Tropical Storm Alma Starts 2008 EPAC Season

During the course of this past week, the Eastern Pacific had its first storm of 2008. Tropical Storm Alma emerged in the warm waters off the shores of Costa Rica in Central America. Like its Atlantic season starting brethren, Arthur, Alma was a storm that produced a lot of rain, especially over the more mountainous interior of Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Alma nearly reached minimal hurricane status with sustained winds peaking at 65 miles per hour before making landfall. The barometric pressure associated with Alma bottomed out at 29.35 inches of Hg (Mercury), or 994 millibars.

Forming approximately 105 miles to the West-Northwest of Cabo Blanco in Costa Rica, or about 130 miles directly to the south of the capital city of Managua in Nicaragua on May 28th at 5:00 PM EDT, what was to become Alma gradually churned to the north at around 5 mph before it eventually came ashore over Southern Honduras some 24 hours later. Rainfall amounts for the most part ranged between 10 to 15 inches while some locales received up to 20 inches. Not surprising since this region is very mountainous, which tends to lift the air, and produce tremendous amounts of condensation with the ample amounts of moisture. Eventually, the storm dissipated on Friday morning, May 30th over the high terrain of the border region between Honduras and Guatemala.