Tropical Storm Chris Fades Away After Wednesday Collapse

Well, it appeared to be on its way to a something more significant, but Chris dramatically fell to the wayside after threatening to become the season’s first hurricane on Wednesday afternoon, August 2nd. Looking at the satellite and radar composite from Wednesday and Thursday, the storm just simply fell apart as it encountered some shear and dry air during the early morning hours of Thursday, August 3rd. Shower and thunderstorm activity associated with Chris moved away from the center of circulation, and brought heavy rain to Puerto Rico. While the system’s overall structure collapsed, its faint circulation remained.

Some 24 hours later on early Friday morning, August 4th, Chris was still going. Although the storm had lost most of its convection, Chris remained a tropical storm with winds at the bare minimum level of 40 miles per hour. However, after I returned home from a night at work, I had learned that Chris had been formally downgraded to a tropical depression. Subsequently, the circulation associated with Chris still had a tough road ahead with its westward movement that took it by the islands of Hispaniola and Cuba.

Tropical Storm watches remained in effect for portions of the Bahamas including Long Island and Exuma as well as the Turks and Caicos islands, but they were eventually dropped. As the clock neared midnight on Friday, August 4th, the depression was heading toward Cuba with all watches and warnings discontinued. Within the next six hours, Chris weakened further, and was reclassified as a tropical low some 150 miles to the East of Camaguey, Cuba. Winds in the remnant low dropped to just 25 miles per hour. Despite the fact that Chris didn’t develop into a more serious threat, it did bring heavy rains to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

What is left of Chris is now in the Gulf of Mexico, and it scattered clouds and showers.

One thought on “Tropical Storm Chris Fades Away After Wednesday Collapse

  1. […] Well, if you are a person living along the coastline of the United States from Maine to Texas, you certainly hope not. So, far this Atlantic Hurricane Season, things have been quite tranquil even by normal standards. Early on, it seemed that things were on par for a above normal season. By the second week of August, there had been at least a named storm in each month of the 2006 Season (June, July, and August). However, with the tranquility of the past couple weeks, and most importantly, no hurricanes, things are pointing toward not only a much less hectic season, but perhaps, an average or below average year. […]

Comments are closed.