually, when wind shear is strong it prevents organizing of a tropical storm or can even cause a strong weather system to weaken.
The probable tropical storm in the Atlantic Basin will be named Matthew.
We can expect increase in rainfall activities over the Lesser Antilles by the middle of the week. Heavy to extremely heavy showers are likely across the Windward Islands. By Thursday, the rainfall belt will extend up to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire. So much so that flash flooding cannot be ruled out at several places.
So far this year, we have seen 12 named storms in the Atlantic Ocean. Four of these became hurricanes and only Gaston was a major one, reaching Category 3 in the middle of the ocean in the month of August.
Image credit - NOAA
