Making up for lost time as far as our Barry coverage, Hurricaneville.com is getting ready for the arrival of its remnants. Tropical Storm Barry, the second named storm of the 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season formed in the Southern Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan Channel on Friday afternoon, strengthened a bit during Friday night, and made landfall near Tampa, Florida late Saturday morning. Maximum sustained winds with this system were no more than 50 mph while minimum central pressure was no lower than 997 mb, or 29.44 inches of Hg, and it really didn’t have much of a chance to get any stronger due to the fierce upper level winds that not only sheared the fledgling storm apart, but also pushed it up the Eastern Seaboard very rapidly.

According to the latest advisory from the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland, pressure has actually fallen to 992 mb, or 29.29 inches of Hg while the winds have increased to 40 mph. However, what’s left of Barry is no longer tropical in nature. Rather, it has become extratropical. One way you can tell is by the satellite imagery of the storm. On Friday and Saturday, the storm had a more circular nature about it. Now, it has the classic comma shape that is a familiar characteristic of mid-latitude or extratropical cyclones that we come to now as Nor’easters, coastal storms, blizzards, and snowstorms. I’ll have more details on the specific of the storm in the first Hurricanevile Storm Report of 2007.

What’s left of Barry has rapidly moved up the East Coast, and is already bringing rains to parts of New Jersey as well as Philadelphia, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia. Much of the Garden State has already seen its share of wet weather this spring. After receiving nearly 8.6 iniches of rain in April, and 2.53 inches in May. On top of that, the last two weeks or so of March saw 2.32 inches. As a result, New Jersey is well above normal for the year despite the recent stretches of dry weather that we have enjoyed. To put things into perspective, we could stay completely dry until late August, or September, and still be above average for 2007. Barry’s remnants will move quickly though as the system should be out of the Tri-State area by Monday morning. However, showers and thunderstorms are expected to linger in the region until Wednesday with the approach of a cold front early this coming week. So, we’ll continue to get our share of rain.

Currently, there is a Flood Watch in effect for Central Jersey as well as surrounding areas. One to two inches is expected with as much as four inches possible in some areas. In addition, there are Gale Warnings and High Surf Advisories out for the Jersey Coast, Long Island, Connecticut, Delaware, and the Chesapeake Bay region.