29 June 2010

Alex getting stronger and heading for land...

Tropical Storm Alex has gotten much better organized in the past 24 hours.  The convection is becoming centralized and coalescing.  Intensity as of 15Z today is 60kts and 982mb.  It's very likely that by later today, Alex will become the season's first hurricane.  Northern Mexico and the southern tip of Texas up to Baffin Bay are under a Hurricane Warning, and a Tropical Storm Warning extends from Baffin Bay to Port O'Connor.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT01/refresh/AL0110W_NL+gif/150122W_NL_sm.gif

Landfall is expected Wednesday night just south of the US/Mexico border as a Category 1 hurricane.  Large swells of 8-10' will spread across much of the Gulf today through Thursday.  The extreme southern tip of Texas could expect a storm surge up to 5' above normal tides (smaller surge further north in Corpus Christi, etc).  Inland rainfall is always a major threat with any landfalling tropical cyclone, and northeastern Mexico and southern Texas could get 6-12" of rain.


Please visit my tropical Atlantic headquarters.

No comments:

Post a Comment