Good afternoon everyone. Well, we are approaching the peak of hurricane season. Actually, we just passed it. According to my past recollections from listening to Tropical Updates on The Weather Channel, the statistical peak of the Atlantic Hurricane Season was this past Monday, September 10th. However, in reading a book on Hurricane Bob, I learned that the peak can be September 15th. Anyway, this week represents the peak of the Atlantic Hurricane Season with the end coming on November 30th unless a storm forms on or after that date. Living up to form, the Atlantic Basin has perked up again with two new features. One is a strengthening tropical storm in the Western Gulf while the other is a depression in the Central Atlantic closing in on tropical storm status.

Our immediate area of concern is Tropical Storm Humberto, which was Tropical Depression Nine earlier in the day on Wednesday. Humberto has recently strengthened with maximum sustained winds approaching 50 miles per hour with gusts up to 65 miles per hour, and a minimum central pressure down to 999 millibars, or 29.50 inches of Hg. According to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, the eighth named storm of the 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season is located approximately 50 miles south of Galveston, Texas, and traveling slowly northward at 7 miles per hour. Currently there are watches and warnings out for the Gulf Coast. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from Port O’Connor, Texas to Intercoastal City, Louisiana.

As mentioned earlier the storm is strengthening. As a matter of fact, the latest discussion from the NHC indicates that Humberto has become better organized during the day on Wednesday. The bands of convection associated with the system are beginning to wrap around the core of the storm. While reconaissance aircraft has not detected any increase in winds at flight level, satellite and ship report data suggest otherwise, which resulted in the upgrade in the storm’s intensity. Although there are environmental conditions such as very warm sea surface temperatures in the Western Gulf, and very light winds aloft to support further development, the storm is very close to land, which will probably prevent it from attaining minimal hurricane strength.

As far as the forecast track goes, Humberto appears to have gotten around the periphery of a subtropical high pressure ridge in the Central Gulf of Mexico, and should make landfall within the next 12 to 24 hours. Moving on to the next system, Tropical Depression Eight, we see that it is approaching tropical storm strength with 35 mile per hour sustained winds, gusts in excess of 45 miles per hour, and a minimum central pressure of 1006 millibars, or 29.71 inches of Hg (Mercury) as of the 5 PM EDT Advisory from the NHC. Located approximately 1,065 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, the depression is moving to the West-Northwest at 12 miles per hour. Showing signs of better organization on Wednesday, the depression could become a tropical storm later Wednesday night, or during the day on Thursday.

If the depression does indeed get upgraded to a storm, it will be the ninth named storm of the 2007 season, and it will be called, Ingrid. So far in the Atlantic in 2007, there have been nine depressions, eight storms, two hurricanes, two major hurricanes that eventually became Category Five systems. Also, keep in mind that since we are in the peak of hurricane season, we are also in the midst of the Cape Verde Season, where waves off the coast of Africa develop into the more memorable, deadly, and devastating hurricanes we’ve come to know through the years.